A P-47 Thunderbolt, the plane which all pilots in the 368th Fighter Group flew
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The first mission flown by the 397th happened on March 14, 1944. It was a fighter sweep of 18 planes over the Northern reaches of Normandy. There was little activity on this mission, but it was a great boost to morale to the men of the squadron to have flown over occupied territory. The Nazis would pick their resistance slack on the invading Americans eventually. After the squadron’s fourth mission one of their pilots joked, “The Jerries wasted a lot of scrap metal today,” in reference to how heavy the flack they encountered was. The first enemy fighters were encountered by the 397th on March 25. They engaged the Germans, causing considerable damage to a couple of Luftwaffe Me-109’s while suffering no damage themselves. Eager, the pilots were disappointed that they did not have more Nazi planes to shoot down.
On April 26, the coat –of-arms for the 397th was confirmed by Washington. A popular cartoonist at the time who also made “Terry and the Pirates” designed the patch. The patch consisted of a ‘wild-eyed, pistol-packin’ Westerner and his winged Bronco’. The members of the squadron were now authorized to put this path on their uniforms. On May 15, the Nazis made a small air raid on the Chilbolton airfield where the 397th was operating. It was believed to be consisted of only two bombers and no injuries or deaths were noted. On June 6, the 397th did their part to assist in the Normandy landing. They flew two missions that day as ground strike operations inland of Omaha beach, and they were successful at taking out several artillery pieces, trucks, and even a train, decreasing the Nazi’s firepower and causing chaos for their transportation. Despite being a squadron of fighter planes and being listed as a fighter squadron, the 397th did mostly ground strike work with the small to medium sized bombs that could be fit on a P-47. D+1 day was even more intense for the 397th. They flew four missions, still mostly focused on ground strikes, but on this day, the squadron lost three pilots. The entire 368th fighter group was commended by Major General Elwood Quesada for being large contributions to the capabilities of the Allies to continue the attack on Omaha. On June 10, the 397th switched from lots of ground strike mission to mostly high altitude patrols until they switched their base of operations. |