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Show WALTER TEW ART Ma 25,2000 down against the Germans. It was a rough duty down there, cold and miserable and poor flying weather. They bombed in Italy and Africa. They bombed Bizerte, Tunis and Tripoli, which were held by Germany. In the winter of'42, Montgomery and the British turned the Nazis back just before they got to Cairo with one of the greatest bombardments of artillery I guess the world has ever seen. They turned the old Desert Fox, Rommel, back, then they attacked him. He just retreated clear across North Africa. Then, in May of 1943, they ended up at Cap Bon, Tunisia. That's the closest part of Africa to Europe. The British and American armies thought they were going to wipe out the German Eighth Army just like the Germans were going to wipe out the British Eighth Army at Dunkirk in 1939, but failed. But the German army did the same thing. They got out of there, even though we captured quite a few. Later, when we went to Tunisia, we saw those fellows that were prisoners of war. They were just wonderful looking people. I thought, "My heck, we ought to be their prisoners. They're such big, handsome, German guys." Then, starting in March of'43, there was intensive bombing. Without fighter protection we seldom went to Germany. We bombed Saint Nazaire, Lorient, Dieppe, and Dunkirk to try and soften up the submarines and the shipping-any kind of shipping. We had some success. Of course, they had a lot of success with us. We lost many aircraft and crews that winter. Major George Brown, our deputy commander, said, "Why don't you pilots all live together, eight of you, just so you can get well-acquainted with each other and talk flying. Talk flying-tell each other what you've learned. If new guys come in, tell them." We lived in quarters, which had been used by the British. There were eight of us and 30 |
