Sortie US7GR_1730 [06-JUN-1944]

Hi All,

Recent work on the 'Far Flung Gliders' thread at post #49 has caused me to have a detailed look at the 440 frames of sortie NCAP_ACIU_US7GR_1730 flown on D-Day.

This is a strange sortie. Many of the frames are singles, with no missing frames between them and the next unrelated shots of completely different locations. Normal reconnaissance sorties required a detailed job of work on the part of the pilot, flying a carefully plotted course during which dozens of overlapping frames were taken at very precise intervals.

Now on D-Day, you might expect reconnaissance pilots to grab a couple of 'freelance' shots if they say something interesting but sortie 1730 is more than that - all the frames therein appear to have a 'freelance' feel to them. There are at most three to four frames of a few locations but mostly they are singles or doubles taken in many cases from oblique cameras as the aircraft is flown round the subject location.

Now there is one frame which stopped the clock with me - P_0049 - one of the many with the NCAP tag 'un-locatable' for the location tag.

Below is a screenshot of frame 0049:

Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.ncap.org.uk​

A very unusual shot showing another P-38 Lightening acting as wing man to the camera aircraft. As far as I know, these F-4 and F-5 reconnaissance variants always flew on their own while taking pictures. I don't think this is a normal reconnaissance run at all.

Now here is my crackpot theory

There is a story that Ike gave specific orders to 8th Air Force commander General Jimmy Doolittle not to fly during the Normandy Invasion and of course being the man who bombed Japan for the first time on the famous raid, he proceeded to dis-obey those orders and with his wing man, Earl E. 'Pat' Partridge took off in a Lightening to survey the landings at first hand. Partridge lost his commander at one point when Doolittle disappeared through a hole in the clouds and he (Partridge) had to return to base without his charge.

The question I would like to have answered: Were the pair flying ordinary Lightnings or the un-armed F4/F5 variants? The painting here would suggest the former but that may be just an assumption on the part of the artist.

Regards,

Pat

 

RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1730 [06-JUN-1944]

Hi All,

Below is a zoomed version of the red rectangle above:

Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.ncap.org.uk​

Anyone know anything about Lightning tail markings?

Thanks,

Pat

 

RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1730 [06-JUN-1944]

Hi John,

I am wondering about the light toned band on the top of the near vertical stabiliser. It might be a Unit identifier.

Posted a query on the ArmyAirForces.com Forum here - hopefully they will be able to bring us forward a bit

Regards,

Pat

 

RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1730 [06-JUN-1944]

Could be John,

Now that you mention it, I have seen the serial number at this position before. Impossible to read though and it's the only frame showing the wing man.

The guys on the ArmyAirForces.com Forum cannot find any evidence of Doolittle flying the F4 variant either so maybe I am on a looser here :-/

Regards,

Pat

 

RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1730 [06-JUN-1944]

Thanks Dale,

Guess that kind of sinks my grande theory for sure

Regards,

Pat

 

RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1730 [06-JUN-1944]

Hi All,

Less exciting perhaps, but still an addition to the NCAP database, frame 3015 fell from the apple tree this afternoon. It's not as difficult as it looks though - the location had got to be the flooded area behind Utah Beach, so it was only a matter of working out which of the four exit roads is showing and then finding the spot for the 'tear drop' feature (probably high ground above the water level):

Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.ncap.org.uk​

I cheated a little bit by checking other cover which has been located by NCAP and found the 'tear drop' on NCAP_ACIU_16/0373_3197 flown four days before the Invasion on the 2nd June - below is an extract with the boundaries of our subject 1730_3015 indicated in yellow thereon:

Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.ncap.org.uk​

Not much remains of the marsh plot boundaries as the drains have been changed, however, you will just have to take my word for it when I say that I did find one small field to the immediate SW of the 'tear drop' feature which is still there today. The geo-positioning of the frame border on the GE finder chart is therefore spot on below

​

Another one in the bag for Sam who is doing our updates in batches at NCAP.

Regards,

Pat

 

Thanks John,

If we can do up one finder chart for the doubles and triples then Sam in NCAP can figure out the location for the others in the same sequences.

I often wonder when looking at the shots of lone ships off the coastline if one of them might be the Dutch gunboat HNLMS Soemba. From looking at her station location midway between Utah and Omaha, she must have felt very alone - it would be a great coup if we could get a good shot of her from this or some other sortie.

Regards,

Pat

 

RE: Recon Sortie US7GR_1730 [06-JUN-1944]

Hi All,

Before beginning a structural trawl of 'un-locatables' from sortie US7GR/1730, I just wanted to report a positive result on the ID on the pilot of the F-5 in post #1 above.

I found the answer in my newly acquired copy of 'Eyes of the Eight - A story of The 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group 1942-1945' by Patricia Fussell Keen. The same frame which NCAP have titled P_0049 is shown on page 125 and the caption reads:

Lt Col Norris Hartwell was the 7th PRG Deputy Commander when he was shot down on the 12th August 1944 and became a POW (MACR #7627). He had taken an occasional assignment and this trip on the 12th had been a dangerous sortie covering the V-1 sites. I need to dig deeper to see what happened and where.

Mystery solved

Great book BTW.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi Hans and All,

I am about to commence a structured trawl of the 'un-locatables' in sortie NCAP_ACIU_US7GR_1730.

If anyone wants to take some of these frames on the NCAP site and work through them, please let me know so that we do not duplicate our efforts. The 'lost souls', including the ones found by John and I earlier in this thread, number 234 from a total of 440 frames (53%) in the database, so there is plenty to go round!

The 'un-locatables' are easily identifiable on the 10 pages as, in place of the location, the database field shows just the frame number (circled red below):

​

If you have Photoshop and are willing to help out, I can send you the black frame template to geo-position over GE screenshots. It has five text layers on top of the black frame, all of which can be edited to suit the needs of each frame found - see below:

​

This sortie was flown by Lt Col Clarence A Shoop on D-Day in an F5B Lightning (#42-67382). According to the sortie schedule on page 341 of 'Eyes of the Eight - A story of The 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group 1942-1945', his targets are listed as:

• Bayeux (FW)
• Caen/Carpiquet A/F
• Beachhead between Montebourg and Trouville

In case you might be breathing a sign of relief at the short list, the last target above is essentially all five invasion beaches and the two airborne flanks!...oh, and I almost forgot, we will naturally be looking for all 234 lost souls, including those over the Channel and those with 10/10 cloud cover

Help required

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi Guys,

Francois; as our technical administrator you are excused duty - we'll just leave you the ones with 10/10 cloud cover

Hans, 3024 to 3034 would be great; thanks!

Regards,

Pat