D-DAY: START ENGINES 0412 HOURS

D-Day: Start engines: 0412 hours

Our aircraft had been serviced and prepared all through the night. Flying lead
was Major Norgaard as pilot and formation leader and our CO, Colonel Bob Witty
who flew as deputy group commander in the lead plane, the Mary Jo. In the crew
was also was Capt. Jim Barish, bombardier, Capt. Lou Offenberg navigator S/Sgt
Ken Hobbs engineer gunner, T/Sgt John Leach radio gunner, S/Sgt Jake Theobold
tail gunner. The bombardier, Capt. Jim Barish, was later to lose his life on
July 24th 1944 on a mission to Tours La Riche.

The planes took off on 20 second intervals until all 56planes were in the air
and circling to join up and head for the English channel. Tried to be a there
at 0609 hours or 21 minutes prior to landing craft operations attacking the
beaches which was scheduled for 0630 hours.

From the personal diary of Capt Norgaard, " due to bad weather th 344th missed
connections and found that they were 15 minutes behind schedule. By increasing
IAS from 180 mph to 250 mph the time was made up and the formation arrived 30
seconds ahead of schedule and 21 minutes before the troops were due to land.

Going over the channel we flew under the weather 800 to 1200 feet over the
channel. Our wave was over the beaches for about 20 minutes during which time
we bombed every gun emplacement assigned to us. We were back at our Stansted
base at 745 am.

In summary the 344th put up three boxes of 18 planes each with two spares for a
total of 56 aircraft. 51 of these managed to drop their bombs on the three
targets assigned to them: Beau Guillot, La Madelaine and St. Martin de
Verriville. Bombing results according to 9th AF Hq was good to excellent. Our
planes had silenced their targets.

Enemy aircraft fire was heavy and accurate. We lost three planes over the
targets and two over Velognes. One was struck in the right engine which burst
into flame and the pane exploded in midair. Another plane was hit but three
pearachutes were seen to open before the plane crashed into the ground. 30 men
were listed as missing in action.

The 344th was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for action that day.






Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer