After the transfer of the 357th to the Eighth Air Force and the move to Base F-373
Leiston, aircraft for the group started to arrive very rapidly from Wharton ( primary P-51
depot ) in the first week 74 P-51's were available, enough to start operations.
Leiston was typical of the many airfields being built in East Anglia at this time,
although no two would be the same, it was sixty miles from London, and only three miles
inland from the North Sea. Leiston was in fact the closest Eighth Air Force base to German
occupied Europe, Approximately one hundred miles away. It was built by British
contractors, and had three concrete runways roughly in the shape of an A. The longest was
6,000 feet and the other two were 4,200 feet, just enough for a fully laden P-51.The
control tower stood out on its own where it had a good view of the airfield, and there
were many other buildings spread over a large area.Today there are very few still
standing, but those that remain can spark many emotions.
Before the group could
cross into enemy airspace pilots would have to become aware of the limits and habits of
there
Mustangs, so
there was a push to get pilots up and trained for the job ahead.They would find out how it
would behave in a steep dive, how high they could go and what problems they might get in
combat.The Eighth Air Force wanted to get their first Mustang group into the action, and
" The Big Week" was about to begin. Code named operation Argument, this was to
target the factories that built the Me109 and Fw190's, hopefully destroying a large part
of fighter production, and the 357th would do there part. Feb11th saw the first mission, a
sweep into France lead by Maj. James Howard from the 354th Fighter Group, the only welcome
they received was flak.The 12th and 13th also were to France this time led by Lt Col Don
Blakeslee, commander of the 4th fighter Group.The 13th was for one 362nd pilot a lucky
day, Lt Robert W. Brown was returning from Dieppe, well out to sea, when his engine
stopped, and would not restart. It was time to leave the aircraft and on doing so his legs
hit the tail section causing bad injuries, apart from this, the water he was going to land
in was so cold that survival time was about twenty minutes.His May Day call had been
heard, and after some thirty minutes he was pulled out of the water by an RAF rescue boat.
After a long time in hospital he recovered but did not return to the 357th, and even fifty
plus years later the problems from his injuries still remain, as with many other's.
20th Feb, 1944, saw the
start of the big week and the Eighth Air Force pounded the factories in Germany, during
the five days there were 2,800 bomber sorties, and 3,800 fighter sorties. The 357th were
there from the start, on the 20th it was there first sortie into the enemy homeland,lead
by Col Don Blakeslee from the 4th F/G, and the first combat loss from a group mission and
the first of 600 air combat victories.Lt Calvert William's of the 362nd Sqn was the first
with an air victory, and after shooting down an Me109 Lt Donald Ross had to bail out and
was a POW for more than a year.Col Henry Spicer had taken Command of the Group on the 17th
Feb 44 but did not lead until the 21st Feb, on this trip the Group lost one pilot and
claimed shooting down two. Capt William O'Brien a future Ace with the 363rd shot down his
first Me 109, also Lt Boyle shot the back end off a 109 but was himself hit and bailed
out, to be taken prisoner.Most of the missions flown during this time were Bomber
escort,penetration and withdrawal support, and sometimes it was not always the enemy that
shot at the fighters.
On the final days of Big Week the 357th were involved in some heavy combat,claiming five
enemy aircraft destroyed each day and also to losing two each day, out of the ten shot
down four had been twin engine night fighters, German fighter controllers would often send
them up against the Eighth Air Force bombers, as they had heavy forward fire power they
would cause serious damage to the B-17s and B-24s.During the heavy combat on these days
four pilots were lost, Lt Donald Rice was shot down by a Fw 190 and Lt Kehrer's engine
failed both ended up in Stalag Luft 1,the other two were Lt Charles McKee and Lt Tom
Beemer. Unfortunately they both fell to friendly fire, McKee was hit and badly wounded by
a B-24 gunner but was able to bail out, Lt Beemer was hit by defensive fire from a B-17
and bailed out, but his parachute streamed and never properly opened,he hit tree's which
slowed him down and probably saved his life.His legs were very badly injured and both him
and Lt McKee were repatriated due to there bad injuries.
The next Target for the
Eighth Air Force bombing campaign had to be Berlin, American aircrews knew it and the
Luftwaffe expected it.
