Day: April 18, 2016

About the Forgotten Bomb Group

Pierre Lagacé19 Comments

“When the Army Air Forces Headquarters in Washington tallied the bombing accuracy of every bomb group in combat, I was astonished to find that the 308th led them all.”
General Claire Chennault in his Memoirs

308insig

http://www.donnan.com/cbi.htm

MandyCrew1

“The 308th… performed some of the most accurate bombing of the US Army Air Forces and used the first American”smart bomb” called the Azon. The 308th also sustained the highest casualty rate in the USAAF, for its missions were long and hard, often conducted at very low level and at night through the very heart of Japanese-occupied territory and over their controlled sea lanes.”

“The 308th flew nearly 600 combat missions under conditions that would have been deemed impossible in Europe. At the end of a 12,000-mile supply line, every ounce of gasoline, every bomb, every spark plug, had to be dragged over the hazardous, high altitude route across the mountains, along what became known as “the Aluminum Trail” for the plane wreckage scattered along the way. There were few radio or navigational aids, and the weather was usually bad. Midway through the war, crew viewed combat missions as less stressful than the haul over the Hump. It took about four trips hauling supplies to be ready for one bombing mission.”

Walter J. Boyne, Former Director, National Air & Space Museum Excerpt from the Foreword in CHENNAULT’S FORGOTTEN WARRIORS
By Carroll V. Glines