'These were the Americans: nearly 2,000 of them'.....There was a husky apprentice plasterer from Philadelphia who flew a fighter. His seven-ton Thunderbolt was last seen in a dive over the Zuider Zee, an Me 109 close behind with its nose-cannon blinking. He was the first to die from "enemy action." There was a lanky, red-haired Crew Chief who lived in grimy fatigues. His brain and back were weary from doctoring the fuel-pressure pump, tracing a wild rise in the manifold, the endless engine checking. He was grief-stricken when his pilot- "like a kid brother to me"- didn't return from the day's do over Munich. There were the clerks who typed and filled the long days through......A-1 reports, special orders, rosters, mission summaries, Form 5's....on and on through the mountains of paperwork. There were the men who drove two-and-a-half-tonners hauling supplies, meeting trains at Thetford and rushing the pilots to chow...to briefings...to alert shacks...to the planes. There were the armorers who swabbed the wing-guns and laced the ammo belts...cooks who labored over field ranges...communications men...ordnance men...gun-crews...Quartermaster boys...Flying control staff...adjutants and execs...Link trainer...finance section...Air Corps supply...technical inspectors...weathermen...refuelers...medics...Red Cross girls...the Chaplain...and the M.P's and the KP's. These were the Americans, nearly 2,000 of them, who in civilian life were as diverse as the stars, but who in war were forged into a springboard for fleets of fighter planes which played so vital a role in the air action of World War II. This is an account of an American fighter group and its ground-support team, forming a fighter station of the famed Eighth Air Force, which were based at East Wretham, a country estate in Norfolk County, England, for two years. This document contains information on their jobs, group CO's, those who scored (successes), the men who flew, brave deeds, stories of tense moments, services and supplies, relaxing, and odds and ends.

940.544973 U56t c 1 Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.