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Early
On The
Start
Officially the 353rd was born, on paper at least, at Mitchel Field, New York
on September 29, 1942. Its first officers and enlisted men started checking
in on October 2, 1942 at Richmond Army Air Base in Virginia under the command
of Major Joseph A. Morris, a steely eyed, self-possessed native of Alva Wyoming
later attending college in Spearfish South Dakota. Although easy going and
affable on the outside, it was told that on his first flight he came home
by parachute just for the hell of it to see what jumping out of a plane would
be like.
Later that month
the Group HQ moved to Baltimore Municipal Airport. The 353rd FG consisted additionally
of the 350th Squadron under 1st Lt. Wallace E. Hopkins, (for a short period) at
Richmond; the 351st Squadron under the command of 1st Lt. Shannon Christian which
was assigned to Norfolk Municipal Airport in Virginia and the 352nd Squadron assigned
to Langley Field in Virginia under 1st Lt. William B. Bailey. Early training took
place in war weary P-40Fs that had served with other units. Of the three bases
the group was spread out at, Langley which housed the 352nd, under Lt. Bailey
should have had the best facilities. For some reason they were not very welcome,
and were assigned fairly miserable living quarters away from the main base; though
the flying facilities and runways were very good. The 350th, under Lt. Hopkins
did not fare much better at Richmond, living in tarpaper shacks and flying from
a runway where one end was obstructed by a slag pile which presence cost one pilot
his life when he hit one of the drag lines marking the obstruction.
But of the three Squadrons, the 351st under Lt. Shannon Christian at Norfolk had
the most hazardous flying conditions. There was only a single runway of 3500 feet
in length. What was worse, the sink holes and gullies rendered it useless. Takeoffs
and landings were executed on the grassy strip running parallel to the runway
which was partially obstructed on approach. Additionally the runway was not laid
out properly with the prevailing wind and most takeoffs and landings were performed
in nasty crosswinds. On top of all of this, they were quartered in "recently"
vacated dairy barns. After a few weeks however, the squadron moved "uptown"
to potbellied stoves and tar paper shacks. Shortly,
the 353rd Group got its new executive officer; Major Glenn E. Duncan, a 24 year
old from the little sawmill town of Bering, Texas. Not long after, Captain Ben
Rimerman was promoted to the 350th Squadron
Commander. At around 170 lb. and
5 ft. 9, Ben Rimerman was soft-spoken, quiet and conservative, but with the instinct
of a hunter. His men felt it a privilege to serve under him. (You will hear more
about these, as well as other gentlemen, later on.)
In February of `43,
the 353rd began receiving P47s and were rotated to Millville, New Jersey for gunnery
training, where advanced tactics in air to air, and air to ground firing was practiced
as the group prepared to deploy to England. The pressures were intense in this
final stage of training and eventually took the life of one 352nd pilot who lost
control of his plane in a mock dogfight and crashed before he could bail. To the
squadron doctor fell the task of informing the young pilot's wife who was expecting
their first child.
To
England
Shortly after May 27, 1943, the 353rd
boarded the Queen Mary and embarked for England. On that journey there were 6
pilots, 17 ground officers and 50 enlisted men from the 353rd HQ Group. Each of
the 3 Squadrons consisted of 27 pilots broken down as follows. Three were assigned
to HQ Group and 8 each to the 3 standard four-man flights. The Squadrons consisted
also of 9 other officers and 252 enlisted men. After an uneventful crossing, the
353rd and its 3 squadrons transferred to Goxhill to begin operational theater
training while awaiting their new P47D Thunderbolts. On their first night in Goxhill,
Axis Sally welcomed the 353rd to the war, and said that the Luftwaffe would soon
be sending them their own welcome note. Strangely enough, the very next night,
Luftwaffe bombers came in low over the north sea and buzzed Goxhill on a little
fly by as air raid sirens went off.
The new P47s did not arrive until
July, so June was spent getting familiar with operational procedures in England
and over the Continent. When the new planes were finally in shape, 6 key officers
were detached to active combat units to gain some experience. Lt. Col. Joseph
Morris, C.O. of the 353rd, and Lt. Shannon Christian, the C.O of the 351st went
over to Zemke's 56th Fighter Group. Lt. Bill Bailey, C.O. of the 352nd and Major
Glenn E. Duncan, 353rd Executive Officer went to the 78th Fighter Group. Captain
Ben Rimerman, the new C.O. of the 350th and one other pilot were detailed to the
4th Fighter Group.
During this time, the rest of the pilots busied themselves
flying and getting their aircraft in shape. One pilot of the 350th squadron let
his exhilaration get away from him at the wrong time. Lt. Bill Tanner took off,
sucked the gear up, held the nose of his P-47 down to build up airspeed and at
the end of the runway pulled up into a huge chandelle. Apparently the C.O. was
not pleased and Lt. Tanner was grounded for a week as well as confined to the
base.
Slybird
Home Ch 6
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