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Return to Rattlesden
With their crews, the 447th Bomb Group B-17 Fortresses arrived at Rattlesden in
late 1943, the East Anglian base from which the group flew all its missions
until the end of the war. Entering combat on December 24, the 447th targeted
submarine pens, naval installations, ports and missile sites, airfields and
marshalling yards in France, Belgium and Germany in preparation for the Normandy
invasion. In the thick of the bomber offensive, the 447th took part in the
Big-Week raids, supported the D-Day landings, aided the breakthrough at St. Lo,
pounded enemy positions during the airborne invasion of Holland, and dropped
supplies to the Free French forces fighting behind enemy lines. During the
Battle of the Bulge, December 1944 - January 1945, the group attacked
marshalling yards, railroad bridges and communications centers in the combat
zone, later resuming their offensive against targets deep inside Germany. When
the war ended the 447th had flown over 257 individual missions, with one of
their aircrew, Robert Femoyer, being awarded the Medal of Honor. Theirs was
typical of the action packed campaigns flown by the American Eighth Air Force
bomb groups in Europe during WWII. |
