A New Home at Raydon

The Group sadly bid good-bye to the base they had come to know so well and moved south to take up station at Raydon.  Army Air Force Station F-157 was situated in the more highly populated part of Suffolk County, half way between the major towns of Colchester and Ipswich. Adjacent to a main highway, it was 170 feet above sea level, 12 miles from the coast and only a few miles from the estuary of the Stour River. Base construction and layout was quite similar to that at Metfield as Raydon was also a standard bomber airfield with three intersecting concrete runways, two hangars and dispersal areas. The main runway was aligned southwest along the axis of prevailing winds. Though it did not hamper the pilots, the land was not fully flat and there was a gentle concavity to one runway.

During the last half of April, from the 15th when the first operation was flown from Raydon, the Group carried out 12 escorts, 2 strafing attacks and 2 bombing missions. Two separate missions were flown on the 30th. For the period, four planes and pilots were lost:   Lt. Trudeau on the 22nd, Capt. Gonnam and Lt. Peterson on the 23rd, and Lt. Crampton on the 24th. Capt Gonnam was last seen strafing Achmer/Bramsche Airfield where he was hit by flak at low altitude.

While operations continued, some of the original pilots of the Group began to complete their tours of duty in April, with 250 hours of combat flying, and become eligible for 30 day leaves home. In the 350th Squadron, Major Pidduck was one of these, and on May 1st, 1944, he was succeeded as Squadron Commander by Capt. Dewey Newhart. Dewey Newhart was from Missouri, and an original pilot with the 353rd. He stood five-eight, was stockily built and was balding prematurely. Although a stubborn man when he reached a decision, he was well liked and was an aggressive pilot. Late in May he too would complete his tour but would be kept on as CO to participate in the critical air operations following D-Day. This would cost him his life.

In the 352nd Squadron, Capt. Raynor E. Robertson became CO in April, replacing Maj. William Bailey. An original pilot, Robbie had been Squadron Operations Officer from the time the Group came overseas. He completed his tour in May and was succeeded again by Major Bailey. Another original pilot, Wayne K. Blickenstaff of the 350th, had become a flight leader, led his squadron for the first time on March 28th, was promoted to Captain one week later and became Squadron Operations Officer on May 12th. He had not flown as many hours as other original pilots and would stay on before completing his tour to the new minimum of 300 hours of combat flying.

May 1944

May saw operations pick up greatly as the month progressed, and the Group flew a total of 24 missions during the month. There were no less than 20 escorts, with 4 being designated to bombing and strafing missions. In the month of May, nine aircraft were lost, two pilots were saved by Air Sea Rescue and seven were missing in action. First claims of the month came on the 12th and were for two enemy fighters destroyed and two damaged. Lts. Chetwood and Tanner shared the destruction of an Me 109, which was shooting up their group leader.

This brought Tanner's’s score to two enemy aircraft destroyed in the air. The other claims for the day were all made by Col. Glenn Duncan, flying Lt. Bedford’s P-47. His encounter report read:

I was leading the Group flying with Seldom Squadron (350th) escorting five Combat Wings of B-17s on penetration to bomb targets in Germany. We had been rotating about the front and sides of the ’17s talking to them on ‘C’ Channel. Saw several bunches of P-51s sorta chasing each other around and acting like young studs in mating season. Some of the tactics around the bombers looked entirely too hostile at times. Anyway, we managed to be worried and still pick out the P-51s before shooting. “

At this time, we heard from the B-17s on ‘C’ Channel that enemy aircraft were concentrating at two thirty. I took my squadron in that area and was hunting around when I saw about twenty-five FW 190s coming down from head on to the bombers. Distances caused us to miss the E/A prior to the attack, but we dove down into them as they were coming out. I saw no bombers in any apparent trouble after this attack."

“We twelve ships fell in on the FW’s who did not break up but stayed in compact 3-3 formation and poured the coal on. You could see the black smoke pour out as the throttles went past all stops. Well, we weren’t able to gain much but one white nosed P-47 on my left caught a slow boy that was lagging and laid him into flames. I pushed and shoved on the throttle, turbo, water injection, RPM and paddle wheels and got within a long range shot. The E/A showed up with a few strikes so he took up a bit of evasion action. Every time I’d shoot it would slow me down so I moved up on another boy."

“The Jerries must have been following a common leader as twenty-two were still bee-swarming along. I then pulled another long range shot and saw strikes on the tail. He evaded by sliding and jumping but staying in formation. I shot him a couple more times, which he quickly tired of and rolled down and out of formation. I then moved slowly up on another one at this time. I was almost all alone as the rest of the P-47s had fallen behind, so I figured that I had done enough chasing. However, this one FW proved to take in a few more of my shots than the others and finally went down with flames coming from the engine and over the cockpit. The range was very long, approximately 400 to 500 yards or more."

“After this I called for a join up of the squadron at 18,000 on the bombers. My Number 3 and I flew about 70 degrees for a few minutes and came up on the B-17s again. I saw four P-51s chasing something so I flew over to investigate and took a left turn over them. I had just about found out that it was an Me 109 but too late. Another one came from behind me and laid in several nice, close 20 mm, two in the right wing root, knocking out the flap, wheel, which burned out, and aileron. Two in the right elevator and several in the fuselage and prop. These things give you a start for a while, but you can usually bring a P-47 home. P. S. This is in no way to be used as advertisement for the thing, though."  "Well, we got home to learn that two of the boys had shot the Jerry. They didn’t even let him jump out."

“I claim one FW 190 destroyed because I saw him strike up and go down burning, and two FW 190s damaged as I saw strikes. Also claim one P-47 to be repaired.”

Ch 18