RAIDERS FROM RAYDON, THE

353RD FIGTHER GROUP IN ACTION

The 353rd Fighter Group came early and stayed late. Formed in Virginia in October 1942, it coprised the 350th, 351st and 352nd Fighter Squadrons flying P-47c Thunderbotts. The group deployed to Britain in June 1943 and went operational in August. At that time, it was only the fourth FG of the mighty 8th Air Force.

ORIGINALLY BASED AT Goxhill in Lincolnshire, the 353rd moved to Metfield, Suffolk, in August 1943 and, eight months later, to nearby Raydon, where it remained for the rest of the War. For most of that time, the group's call sign was "Slybird"a concept it embraced proudly.

The 353rd initially took heavy losses, including its first three Group Commanders. Lt. Col. Joseph A. Morris was lost four days after the first mission. His successor, Lt. Col. Loren G. McCollom from the 56th Group, went down in November. The senior squadron commander then inherited command, and Lt. Col. Glenn Duncan became one of the ranking aces of the European theater (ETO) with 19 aerial kills. Shot down in July 1944, he was hidden by the Dutch underground until April 1945. He was succeeded by another ace, Col. Ben Rimerman, who survived the War but died in a crash in August 1945.

Perhaps the finest Mighty 8th fighter pilot-and surely the smartest-was Maj. Walter C. Beckham of the 351st Squadron. By February 1944, he was America's leading ace in the ETO, having downed 18 Luftwaffe fighters in less than six months. When flak tagged his Jug, he became a POW but returned to active duty after his release. In 1962, the personable, easygoing Col. Beckham earned a PhD in nuclear physics.

Escorting heavy bombers brought repeated opportunities for combat. Lt. Bayard C. Auchincloss of the 350th FS recalled an encounter in the summer of 1944: "We were flying at about 15,000 feet when someone spotted a Bf 109 below us. Two of us went after him, but he went into a cloud, and the chase was on. Finally, we came to a patch of clear sky, and I managed to get close enough to fire a few bursts. The 109 led me right through a flak belt over an airfield, and I had to take evasive action. The time I spent dodging the flak was all he needed to make good his escape. When I got my bearings, I was about 100 miles from friendly territory and very much alone and expecting the Luftwaffe at any minute."

The 352nd's Lt. William T. McGarry was on an escort to Paris when he had his chance to score. "We had been flying over enemy territory for some time, and the Luftwaffe seemed to be giving us a wide berth; that day's mission seemed the same: take 'em and bring 'em back. Everything was fine for our 'big friends' until the bombers headed for home.

"Flying at about 23,000 feet, we spotted 20 Bf 109s. We screamed down in a 400mph dive and shot at the nearest one. With a little too much speed, we overshot straight into a dogfight.

"With a 109 on my tail, I made a tight turn; he followed me and we ended up flying in a big circle-the old merry-go-round maneuver, but I was the unfortunate head man. By this time, we were almost at ground level and had to dodge trees and buildings. At last, he made a mistake and started to climb, so I pulled in behind him and opened up. He opened his canopy and bailed out, at which point his plane dived into the ground and blew up."

Not all action took place at 20,000 feet. Eighth Fighter Command was led by Maj. Gen. William E. Kepner, who advocated sending his pilots "down on deck" to hound the Luftwaffe wherever it was possible. The 353rd therefore established an experimental "strike fighter" unit called "Bill's Buzz Boys." They found the rugged P-47 ideally suited to ground attack, and they established tactics and a doctrine that paid large dividends downstream. Led by Lt. Col. Glenn Duncan and consisting of 16 pilots from four groups, the Buzz Boys logged 83 trial sorties and claimed 14 aircraft, 17 locomotives and two boats while losing two pilots. Kepner approved, so more fighters descended to ground level on the way home from bomber escort.

June 6, 1944, began with takeoff at 3 a.m. and later saw some of the most exhausting and exciting action the Group had seen. As the invasion pressed on, they were increasingly asked to fly missions to ensure the success of the ground forces. Lt. Gerald Devine of the 350th remembered this period and the time he learned about flak: "We had been flying three or four missions a day, hopping across the Channel and hammering the rail traffic, truck convoys, bridges and tunnels-in fact, anything of a military nature.

"On this day, we had to hit a marshalling yard, so we took off with two, 500-pound bombs slung under our wings. The weather was bad, but we had to knock out the yard. When we got to the target, they were waiting for us. I was leading a three-ship flight, and as we roared down, it seemed that an almost solid wall of steel sprang up.

"My number two was hit, and his plane began to burn, and then my number three crashed straight into the middle of the yard. I felt slugs biting into my ship and knew I had been hit. I later found that two 20mm shells had gone through my propeller and had knocked three cylinders out. When I got back, I counted 113 holes in my plane."