26 D-Day from Above

26 D-Day from the Above

Jack in England

D-Day

Everyone knew the purpose of massing Allied strength in England was to invade France and begin pushing the Germans back to their own border. No one knew when it would happen, leaving anticipation running high all the time. Bombing and strafing missions continued from England.

A 380th armorer loads this P-51s wing gun

When the invasion finally began, the pilots from Jack’s group, the 363^rd, waited all day to be called. Each of the three squadron’s pilots took turns sitting in their cockpits on rotating hour-long shifts. Finally, about nine in the evening, sixteen from the 380th took off to escort C-47 transports and gliders carrying troops behind enemy lines.[1]

Winkler's pilot Lt. Clough in "Corky-Anne II"

Lt. Huff in "Virginia Lea"

P-51 pilots, excited about confrontation with their Luftwaffe counterparts, probably found escorting C-47 transports and gliders disappointing, but their commanding officer, then-Col. James B. Tipton, described how much skill the job required.

The transports, with gliders in-tow, were strung out in a long line of ‘Vs,’ with three complements of transport plus glider making up each ‘V’ formation. Above the line of chevron-line formations, we had 50 Mustangs creating an envelope of protection for our slow friends.

The P-51 pilots had trouble flying slowly enough for their C-47s, whose average speed of 115 mph was more like the landing speed of the Mustangs, accustomed to flying at 350-400 mph.

We had to weave back and forth, even after throttling back, to keep pace with them . . . Any slower and we would be in the channel. So we had to do some exaggerated zig-zag maneuvering which had us passing under and around the line of aircraft . . . P-51s were appearing wherever you looked within our assigned cylindrical confinement. We were meeting each other head-on, pulling over, diving under and wondering where the next Mustang was coming from. Luckily, there were no enemy aircraft in the vicinity because we were so busy avoiding each other, the transports and the gliders, that I doubt that we would have noticed an enemy plane within our midst.[2]

Tipton's "Diablo"
S/Sgt. Stone, Col. Tipton, Lt. Swenson, M/Sgt. Austin

I don’t really recall all of those huge armadas crossing the Channel. I cannot visualize them, although I was right there on top of them. I don’t remember the drops . . . The only thing I remember was trying to stay with those slow-moving Gooney Birds [C-47s]. Wow! And watching for enemy aircraft which we, in the 363d, never saw.[3]

 

C-47 "Gooney Birds" troop carriers[4]

To see a C-47 pick up a glider, click here [5]

The C-47s each carried up to twenty-eight paratroopers in full combat gear. The gliders they towed each carried thirteen troops. When the gliders were released, they landed silently, placing their troops in position behind enemy lines. P-51s from Jack’s squadron escorted the C-47s and gliders that made history by dropping troops into position to retake Sainte-Mère-Église, about ten miles west of Utah Beach, one of the first towns to be liberated. Pilots watched as two of the gliders exploded on the ground. The P-51s all returned safely to base.[6]

Paratroopers in a C-47[7]

A year later Jack wrote about that historic day to Alice:

Dearest Alice,

We were near Maidstone in England and all very excited about the invasion and can you imagine here my plane was in the hangar. I was changing engines on it but it sure got a work out for a few days after.[8]

He missed the excitement of participating in D-Day altogether! Going forward, Jack kept his plane in the air providing cover for the troop carriers as the Allies pushed the Germans out of Normandy and beyond. The 363^rd Fighter Group was successful, in the first weeks after the invasion, in downing nineteen German planes. The cost was the loss of about the same number of P-51s, mostly to artillery fire from the ground.[9]

A Memorable First Glimpse of France

On July first of 1944, our outfit was moving to Cherbourg, where our first base in France was to be. The biggest part of them were going by ship, but I was lucky that I was able to fly across on a C-47. They were picking up the wounded and bringing them back to England, and then they were taking men and supplies over [to France] on the C-47. We got into Cherbourg, and there was still arms and legs and stench of the dead around there. They hadn’t cleaned it up yet. It had just been taken. We got into Cherbourg, and our planes came in a few days afterwards. We got things ready for them.[10]

 The 363^rd set up at Maupertus, the Cherbourg airfield liberated from the Germans at the end of June 1944. Jack was among the advance party readying the field for the arrival of their planes. By 5 July they were ready, and P-51s from his squadron, the 380^th, set off at 2025 hours (8:25 p.m.) on the group’s first mission from French soil.[11]

Homer, the dog Tony Haley and I had bought in England for eight dollars, was also flown across. He was taken care of by a nurse, as they were transporting troops over and wounded back. Homer was no longer Tony Haley’s and my dog; he belonged to the 380^th Fighter Squadron.[12]

380th Fighter Squadron
Homer, center, front row; Jack two men behind him

And Homer would have no trouble speaking French.

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[1] Nick Marinelli, The History of the 363^rd Fighter Group, 380^th Fighter Squadron, 381^st Fighter Squadron, 382^nd Fighter Squadron, 9^th Air Force, ETO, IX Tactical Air Command, 70^th Fighter Wing (South Lynn, Mich.: Nick Marinelli, 1992), 6-94. Also, 380^th Fighter–160^th Tac. Rcn. Squadron History, February 1943–August 1945 ([unknown place]: [unknown publisher], printed by A. Roßbach, Eschwege, Germany [1945]), 6-94.

[2] Marinelli, The History of the 363^rd Fighter Group, 6-95–6-96, quoting [then] Col. James B. Tipton.

[3] Judd A. Katz, U. S. Air Force Oral History Interview of Major General James B. Tipton, July 15, 1985, Auburn University, Montgomery, Alabama; digital images, The University of Alabama Libraries Digital Collections, James Tipton papers (http://purl.lib.ua.edu/122063 : downloaded 19 March 2018), 47.

[4] “Two USAAF C-47 Skytrains,” photograph, 15 August 1944, Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two_USAAF_C-47A_Skytrains.jpg : accessed 14 June 2018), public domain.

[5] “Military C-47 Picks Up Glider,” video, YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68O_ZHCOjwk : accessed 14 June 2018), posted 25 November 2014 by Aviation Buzzword.

[6] “C-47 Skytrain Military Transport,” Boeing (https://www.boeing.com/history/products/c-47-skytrain.page : accessed 14 June 2018), “Historical Snapshot.” Also, Michael MacRae, “The Flying Coffins of World War II” ASME [American Society of Mechanical Engineers] (https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/aerospace-defense/the-flying-coffins-of-world-war-ii : accessed 15 June 2018). Also, “Sainte-Mère-Église,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainte-M%C3%A8re-%C3%89glise : accessed 15 June 2018). Also, 380^th Fighter–160^th Tac. Rcn. Squadron History, 33.

[7] “Paratroopers,” photograph, Pacific Aviation Museum (https://www.pacificaviationmuseum.org/pearl-harbor-blog/douglas-c-47dc-3-cheeky-charlie-7/ : accessed 15 June 2018), “Douglas C-47/DC3 ‘Cheeky Charlie,’” image from the Library of Congress.

[8] Jack J. Kellar to “Dearest Alice” [Alice Streeter Kellar], Santa Rosa, California, 6 June 1945.

[9] “363d Expeditionary Operations Group,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/363d_Intelligence,_Surveillance,_and_Reconnaissance_Group : accessed 15 June 2018) > History > World War II > 363d Fighter Group.

[10] Jack J. Kellar, interview about his first years after high school by Judy Kellar Fox, 12 April 1993; cassette tape recording and transcription held by the author. Also, Jack J. Kellar, “Autobiography,” 1998; two ninety-minute cassette tape recordings; held and partially transcribed by the author. Excerpts from both interviews edited together.

[11] Nick Marinelli, The History of the 363^rd Fighter Group, 7-150.

[12] Jack J. Kellar, interview 12 April 1993 and Jack J. Kellar, “Autobiography,” excerpts edited together.