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Charles Stevens | First Lieutenant Charles Norm Stevens Joining the Army Air Corps in April 1943, Norm Stevens graduated as a Bombardier and was commissioned shortly after. Posted to the 351st Bomb Group, he and his recently formed crew flew a new B-17 from Nebraska to their new base at Polebrook in Northamptonshire, England. Flying with the 509th Bomb Squadron his first combat mission was a raid on Le Bourget airfield outside Paris on 14th June 1944, followed by operations to targets across occupied France and Germany, including Berlin. His final mission was a raid on a Luftwaffe airfield at Kassel on 22nd September 1944 and he completed a total of 34 operations during WW2. |
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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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