Nomad News-Vol.4-No.80

NINTH AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE GROUP PHOTOGRAPHS SEIGFRIED LINE: (Following is copy of a press release that appeared on the front pages of every London newspaper and was relayed by the Associated Press to all newspapers in the United States. The time was early 1945 and the 33rd Photo Reconnaissance Squadron was part of the 363rd Group that performed that task. As I recall, none of us got any sleep for five days; just cat naps here and there.) "HEADQUARTERS, NINTH AIR FORCE, FRANCE. . .The Seigfried Line and a large part of the Rhine River, two barriers which the Germans hope will stop the advance of the Allied armies, have just been photographed for the first time in three years by a Tactical Reconnaissance Group of the U.S.Ninth Air Force. More than 2,600 square miles of the Reich were photographed in five days despite the obstacles of bad weather, heavy flak defenses, enemy aircraft, and smoke pots which the Nazis used in prodigious numbers in an attempt to save their defense secrets from the probing cameras of the Ninth's reconnaissance planes. Photo interpreters are now busy night and day studying thousands of pictures which reveal changes in these vital defenses - some sand barriers and other improvised obstacles - recently built by the hard pressed German army. Although most of the mapping was carried out at high altitude, P-38 and P-51 pilots had to brave dense flak zones, frequently flying through salvoes of as many as 150 busts. The precision nature of the operation prevented the pilots of taking evasive action Enemy fighters harassed the air spying effort continuously. One plane was lost from the whole operation. As a result of the five days effort, more than 200,000 prints of photographed areas are now in the hands of Allied ground forces. More than 18,000 man hours were crowded into the brief operation for the piloting of reconnaissance planes, developing and printing. The planes consumed 20,000 gallons of gas during the five days. The operation was carried out by a group commanded by Col. George W. Peck, Detroit, Michigan, which because of its disregard for danger in photographic reconnaissance, is known among airmen as "Peck's Bad Boys". It was this same group which worked over the beaches of Normandy at 3,000 feet for 19 days before D-Day, securing the pictures on which Allied operations were planned." (What is not mentioned here is the five sleepless days the Photo Intelligence interpreters spent plotting and interpreting the prints. We received the Presidential Unit Citation for the operation)