Johnson

Saturday, 26 June, 1943 - Eighth Air Force Mission 68

Over 100 B-17's are dispatched to engage the air facilities at Villacoublay, near Paris. Only 12 bombers actually hit the target; 6 struck the nearby Poissy airfield and 39 bombed the field at Tricqueville. Five Fortresses were lost and 14 damaged. Escorting the bombers, among others, was the 56th FG.

With 28 confirmed victories, Robert S. Johnson was the second highest scoring ace from the ETO. He was also the fourth highest scoring ace from all theaters. However, on 26 June, 1943, this was all part of a distant and uncertain future; Johnson had just made his first kill a week or so earlier, on June 13th. During that fight, he had broken formation to chase down and flame a FW-190, and suffered the anger of his C.O., "Hub" Zemke, as a result. By the time the 26th rolled around, Johnson had vowed to never break formation again, telling one of his fellow pilots that "The Krauts are going to have to shoot me out of formation."

On the return leg of the mission, the group was bounced by 16 Focke-Wulf 190's and Johnson's Jug was hammered in their initial pass. His Thunderbolt on fire and falling out of control, Johnson had no choice but to bail out. He pulled back the canopy and it jammed after opening only a few inches. Miraculously, the fire went out and Johnson slowly realized that the batter plane was still flying.

Making his way home in the crippled P-47, Johnson was continuously attacked by a lone FW-190 in the vicinity of Dieppe. Unable to down the Thunderbolt, the German pilot eventually gave up and turned for home. Almost immediately, Johnson was contacted by Air-Sea Rescue and was vectored to the airfield at Hawkinge. Amazingly, the landing gear dropped into place and he landed the flying wreck. They counted over 20 hits by 20mm cannon shells - three of them exploding against the armor plate behind his seat - and they stopped counting bullet holes when they passed 100.

Johnson devotes an entire chapter of his book Thunderbolt! to the details of his miraculous experience and also notes that four other members of the 56th were not so lucky that fateful day.

This mission is dedicated to the memory of Robert S. Johnson, who passed away on December 27th, 1998.

About The CFS Mission

Summary - The Airfield is defined as Halesworth, even though the 56th didn't move to that location until the 8th of July, 1943. Unfortunately, CFS does not include an airfield at Horsham St. Faith, where the group actually was on the 26th of June.

Waypoints - In order to accompany the bombers to Paris, the 56th staged through the airfield at Manston. Unfortunately, CFS defines the Manston field far to the west of it's correct location in Kent, near Minster. CFS includes a field just north of Dover, but south of where Manston lies. CFS calls this field Hawkinge, although the "place" called Hawkinge is south of Dover. CFS's "Hawkinge" is near a place called Hacklinge.

As a result, I chose to begin the mission with a takeoff at [Halesworth] and then defined a waypoint at Dover. This "simulates" the actual staging process.

For the same reason, the mission ends at [Halesworth], although the group actually recovered to Manston before finally returning to their home base.

References

The following references provided information to compile this mission:

Thunderbolt! by Robert S. Johnson.

USAAF Handbook, 1939 - 1945 by Martin W. Bowman.

Air War Europa, America's Air War Against Germany In Europe And North Africa, Chronology, 1942-1945 by Eric Hammel.