DFC.



Joe Eaton was, according to his own account, 'an aspiring young minor infielder' before the attack on Pearl Harbor which changed everything. He had already qualified as a pilot by the summer of 1942 and was posted to MacDill Field Florida to be checked out on the B-26 Marauder. A very new twin-engined medium bomber with many teething problems to be sorted out, it was initially known as the 'widow maker', so many men being lost in training. So much so that it was very nearly scrapped. That winter the 387th Bomb Group was put together at MacDill and Eaton and his crew were assigned to the 559th Squadron. In April 1943 the Group was transferred to Lakeland, also in Florida a very popular with the married men as their wives could join them; Joe was married to Pat by now and they were able to share an apartment on base. They were to make several more moves before collecting 16 brand new B-26s in Michigan, Eaton's crew calling theirs the 'Old Crow'. Parting from their wives in June they followed the usual procedures for squadrons bound for overseas landing for brief periods at several bases, signing papers, particularly the GI 10,000 Life Insurance, arranging wills and collecting kit.



On 20th June 1943 the flight echelon left for England, the ground crews followed three days later on the 'Queen Mary'. After a few hiccups - due to navigational errors and bad weather - over the Atlantic Eaton's plane caught up with the Group in Iceland and they arrived at Prestwick four days later. On June 25th they flew into their new home at Chipping Ongar in Essex. A standard wartime purpose-built airfield, entirely composed of Nissen huts of varying size; officers' quarters accommodating eight men ,other ranks sixteen to a hut. Most of their food was shipped over from the USA, powdered eggs and milk, canned vegetables, Spam and, of course, the ubiquitous Coca-Cola. The Officers' Club was a somewhat larger hut with a bar and a ' pretty fair supply of whiskey and gin' where they would host a monthly dance attended by - literally - truckloads of local lassies. The nearby village of Willingale Doe was the favored gathering spot for the men; anybody with a 'pass' headed straight for London. The Marauder had suffered high casualties at low level and was accordingly given a new role as a medium level bomber.



The 387th's baptism of fire was on 15th August when - escorted by Spitfires - they attacked an airfield in St Omer, France. The 559th Squadron suffered its first loss two weeks later and on September 9th the Group took part in Operation Starkey. a large strike against coastal defenses in the Pas de Calais which, it was hoped, would make the Germans think an invasion imminent and divert forces from the Russian front. Most of the 387th's targets were airfields in France - usually two to three hour missions - and in October the 'tour' previously set at 25 was doubled to 50 missions.



The hitherto named Bombardment Wing of the 8th AF now became the 9th Bomber Command. The weather was always a problem during the winter of 1943/44, almost half the missions being scrubbed. Eaton pays tribute to the ground crews who worked in all weathers 'hours before pre-dawn flight briefings', and to all the other back-up base personnel. From November 1943 on the Marauders were also targeting V-1 sites, though they were unaware of it at the time.



During the first six weeks of 1944 the 387th BG flew 39 missions to those sites. By April the emphasis had changed and it was marshalling yards, bridges and coastal defenses that were being hit - a prelude to invasion. By then the 9th AF had adopted the British Oboe (an aid to bombing through cloud cover) and Pathfinder systems, as well as 'windows,' all aimed at confusing the German defenses.



From 10th May 1944 the number of missions increased in the run up to D-Day, the destruction of railroad and road bridges a priority. They were briefed at 2 am on the morning of 6th June 'cheers and whistles filled the room' when they saw the target. They took off in the dark flying at 3,500ft. Below them as they crossed the Channel ' ships of all shapes and sizes moved out of the morning mist toward Normandy'. The invasion had begun and the task of the 9th was to hinder or cut off German forces heading for the battle area plus continuing attacks against the V-1 launching sites, the 'No-Ball' missions. By July many men had completed a tour and there were constant changes in personnel, leadership and home base.



In late August they moved to France, eventually locating to a very basic camp at Clastres from were to fly 113 tactical missions. On December 9th one of the 559th's aircraft crashed short of the runway following an aborted mission. As men rushed to help the 16 demolition bombs on board exploded, twenty men were killed and many more injured. Later that month the Squadron was to lose four more planes while hitting a key bridge during the Battle of the Bulge.



During January 1945 the weather was so bad that the Squadron flew only 9 missions of the 25 briefed. Targets were tactical aimed at disrupting the by now retreating Germans and the 559th got yet another replacement C.O the 5th in as many months. The 387th was well settled at Clastres, dances were organized in nearby St Quentin 'to the officers' dances came both American nurses and French civilian girls; the nurses to dance and the French girls to eat'. In March the 387th flew 34 missions in 25 days in close support of the Allied armies crossing the Rhine and the following month the Group lost its first aircraft to a jet plane the ME262. On 19th April - after losing three planes in as many days - the Group attacked a railhead in Gunzburg Germany, its final combat mission of the war.



The 387th were to move house yet again, to an airstrip near Maastricht and joined the Dutch in celebrating V-E Day. At the end of May they re-located to the French town of Meharicourt and many crews went back to the USA for re-assignment. 'Tiger Stripe' college ( a reference to the Group's yellow/black tail markings) opened offering college and high school courses staffed by qualified personnel in the Group. Leaves were granted as were stays in one of the hotels requisitioned by the Army Air Force but training in anticipation of a move to the Pacific was still in progress. All that was to change when the atomic bomb was dropped.



The 387th BG had been awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its part in the Battle of the Bulge; the presentation being made in Paris on 14th August 1945, the day the Japanese surrendered. By November the 'Marauder Men' were home, 36 of them with English or Continental brides. After the war Joe Eaton went to Law School, practiced law in Miami and was elected to the Florida State Senate. Following that he served first as a State Circuit Judge and then - for twenty three years - as a Federal Judge before retiring in 1990.