COMBAT TRAINING BEGINS The 48th Dive Bombardment Group , Key Field, Meridian,Miss. was my first assignment, Nov.1942. The Army Air Corps, based on the success of the German Stucka Dive bomber in Europe, felt the U.S. could do the same.--No way--!! With little or no opposition ,the Stucka could go where it wished at any altitude. We were training to fly at 12,000 to 15,000 ft.altitude,throttle to idle, deploy dive flaps to slow us down, go into a verticle dive and drop one 500# bomb on a target! The intense and accurate anti-aircraft fire of the German army would have removed us from the sky like shooting ducks on a mill pond. Thankfully,better strategy evolved and we were converted to a Fighter-bomber Group for the the remainder of the war. We trained from November 1942 until March 1944, at Key Field , Meridian Miss: Northern Field, Tullahoma,Tenn: and at Walterboro,S.C. where we left for our overseas base in England. At different stages of training we flew the A-24 (Navy Douglas SBD-3), A-31 Vultee Vengance, P-40-TomyHawk, P-39 Bell Aircobra, P-51 Mustang and just before leaving the US, some aerial gunnery in the P-47 Thunderbolt, our combat A/C in Europe. We were Tactical Airforces with the main mission of providing low-altitude support to our army troops on the ground . As such, much of our Stateside training was flying to different Army Divisions training in the United States demonstrating our fire power, giving them aircraft recognition training and confidence that we could provide them close air support, safely. Other times we were engaged in formation flying, cross-country navigation, night flying or mock dog- fighting with each other trying to gain the advantage for a killing shot.We practiced hours and hours of flinging our airplane all over the sky, into every concievable position and perfecting the most efficient recovery until the response became an automatic reflex. This reflexive action saved my life on at least one occassionn over Normandy, for sure! It must be remembered that when the war began,Aviation strategy, Tactics and Procedures were evolving and continueing to change . One common procedure we practiced caused the Army Air Corps to publish a Regulation prohibiting its' use and that prohibition exists to-day. We called it the "Widow Maker" . We only did this on landing, to "Show off" at Army bases where we had just completed our fire-power demonstrations to an audience of thousands of infantry or other ground troops.Usually, we would have 16 P-39 or P-40 aircraft line up for landing ,in flights of four ,in trail and right-echelon formation. Aiming at the end of the run-way from several miles out, full throttle and in a shallow dive we would reach the end of runway at about five feet altitude and 400 MPH. On signal from the leader , all would reduce power to idle, zooming up to gain maximum altitude . When No.1 reached 300 or so feet of altitude he would start a tight descending left turn and land at the very beginning of the runway without re-adjusting his throttle.(Only he could do this; the rest of flight needed to add power for landing). Number two would wait 5 seconds after number one began his turn and start his tight descending turn for landing. No.3 and 4 would follow the same procedure. If done properly, No.1 would be off the far end of the runway taxing to the ramp, No.2 would be at the far end of the runway, No.3 at middle of runway and No.4 just touching down. It was a beautiful thing to see from the ground. Unfortunately, when a pilot pulled his turn too tight or applied power too late, a stall and fatal crash into the ground, did result in widows, hence the term,"widow maker" landings, Therefor,Regulations were published banning this procedure--forever. I credit the variety and intensity of our training for 15 months before entering combat an important contributing factor to the relative few pilot losses within the 48th Gp when compared with other Groups. ©whcameron2000