What a story the above painting has to tell. Late evening, long shadows on the ground, smoke stain from air battles fought. Flaps and wheels down and one more safe return to the home airfield just ahead. These fliers usually took off before daylight with only a cold breakfast. They risked their lives daily in air battles we can only imagine. They flew over oceans to get to the enemy...Then flew over the enemy guns to get to their targets...Once over the target they could not deviate to avoid either enemy fighters or flak...On the way home they flew with near empty fuel tanks in airplanes shot full of holes by enemy guns...The oceans they had to cross were so cold that those who bailed out had only a few minutes before freezing to death. But they did it day after day until the enemy was defeated.
What a debt we owe!
I have a friend, now living in a rest home, who flew 50 missions over Germany before coming home. He has agreed to share some of the stories of his experiences in coming issues of this blog. No fiction here - all are first hand experiences.
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