506th FG Gazette
Mission notes, people, and progress—dispatches worth keeping.
LOCAL NEWS
LAKELAND, FL.
Carl Molesworth "Very Long Range P-51 Mustang Units of the Pacific War"
Lt. Wes Murphy
Once organized, we began training, on the ground and in the air. The difficulties were not few. 7th Fighter Command issued no training directive; some planned schedule was vital. While the squadron and group waited for 7th Fighter to hatch something, we trained again on subjects which had been stressed in RTU. (3) In this initial period, the most annoying handicap faced by the Group was the wholly uncalled for delay in the receipt of a VLR Training Directive. Not until 4 December was III Fighter Command Regulation 50-100, VLR Fighter Group Training Guide, dated 2 December 1944, received at the H.Q. of the 506th Fighter Group. In the meantime, of course, the Group had not been idle. An intensive program of flying and ground training was underway. An attempt was made to surmise what the requirements of higher echelons would eventually be and the schedules were drawn up accordingly. Generally speaking, the type of personnel supplied to the Unit was of uniformly High caliber, though some on-the-job-training was necessary in the case of those mechanics and crew chiefs whose previous service had been with B-25 aircraft. The VII Fighter Command Training Program finally received, turned out to be the same old stuff, only more so, with a few refinements such as eight hours of long range missions. The ground training requirements were a rehash of tried end true G. I. subjects such as Chemical Warfare, tent-pitching, etc. Several of the required courses, the “Malaria Discipline” instruction for instance, were listened to with a bit more attention than usual because the men believed they might go someplace where this information would prove helpful.
WORLD NEWS Nov 1944
2 Canadian troops take Zeebrugge in Belgium; Belgium is now entirely liberated.
5 US planes bomb Singapore, the first of 11 such raids between November 1944 and March 1945. : The aircraft carrier USS Lexington is heavily damaged by kamikaze attacks.
7 Election Day in the U.S.: Roosevelt wins an unprecedented, unrepeated fourth term as U.S. president.
9 General Patton's troops and tanks cross the Moselle River and threaten Metz.
10 V-2 rockets continue to hit Britain, at the rate of about eight a day.
12 After numerous bombings while anchored in a fjord at Tromsø, Norway, the German battleship Tirpitz is sunk.
17 The Germans give up Tirana, Albania which is liberated by local partisans.
20 Hitler leaves his wartime headquarters at Rastenberg, East Prussia, never to return; he goes to Berlin, where he will soon establish himself at the Führerbunker.
Nov 1944
506th FG Publication