1:00 pm Lunch - Speaker - Norman Wilson
Mon, Jun 8th 2015 at 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Norman talked about a daylight raid by the USAF on Germany during WWII
Norman Wilson has regaled us many times about his own exploits as a second world war flying boat pilot. In this talk on June 8, he paid tribute to another flying veteran and told the story of Dick Bailey, a personal friend.
Bailey was in the US 9th Air Force. His flying career started when he was young and qualified as a pilot at 17 – after enlisting never having told him that he could fly having had lessons at his local flying club. After training Dick joined 322 squadron 450th bomb group, 9th Air Force flying Martin “Murderers” - sorry “Marauders”, a reputation earned from the high crash rate caused by Curtiss electric variable pitch propellers going into “fully fine” with runaway engines if the batteries were not fully charged.
(Thank you, Norman, for explaining this highly technical situation to we who’ve never flown a plane!)
Dick, casual as ever, said simply: “No problem”. His squadron flew in formation across the Atlantic via Florida, the Azores to Andrewsfield from where they carried out daylight raids over Europe. At the end of the war he had completed 65 daylight operations and been awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses.
Norman recounted Dick’s memory of the attack on December 23, 1944 by ten aircraft despatched from 450th Squadron in a group formation of 33. Objective - destroy the Euskirchen Bridge to hamper the flow of enemy supplies to the front line. Under constant attack by 12-15 Me-109’s coming at them from behind, over and under, they beat them off.
Dick recounts: “ My top turret gunner, Jim Milham, who I “borrowed” for the mission was credited for one MEW-109 destroyed. My tail gunner, also “borrowed” was given credit for a “probable”. Of 65 missions, this was the most interesting. As far as Intelligence knew, I was the only bomber pilot to shoot down a German fighter.”
That, of course is barely half of Dick’s story - too long to record all in our humble newsletter.
So back to Norman’s personal story: “I met Dick as a result of leading a GSE team to the US in 1991. We have been been firm friends ever since and met on many occasions including in June last year when he came to Normandy for the VE Day celebrations. It was the time when I was seriously
ill. Brenda and I were to join him there. Instead he visited me in hospital and regrettably, I was not fully “compus mentis” at the time.”
In his vote of thanks, Malcom Acors reminded us of Norman’s own war exploits in destroying the German submarines and keeping the Baltic convoys moving.
Editor’s note: It is impossible in our space to record all of Norman’s words. What appears is a brief precis of an historic war episode. Which is why we have decided to record Dick Bailey’s full account of that historic bombing of the bridge at Euskirchen on our website. Please read it by clicking here.
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