This in-flight photograph was taken somewhere over Europe by my father Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson on a mission between August 1st and 12th, 1944. He was flying with the 95th Bomb Group (Heavy) out of Horham Airfield in England. The photograph shows a spreading out flat plain and a snaking river that could be anywhere between England and the Ukraine. The small puffs of clouds make the photograph nicely surreal.

Just three days before his 22nd birthday, on August 1st, 1944, Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson began a five mission shuttle run flying the "Lili of the Lamplight" (44-6085) with the 334th Squadron. The flights would take him and crew on missions over Poland, then a landing at Poltava Airfield in the Ukraine. A second mission over Romania followed and then back to Poltava. A final mission in the area and then they were off to Foggia Airfield in Italy. After a few days there a final mission of the five was over Toulouse, France before they headed back to Horham.

My father spent time in early August of 1944 in Italy after completing four missions of the five missions. It was his longest continuous flight assignment on a series of five consecutive shuttle bombing missions which spanned the width of the European continent.

His reactions in telling the stories years later to me of this experience ranged from, the best time of my life back then to thrilling and exhilarating. He loved Italy and his experiences there was one of the reasons our family later lived in Italy for three years when my dad worked for Lockheed Aircraft.

Flying in the Air Corps was what he had dreamed of since he was young boy watching barnstormers come through on the Dakota plains. I know he was having "Lindbergh" dreams since he first heard of the cross the Atlantic flight Lindbergh completed on May 20th, 1927. Ernest wanted to be an aviator and he was living his dream. Many photos of him during this period show that quite clearly. Ernest's nickname given to him by his crew of "Lindy" only enhanced all the dreams he was finally living.

During that ten-day run Ernest and his crew encountered barrages of deadly flak fire and Luftwaffe fighter resistance. After flying missions over Rahmel and Trzebien in Poland, and Bazau in Romania, the squadron landed at Poltava Airfield in the Ukraine, where they refueled and rearmed. They carried out one final mission between landings back at Poltava in Eastern Europe and then headed towards the Mediterranean. The Lili landed at the 15th Air Force base in Italy, formerly controlled by the Germans at Tortorella Airfield, referred to as Foggia Satellite No. 2. He spent the time in and around Foggia unwinding from the long week of flying. Soon enough he and some of the crew commandeered a jeep.

They visited the Mediterranean cities of Salerno & Naples and my father had a chance to photograph the allied ships which were moored in the harbor and scattered throughout the waterways. In Foggia, a crew member captured what I have always thought were classic photos of my father standing in front of various abandoned Luftwaffe bombers. The photos were taken not long after the Allies had taken over the airfield.

By late August my father and crew awaited the day they would complete their last and final 35th mission. The cards laid out for that mission on August 26th, 1944 took a very uncertain last minute diversion.