PORTLAND, Ore. -- Memorial Day, 1944 was on May 30, one week before the epic D-Day landings in Normandy. Allied airpower was being employed across NW Europe in breadth and depth to prepare for the return of Allied ground forces to the continent, occupied for four long years by Nazi Germany’s forces.
For the 371st Fighter Group, today’s 142nd Wing, Memorial Day was a workday. It was the group’s first Memorial Day since it was activated in the US on July 15, 1943. The unit’s tasking on its 29th combat mission was to fly Ramrod fighter escort missions in support of medium bomber attacks against bridges across the Seine River west of Paris in an effort to interdict enemy lines of communications leading to Normandy. Each of the three fighter squadrons in the group was tasked to provide penetration, target area and withdrawal escort with its Republic P-47 Thunderbolts for a group of Martin B-26 Marauder medium bombers. A total of 48 fighters were launched for the mission, 16 for each squadron in four flights composed of four fighters. Each carried 2,000 rounds of .50-caliber machine gun ammunition and two 108-gallon detachable external fuel tanks, drop tanks, one beneath each wing.
First off the ground from the group’s first home in Europe at Bisterne Airfield in southwest England that Memorial Day was the 404th Fighter Squadron (today the 186th Airlift Squadron of the Montana Air National Guard (ANG)), led by its commander, Major Rodney E. Gunther, with 16 P-47’s up at 1010. One fighter flown by Lt. Penne experienced a propeller mechanism malfunction and aborted the mission as the 15 others continued. The fighters proceeded to Brighton on the coast south of London where they rendezvoused at 7,000 feet with the B-26’s of the 391st Bombardment Group (Medium) at 1045. The B-26’s flew in a two-box formation, 18 Marauders per box, in three flights of six aircraft each. They all flew together to the target in France, the Mantes-Gassicourt Highway Bridge. The formation made landfall inbound at Cabourg, France at 14,000 feet at 1115 hours.
The Marauders carried two 2,000-lb General Purpose bombs each, and of the 38 B-26’s launched on the mission (including three spares), 34 reached the target and dropped 68 one-ton bombs on it at 1148 hours. Bombs burst on the west end of the bridge and the railroad marshalling yard area west of the bridge. Results were assessed as excellent for four of the six B-26 flights. The fighter and bomber formation returned to England, passing by Cabourg again at 1210 hours.
No enemy fighters or flak were encountered, a proverbial “milk run” and the weather was Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited (CAVU) enroute and in the target area. The 404th FS left the Marauders at 14,000 feet over Brighton and returned to base at 1309 hours.
The 405th Fighter Squadron (today the 190th Fighter Squadron of the Idaho ANG), led by Captain Gavan C. Robertson, Jr., was tasked to escort the 397th Bomb Group (Medium) to attack the Meulan Highway Bridge. The 16 P-47 fighters took off at 1018 and met up with their charges at 1055, 7,000 feet over Brighton. They proceeded to France, crossing the coast at Cabourg at 1131, where they encountered some heavy-caliber anti-aircraft gun fire, flak, which was moderate in intensity and inaccurate in aim. The Luftwaffe response to the formation was nil. Weather enroute was hazy, with 2/10 cumulus observed between 13 and 14,000 feet., and four to five miles visibility.
The force continued to Meulan where the Marauders dropped under CAVU conditions at high noon, 1200. According the 371st FG Operations Report for this mission, the 405th fighter pilots observed “...many hits around bridge, 2 on bridge. Smoke covered bridge and second box dropped bombs into smoke. 1 or 2 spans were knocked out at S. end of bridge.”
On the way out westward from the target, the Thunderbolt pilots also observed results of the Mantes-Gassicourt strike minutes earlier, noting “...5 plus hits seen in marshalling yards. Bridge partially covered with grey smoke and one span down.” The formation departed the French coast at Cabourg at 1233 and arrived back at the home field at 1325.
Meulan’s railroad bridge was the target for another B-26 group, the 323rd BG (M), escorted by the 406th Fighter Squadron, led by its commander, Major Edwin D. “Jessie” Taylor, one of three former RAF Eagle Squadron pilots in the group. They left Bisterne at 1034, meeting the 36 bombers over Brighton at 1105.
Escort to and from the target was as briefed, going feet dry over the French coast at Cabourg at 13,000 feet. Weather at 8,000 feet was hazy, and in the target area was hazy, visibility five miles, perhaps affected by the dust and smoke raised from the 397th BG’s attack a few minutes earlier. Bombs from the B-26’s were away from 12,000 feet altitude at 1218, and “Bombing results were excellent. At least one span of the bridge demolished.” Heavy-caliber flak was encountered, but it was meager and inaccurate. No enemy aircraft were encountered. After clearing the French coast for England at 1245, the squadron returned to base at 1345 hours.
In general, these three Ramrods in support of Ninth Air Force medium bombers were relatively tame, a welcome break from the often-hostile skies of European air combat. Other missions on other days were much tougher, for the 371st FG and the three Marauder groups, but on this Memorial Day at least, these units didn’t have to add anyone’s name to the roster of the dead, missing or wounded.
Still, at least 36 other USAAF aircraft from other units were lost in operations over Europe that Memorial Day, 1944, including 10 B-17 Flying Fortresses, eight B-24 Liberator heavy bombers, four P-47D’s Thunderbolts and 11 P-51B Mustang fighters and a pair of C-47 Skytrain transports. These losses involved some 200 airmen, mostly killed, missing, and captured, with a few who evaded and/or returned to duty. Plenty to remember on one day, let alone all the men and women lost in all the nation’s wars throughout our history.
On this Memorial Day, 2026, we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice and gave their all in military service to our country, whether in World War II, before, or postwar. Some are buried stateside, some overseas, while others remain missing in action and unaccounted for to this day.
Grieving herself a year after the 371st FG Ramrods to the Seine, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt offered words of comfort to the women whose husbands and sons were beyond their reach due to war. On May 30, 1945, her words were published: “Perhaps if the women who have no grave to visit could go to some place that together they had known and loved in the past, and think not of the body of a man but of his mind and soul and heart, they might then be able to feel some of that sense of nearness which is, I think, at the root of the craving people have to know and visit the spot where someone they have loved and depended on is laid to rest. Perhaps if, day by day, they try to carry out some wish or some interest which was close to the man’s heart, they may find themselves sharing more intimately in the actual things which moved him. This will give them comfort and courage to face the future.”
On this Memorial Day, may the citizens of a grateful nation honor the service and sacrifice of those who left us all too soon, trading their futures for ours.