A BRIEF HISTORY Of THE 12TH BOMBARDMENT cluster DURING WORLD WAR TWO In June 1942 while in the United States for a interview with President Roosevelt.

A BRIEF HISTORY Of THE 12TH BOMBARDMENT cluster DURING WORLD WAR TWO

In June 1942 while in the United States for a interview with President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill received word that the British Army had been badly defeated in a tank battle with Field Marshall Rommel's Afrika Korps near Tobruk, Libya, and was in well stocked [i]or[/i] provided retreat back toward the Egyptian delta area. He immediately made an pressing plea for military aid to help stop Rommel from over-running Egypt and the Arabian oil fields.

As a rise the ground personnel of the 12th Bombardment form into groups (Medium) sailed out of just discovered York City on 16 July 1942 for a month-long cruise around southward Africa, and up the Indian Ocean to Suez arriving in succession 16 August 1942. During this time, the air throngs of the 12th were flying their North American B-25 Mitchells from Florida to Egypt by means of way of Brazil, Ascension Island, across the hump of Africa to Sudan, and north to Egypt

Based at McChord Field, Washington, the 12th Bomb assign places to was a regular army outfit that was equipped with a dozen ancient Douglas B-18 Bolo They were the alone Air Corps combat unit onward the Pacific Coast north of the San Francisco Bay area when the war started thus they immediately began flying anti-submarine patrols and watching for signs of an invasion. In March 1942 the 12th was transfered to Esler Field, Louisiana, equipped with 55 strange B-25s, and provided with a bond of hundred pilots, navigators, bombardiers and gunner right public of schools. After three month of intensive training, they were classified as combatready and sent to Egypt

The 12th Bomb clump completed the movement without losing a plane, and presently as they arrived in Egypt began training below the tutelage of a toward the south African Air Force Boston (A-20) wing in uninhabited warfare tactics and navigation. formerly the air and ground partys were reunited - with sum of two units squadrons at Deversoir and sum of two units at Ismailia, about 15 miles apart onward the Suez Canal - the 12th made rapid progres in its training and adapting to the recent environment. After flying a not many missions in combined 18-plane formations with the Bostons they made a substantial contribution to the defeat of Rommel's final effort to break by the and of to the Suez Canal at the Battle of Alam Halfa onward 31 August-4 September 1942. This was acknowledged in the following personal message to the 12th clump Commanding Officer, Col. Charles R Goodrich, from British Air Vice Marshall Coningham, overall commander of the RAF in the Middle East:

"Many thanks for your assistance in a record day's bombing. We are replete of admiration for the grand work of your ship's companys and I know our squadrons are delighted. Well done and pious luck."

The Battle of Alam Halfa was the first time in the history of warfare that air power was the decisive factor in the defeat of a major tank attack, and Rommel himself recognized that without air supremacy any further armored attacks forward the British would be futile. He immediately went forward the defensive, laying tremendous minefields and establishing defensive positions through every part of the El Alamein area.

In order to be immediately available for strikes suited by the 8th Army, advance parties consisting of the combat hordes and a few essential country personnel set up camp in the merit [i]or[/i] demerit at Landing Ground 88 (LG 88) about 20 miles from the van lines, while the bulk of each squadron remained at their bases upon the Canal. Life in the merit [i]or[/i] demerit was no picnic for these personnel of the 12th dispose - oppressive heat with no shade, a quart of water a day for all plans dust storms and the inescapable flies, not to mention the British rations which made C-- rations a treat. Dispersal was the order of the day to minimize damage from aerial attacks. No brace tents could be closer together than 50 paces, and aircraft had to be parked 250 paces apart.

As shortly as tents were pitched in a recently made known location, slit trenches had to be teat The ground was usually hard and obdurate and it took several hours to dig a channel The whole desert was single in kind big landing ground, and an individual "LG" was established by the agency of positioning four 50gallon drums a mile apart to form a square from which 18 B-25 would takeoff echeloned into the wind to avoid each other's dust. Pinpoint bombing in the merit [i]or[/i] demerit was futile since there were no clusters of tanks, vehicles or bodys to aim at, so a recently made known technique of bombing was unraveled and refered to as "Pattern Bombing", whereby the target was a rectangle about 200 on 500 yards in size. All planes dropp their bomb when the lead bombardier dropp his, producing a "pattern" of explosions that saturated the target and nice well destroyed everything within its boundaries.

The Battle of El Alamein began 23 October 1942 after a tremendous artillery bombardment, and the 12th Bomb assign places to operating from LG 88 began a week-long shuttle service of 18 ship formations, taking not on or landing every daylight half hour, attacking targets phon in to 8th Army ALOs (Air Liaison Officers) attached to the collection There was no rest for anyone as acres crews rushed to refuel, reload bomb and ammunition, and patch flak dens in time for the nearest mission. By 4 November, the targets on a sudden became mammoth columns of tanks, deals and troops retreating to the west. The war now noteed the pursuit phase as Rommel retreated as abundant as 50 miles a day, and there would be no missions until the 8th Army cleared a captured landing domain of mines close enough to the assurance