![]() ![]() On this occasion, the German army captured him and Dahlberg spent 3 months as a POW. In both earlier incidents, Dahlberg was able to return to the 353rd FS in a short time. This time he wasn’t as fortunate as he had been the first two times he was downed. Kohn and Joseph P Harahan, USAF Warrior Studies, Condensed Analysis of the Ninth Air Force in the European Theater of Operations, New Imprint, Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force, Washington D.C., 1984, page 16ģ American Air Museum in Britain. The Group supported the Battle of the Bulge that winter and Allied troops fighting at the Rhine river in early 1945.” 3Ģ Richard H. The Group was awarded two Distinguished Unit Citations, the first for their work escorting bombers in the first half of 1944 and the second for a series of successful fighter sweeps that destroyed numerous enemy aircraft in the air and on the ground on 25 August 1944. “The Group escorted gliders on D-Day on 6 June 1944 and in the course of that month continued to strike targets like railways lines and German gun positions in support of Allied troop positions in northern France. By late May of 1944, the 354th was flying fewer escort and more tactical missions in preparation for the invasion of “fortress Europe”. The 354th Fighter Group was comprised of 3 squadrons, the 353rd, 355th, and 356th.ĭavid O’Hara’s Shillelagh and Ken Dahlberg were assigned to the 353rd FS. Shillelagh arrived in England in early April of 1944 and P-51B 42-106602 flew its first combat mission on 15 April 1944. Shillelagh wasn’t one of the very first P-51Bs assigned to the 354th Fighter Group. The new Mustangs proved magnificently successful in aerial combat, constantly meeting and defeating superior forces of German aircraft which threatened the heavy bomber formations.” 2 The P-51Bs of the 354th first entered combat on December 1, 1943, “by mid-winter the improved P-51B Mustangs of the 354th Fighter Group were regularly accompanying Eighth Air Force Heavy bombers over their targets deep in Germany. To facilitate this escort role for the improved fighter, (instead of the tactical role more typical to the 9th AF), General Ira Eaker arranged for the 354th to be operationally assigned to the 8th Air Force while remaining administratively part of the 9th Air Force. “Hap” Arnold learned of the capabilities of the new long-range Mustangs, he decided that the new P-51B could be the answer to the 8th Air Force bombers’ urgent need for a long-range escort. The 9th’s primary mission in Europe was tactical support for ground troops. The first P-51Bs to reach England were assigned to the 354th Fighter Group under the 9th Air Force.
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