m a r k e r i c k s o n p a i n t i n g s Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson Air Corps 1942 - 1945
Click to view Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson's complete thirty five mission list and twelve B-17 Flying Fortresses flown between March 27th thru August 26th, 1944 out of Horham Airfield, England.
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Two days before the Invasion of Europe by the Allies on June 6th, 1944 Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson wrote this letter from his barracks after having just completed his 20th mission early that morning. DDay had been canceled for 24 hours and his mission that morning was over Pas de Calais and Boulogne along the coast of France. He often wrote to his mother and father and 4 year old sister Dian, sometimes 3-4 letters a week. What he wrote on the 4th of June reads rather light-hardheartedly and quite different than the words he would write two days later. Read the June 6th, 1944 letter Ernest may have had an inkling he would complete his 21st mission aboard the "Lili of the Lamplight" (44-6085) in the early morning hours of June 6th, but he would never write those words down on paper. His 21st mission would take the "Lili of the Lamplight" and the 334th Squadron over Boulogne-sur-Mer and Calais, just as the invasion of France by the Allies was underway. As he would write in his next letter "I imagine the papers are full of the Invasion? I got a pretty good view of it." Ernest was twenty one years old and was on the eve of history.
June 4, 1944 England |
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