I S,,^.s at: S [. SM A. WDIVE-BCMBING" No praise can be too high for the amazing versatality of the pilots of the VIII Fighter Command, which has excited the notice and commendation of the masters of war flying in the R.A.F. as well as in our own Forces; other groups, however, took it up very soon after the initial attempts and it became a very popular form of outdoor sport for most of our fighter groups long before D-Day. It was the 353rd Fighter Group which pioneered this activity in the 8 Air Force. Dive-bombing their had been done by the Germans in Spain as far back as 1936; "Stuka" was as vicious in looks as in performance. Used again in Poland, Norway, the Lowlands, France and the Battle of Bri- tain, it was of tremendous importance as a morale-destroying factor no less than for its destructiveness. But never before had high altitude fighters been used as dive-bombers. Col. Loren McCollum and his Air Executive Col. Glenn E. Duncan of the 353rd pioneered in this adaptation. It is the irony of fate that on Thanksgiving morning, November 25, 1943, while leading the first of these missions with P-47's, Col McCollum received an unlucky direct hit by flak, his Thunderbolt was stripped of its outer surface and, at the date of writing, his fate is uncertain. They were bombing the fields at St. Omer- (*1 - See Page 278) 277 --. W ~~k, .iW ,, 5WEAn Longuenesse and St Ower/Pt. Rouge; tho famous ZenkeB3 56th Group was on Gilze-Rijen and Leeuwarden doing a level-bombing attack from 24,000'. The 78th &nd 356th Groups were in support. 56th let their bombs go when they saw the B-24 which was lead- ing release its load. Col. Duncan, (Col. McCollum's successor as C.0. of the group,) had his plane damaged by flak and was forced to belly- land in North Central Germany on July 7, 1944, but he left the following notes on dive-bombing which will serve as advice for future generations of dive-bombers. "A lot of bombing has been done with many types of fighter aircraft in othor theaters but until recently bombing with (** - The following note from Lt. Col. William H. Harkness pro- vides added interesting data on the early origins of dive- bombing. "The special group led by Col. Duncan and formed from pilot3 of 4 different groups were specialists in this but I think the history should point out very clearly that other groups went in for it also. Ln connection with fght.er-bombing, I think it is interesting that it was thoup--,: of and ~leneral Hunter wanted to t-y it back in A_;j.it or September 1942 before the Groups then under this Co-:inand were lost to XII Fighter Comrand. Unfortunately t!ere 1c no documentary evidence to support th- s, te- menrt, One day durinm this period Col. Ordway, w. w'i3 then A-2 ,if VIII Fi7inter Coanand, sent word to me that Gereral Hunter wanted us to select 3ome suit',ble t&rget3 for fi,-hter-bcr'iber attacks. Our tarxet .material vi a all de- rived from the R.A.?. Fi:'.ter Ci.mnd aI.d wa', comnI.r. tively meagre, but we were prepared to examine it witn th..t -nd ir viI-. I asked for a little mnre specif4-.c deta-Il as t just what wag wanted, but bofore we coiuld 7et it, w7,rd was sent down t us that the idea of undert-'kinr t ia i-r. of opr. tion was vetoed by higher headquartere.; - 278 - ----- high altitude fighters was only a matter of possibility and not much of a probability. The problem was put up to the 353rd Fighter Group by higher headquarters to test the possibilities of low altitude dive-bombing and high altitude dive-bombing. "To run the first tests with the P-47, three pilots with previous P-40 bombing experience were selected. 2 These pilots and crews were sent to LLanbedr Airdrome in Wales where they could be close to a small barren island off shore. This island was about 50 feet by 150 feet in size and was to be used as the target. "The P-47's were equipped with a B-7 type bomb shackle, (the belly tank release mechanism). No other sighting device was used except the 100 mile reflector gun sight. No lines were drawn on the canopy to give angle of dive as this is not practical and of no great help. The 100 pound practice bomb was used. "The tiree pilots found that accuracy could be attained in direct proportion to the amount of practice. For low (e2 - Capt. Walter z. Beckham (now Major and M.I.A.) 1st Lt. Leslie P. Clep and 1st Lt. Francis P. Walsh. 1st Lt. Walter L. Angelo substituted for Capt. Beckham. All were of the famous 353rd Group from the records of which this data has been obtained - Authorj - 279 - dive-bombing 6 they began their dives about , tQp0 ft and released at about 4 The gagle of dive Was on an average of about 30 degrees. The accuracy was fair to good with a preponderance of shortages. The only trouble was the characteristics of the P-47 to attain such high speeds in a dive, making low pull-outs undesirable. It is logi- cal however, that greater accuracy is obtained by getting down closer to the target. Not having dive brakes causes the P-47's to accelerate rapidly. This high speed makes it necessary to start the pull out at higher altitudes than would be possible at lower speeds. There is a happy medium between angle of dive and altitude, to obtain the greatest amount of accuracy. This so-called happy medium was found to be about a 60 degree dive from 10,000 feet with pull- out at about 4,000 feet. Also 60 to 70 degree dives were made from 20,000 to 22,000 feet with pull-out at about 16,000 feet when a fair amount of accuracy was obtained. "During the ten day period of experimentation fifty seven 100-pound practice bombs were dropped and the greatest miss was about 150 yards. These xperiments definitely showed that the airplane could be used, if necessary, for dive bombing. "First there come the problems of the initial training of - 280 - - roux~~~I:lfi - K- '* ' - t Xx fl j A.,.. {.~ E ", Fi ; a,lz: n"' - pilots to dive-bomb. If the pilot has never dropped a bomb from any type airplane, a water target should be arranged. Load up a 100-pound practice bomb and instruct the pilot to climb to about 12,000 feet, approach the target straight and level. Fly close enough to the target so that it will pass out of sight under the Wing at about the position of the guns. After the target has passed from view under the wing for approximately ten seconds, roll into a 90 degree turn and point the nose slightly under the target. (It is very essential that the pilot learn how to turn the ship and trim it up so that the ship will be in a straight dive and not skidding.) Then align the vertical line of the sight through the target. By this time an average pilot will be down to about 7,000 feet so he should begin to pull the nose of the ship through the target. After the target has passed from view for about the count of two seconds, pull the bomb release. Then reef the ship up and turn over on your side and see where it hits. Make a mental note, "over or short". Now the next time attempt to use the same altitude and same distance away from the target (thus the same dive). Then try to achieve the opposite from the first results. From then on, after the pilot has a general idea of what - 281 - {KnL. :P *i4 the basic mechanics are, he can become very proficient at higher altitude" varying angles of dives. "To go into further detail we will take, by steps, the various stages of becoming proficient after the prelimin- ary stages. 'There are two locations which can be used as targets, namely, water and land. 1. Water Targets. "Frequently the sea is very rough and almost any type of smoke or slick will not be seen. In this case, you can always use one of the shoals off the Wash. Where the sea washes over the sand bars, a great deal of white foam is left and a sizeable target can be selected. Of course, this is not a target to give a precise measure of accur- acy, but is very good to practice on, when nothing else is available. Second, if a slick type target is used, we have found thpt the regular aluminum or gold powder slick is not too good. Therefore, we have devised our own by taking a 100-pound practice bomb case, emptying the sand. In the nose, either cut a hole and cover it with heavy paper, or indent the metal so that it will open on impact with the water. Fill the bomb with waste oil and aluminum po'.der and weld the nose back in place. - 282 - This can be attached on a ship a dropped and the bomb- ing squadron can practice bombing on it. This type of slick could be seen in a fairly rough sea.