Two Bogeys at Dawn

14th August 1944: Fighter Ace Robin Olds opens his score after separating from his Fighter Group during a raid into France

P-38 Lightnings of the 55th Fighter Group at Nuthampstead at sunrise.

P-38 Lightnings of the 55th Fighter Group line up for take off at Nuthampstead.

Four airborne P-38 Lightning aircraft of the 55th Fighter Group

In Normandy the German counter-offensive at Mortain had failed and Field Marshal von Kluge, the Supreme Field Commander West, was struggling to convince Hitler that it was time to order a general retreat to escape an encirclement that appeared to be developing near Falaise.

I was looking for something to shoot at, anything military: a convoy, a train, troops, anything.

Now, more than ever, the Allied fighters’ and fighter-bombers’ dominance over the battlefield was to play a critical role. They ranged far and wide over northern France attacking targets, mainly bridges, that would block the German retreat and then turning their attention to targets of opportunity, mainly strafing targets on the ground.

Robin Olds only flew the P-38 Lightning for a few months before converting to the P-51 Mustang in mid-September 1944.

In the early morning light of 14th August one P-38 Lightning pilot was looking for more than just ground targets. Twenty-two year old Robin Olds¹ had not yet scored after arriving in England in May 1944 with the 479th Fighter Group. He describes in graphic detail how he decided to break away from his colleagues on 14th August 1944 because he disagreed with their navigation: