Questionnaire Describing Edgar S. Welborn, Jr.'s Military Career, Part 2

11 weave/ Pass 28 Met Field On Tuseday March 28, 1944 I had a young pilot named Horace Q Waggoner (whiskers not grown) flying my airplane. Had abort. Changed plugs. OK. My leaves and passes from the base were mostly to London, if I had the time. On some of the leaves I went to Norwich or to visit with English friends near by. During this time there was a Train wreck near London. Some of our men were on the Train. None were seriously hurt. The ruins of an old Castle stood near the base. We visited the castle. During the spring word came that our new permanent base was ready. 29 Trip to Raydon On April 14, 1944 ground personnel loaded on Trucks, Jeeps or anything that would Roll for trip to Raydon. I went by jeep to our new permanent home. It was new and clean but we knew there was a lot of work to do as D-day was coming anytime now. 29 Duty at Raydon We were flying and going full speed. We were living in tents on the line. The high brass questioned us about what we would do if ??? We assumed D-Day was not far away. We had several "Dry Runs" A new pilot, Capt V. Curtiss was assigned to me because Herman Herfurth, my pilot since Newman's death had finished

12 his tour. 30 Missions b/Rto Raydon(d-4) Just prior to D-Day we flew missions at a rate of two some days. The Traffic in and around or out of Raydon continued to Reach a high volume. Escort during the day then a bomb run of our own during P.M. 31 D-Day D-Day we were ready. We repainted our ships - did not let anyone see what we were doing and early (before daylight) on DDay we guided ships to runway with flash lights and got them in the air before daylight. Explosions could be heard by the men at Raydon. Some say we could not have heard from that distance but I and others on base surely did! The first day we flew three or four missions as would be the story for two or three weeks. Bombing and strafing would ne the main order. Trains were top targets along with tunnels. I feel we did a very good job on this. When the breakout occurred, we had a wider range of targets. When Patton started around Paris, my pilot, Curtiss, was after trains and tracks in that vicinity and was hit by A.A. and knocked down. He got with Free French and was picked up by a group of Patton's men. He returned to our base in about one week. He was sent home. As the lines stretched

Out , The Range of the p-47 would not reach far enough into Germany to reach the points belived to be necessary, in view of this, we switched to P-51. 23 Training for P-51 We were happy to get the long range P-51, It was Maneuverable, had enough fire power, but was not as tough as the P-47. I and some of the other ground personnel had been trained on the old P-40, so it was not all new to us. The main drawback of the P-51 Temper mental. The conger we worked with this plane the betterwe liked it. with wing tanks, The range was About anywhere in Europe our pilots wanted to go. we could find the enemy then. 33 Duty Raydon P-51 We did about the same duties at Raydon as the other bases. Did our own guad duty, C.O, duties 34 Mission Raydon P-51 Missions were mostly well into Germany, Austria, Etc at times when the enemy was withdrawing, The targets were good such as Airplanes on the ground. one when "Wag found good shooting, he got three or four on the ground. He told us soe thing hit "miss Illini" on inspection we found an unexploded 20mm warned in the radiator embedded to the point that

14 very little coolant was lost. Your "angel" was flying with you that day. Some were so lucky while others ran out of luck such as Poindexter who lost coolant and caused crash landing. 35 Living at Raydon Life at Raydon was very good. We had only one air raid alert that I remember. That was just one enemy aircraft and the British took care of him. We did have buzz bombs. Once when Lord Haw Haw came on he informed us they would take care of Raydon on the route to London. They did try but none hit the base. There was one V-2 that exploded over base. The English people around the base were very nice to us. The majority of us tried to be good neighbors. 36 Leave / Pass Raydon Leaves and passes from Raydon were mostly to London - Occasionally to Colchester or Ipwich. Once a buddy and I took a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland going on over into the Welsh Country. I am unable to understand the Welsh language. 37 Two Years in England celebration Finally the Germans quit! Out two years in England Party was something else! We were to have had baby beefWe had the Steers, killed and ready to cook. The weather turned hot. We had to refrigerate the beef.

15 took the meat to the ice plant in Ipswich The British Ministry of Food confiscated our beef! Not to be outdone, Col. Duncant went to Ireland in the Old Fortress and brought back mutton to barbecue. Beer was all over the place and some of the guys surely did guzzle it down. The party took place on June 9 + 10, 1945. We had all kinds of shows, a dance, theater party, boxing and wrestling matches. No one was supposed to work, but some of us did. The entire countryside was invited and several of the English did attend. 38 Duty at Raydon Post V-E day Duty at Raydon after V.E. was hectic. We were doing some flying, so the planes had to be ready for flights. The was the first order. To keep the men busy a school was set up known as "Duncan University" The school had an outstanding curriculum, offering almost any subject one wished to study. I was not asked to but was told to teach "Economics." The Air Corps sent me to Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, Scotland for a re-freshed course. I was there approximately six days. When I returned and the course was set up, I spent at least two hours every day