Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson at the Tortorella Airfield - Foggia Satellite No. 2 - Italy sitting on the wing of a crashed Luftwaffe bomber

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 photographs of my father at Foggia were taken months after the Germans had retreated and the Allies were in control of the former Italian 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.