Table Of ContentkA DARING PLAN-
BUT THE LIBERATION X)F EUROPE DEPENDED ON IT!
BOMBS AWAY!
Behind the Nye's Annihilators, 449th and
450th Squadron, Lt. Col. Charles Olmstead
stared from the cabin of Pretty Baby, the lead
plane of the 332nd's other two squadrons. Olm-
stead would break off from the other Annihila-
tor units when they crossed the French coast,
because he would fly slightly north-northeast to
attack the important railroad bridge at
Letripad. This span was on the line that came
from the low countries and into France.
Without this bridge across the Seine River in
northwest France, the Germans could not carry
rail traffic to the Atlantic wall defenses on the
Normandy coast.
Olmstead's Pretty Baby carried a quartet of
thousand-pound delayed-fuse bombs in the
bays and the Lieutenant colonel looked forward
to attacking the Letripad Bridge, certain that he
and his fellow B-26 pilots would knock out the
spans. He squinted again at the dreariness
ahead of him ....
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©
Copyright 1984 by Lawrence Cortesi
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D-DAY
MINUS ONE
SITUATION IN EUROPE
6 June1944
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CHAPTER ONE
By late May of 1944, Paris, France was
enjoying warm, spring weather. Residents
moved about the city in shirt sleeves, traffic
became heavier, the countless gardens had
sprouted an array of colorful flowers, and trees
were in full green foliage. But there was an
ominous atmosphere hanging over Gay Paree.
The vitality of its citizens, in evidence despite
German occupation, had not heightened as was
usual with the onset of warm weather. Small
and large groups of Parisians huddled in dark
cellars, closed apartments, and dark crannies,
where they discussed the same subject: the
coming Allied invasion of the continent.
German soldiers, from full generals down to
Wehrmacht privates and Luftwaffe lance
corporals, had also become strangely incon-
spicuous. Few of them indulged in their usual
strolls through the streets of Paris, and few
maintained either their relationships with pretty
French women or their friendships with the
men, associations that had prevailed in Paris for
A
nearly four years. wall of mutual coolness
had emerged between the German occupiers
and the French civilians, for both sides knew
that one day soon Paris would be occupied by
British and American troops.
Yet Hitler raved on about defeating the Allies
with his determined Wehrmacht, his panzer
divisions and his new types of arms.
"Our secret weapons will bring the Anglo-
Saxon enemy to his knees,' the Fuhrer ranted
'
during a speech on 20 May 1944.
Hermann Goering also ranted, promising that
the growing strength of the Luftwaffe would
destroy the Allied air forces over the skies of
Europe. "The Luftwaffe has never been
stronger,' he told a jittery German public.
'
"Our enemies will never penetrate Festung
Europa (Fortress Europe)."
But no one in Europe really believed the two
Nazi leaders. The past year had brought two
realities to the continent. The Allies had wrested
the skies over Europe and they had built a
military force in England that sprawled over
half of the British Isles. By May of 1944, every-
body on the continent suspected that an Allied
invasion was imminent.
Both civilians and soldiers had seen the
8
