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Ken Sharpe | First Lieutenant Ken Sharpe After joining the USAAF in March 1943, Ken Sharpe qualified as a pilot and was posted to the Eighth Air Force serving with the 388th Bomb Group from RAF Knettishall in Suffolk, England. Flying B-17s with the 561st Bomb Squadron, he undertook his first mission in January 1945 and went on to complete a total of 18 gruelling daylight operations over occupied Europe. His significant raids included trips to Berlin, the Ruhr Valley and as the war in Europe was coming to an end, his crew picked up 30 French POWs from Linz in Austria and flew them back home to Paris. |
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Fortress at Rest by Richard Taylor. The bomber crews of the US Eighth Air Force rightfully earned their place in the annals of aviation history through heroism and devotion to duty. Flying their first mission from England on Independence Day, 4th July 1942, using A-20 Havocs borrowed from the RAF, until their final full scale mission of the war on 25th April 1945, the bomber crews of the Eighth had become one of the most highly decorated military organisations of the war with 17 Medal of Honor recipients and 66 Distinguished Unit Citation awards. By the end of the war, the Mighty Eighth was the largest air unit ever assembled, and their heroic efforts had played a major role in the destruction of Hitler's Third Reich. But, with almost 6,000 heavy bombers lost, the cost of victory had come at an enormous price - only one in three airmen had survived the air battle over Europe. Here, a brief moment of reprieve for the bomber crews as deep overnight snow temporarily grounds the Mighty Eighth during the bitter winter of 1944. With the morning sunlight glinting across the snow-covered landscape, a B-17G Flying Fortress of the 398th Bomb Group stands quietly near the perimeter of RAF Nuthampstead, awaiting the thaw that will allow the flying to begin again. |
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