The Wilmington morning star., 1944-05-17
With Ernie Pyle
RY ERNIE PYLE

BY ERNIE PYLE Il
"A. U. S. BOMBER STATION IN
ENGLAND, (by wireless)-These
are some of the boys who have
been blasting out our invasion
path on the Continent of Europe.
For nearly year they have been
hammering at the wall of defense
the Germans have thrown up. How
we'll they have blasted we will
know before thn summer is over.
They are squadron of B-26
Marauder bombers. They are re-
preventative of the entire mighty
weight of the tactical bombers of
the Ninth Air Force. have come
to spend few days with them
because I wanted to get taste of
the pre-invasion assault from the
air standpoint before We get a
mouthful of the invasion proper
from the ground.
The way I happened to come to
this certain squadron is one of
those things. One night in London
I was sitting at table with some
friends in a public house when
two boys in uniform leaned over
from the next table and asked if
I weren't So-and-so.
T said yes, whereupon we got
to talking and then we got to be
pals and eventually we adjourned
from one place to another, as De-
mon Runyon would say, and kept
on adjourning throughout the even
ing, and a good time was had by
all.
These boys were B-26 lombard
iers, and in the course of the even
ing's events they asked if 1
wouldn't come and live with Their
squadron awhile. Being nothing if
not accommodating, 1 said sure,
why not. And here we are.
The two boys were Lieuts. Lind
sey Green, San Francisco and
Jack Arnold, East St. Louis, Ill.
Being redheaded, Lieutenant
Arnold goes by the name of Red
Dog" They are both very nice
people indeed.
This airdrome is a lovely place.
Everything around it is wonder
fully green. as is all England now.
The station is huge, and its person
mel is scattered in steel Nissen
huts and low concrete barracks
for a couple of miles.
The living quarters are spread
through an old grove of giant
shade trees. You walk from one
barracks to another under elms
and chestnuts, big-trunked and
wide-branched, and it gives you
feeling of beautiful peace and con-
tentment The huts and barracks
are painted green and everything
blends together.
This is a permanent station, and
very comfortab BILE. Our BIS group
has been at this field ever since
coming overseas nearly year
ago.
Within cycling or hitchhiking dis
lance there are ceveral English
villages-the lovely kind you read
about in books-and our filters have
come to know them Intimately.
They like the people, and I'm sure
the people like them.
There is more of understanding
and harmony between these fliers
and the local people of their nigh
borhood then in any outfit I've
ever seen. If you don't believe it
listen to this Is of the boys
from just one squadron have mar
ried English girls since coming
over here.
The boys say this is the best
squadron in England. Nine out
of 10 squadrons, or infantry COM
panies, or quartermaster battal-
ions, will say the same thing about
themselves. 1t is a good omen
when they talk like that.
This station seems to me to have
about the finest spirit I've run
onto in our Army. 1t is due,
think, largely to the fact that the
whole organization has been made
into real team.
The boys here don't especially
hate the Germans, and they GER
tainly don't like war, yet they
understand that the only way out
of the war is to fight our way out,
and they do it willingly and with
spirit and all together.
The commander of this group is
Col. Wilson R.. Wood, Chico, Tex.
Five years ago he was an enlisted
man. Today, at Is, he is a full
colonel. He is a steady, human
person and he has got what it
takes to blend thousands of men
together into a driving unit.
The job of the B-16's is several
fold. For one thing, they had to
rid upper France and the Low
Countries of Nozi fighters as fa~
as possible, to clear the way for
our heavy bombers on their leg
trips into Germany.