Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson 334th Squadron - 95th Bomb Group (Heavy) Tortorella Airfield, Italy - referred to as Foggia Satellite No. 2. - August 1944 Standing before an abandoned JU 88 Luftwaffe Bomber

Just two days after his 22nd birthday, on August 6th, 1944 my dad, Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson began a 5 mission shuttle run flying the "Lili of the Lamplight' (44-6085) with the 334th Squadron. The plus week flights would take him and crew on two missions over Poland, landings at Poltava Airfield in the Ukraine. A third 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 5 was over Toulouse, France before they headed back to Horham Airfield in England.

My father spent time in early August of 1944 in Italy after completing four missions as part of shuttle bombing run. It was his longest assignment that began on August 5th, 1944, when the Lili of the Lamplight (44-6085) took off from Horham Airfield in England on the first in a series of five consecutive shuttle bombing missions which spanned the width of the European continent.

During that ten-day run Ernest and his crew encountered barrages of deadly flak fire and some 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 in Eastern Europe and then headed towards the Mediterranean. They 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. Abandoned equipment and airplanes were strewn across the countryside. The images in these photographs seem surreal. I look at them and imagine the chaotic retreat of the once highly disciplined and invincible German military. By mid August the ship and crew left Foggia and completed one more mission, their 34th, over Toulouse, France before heading home to Horham.

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.