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NEWSOf Those in the ServiceWITH THE AAF ENGINEER COMMAND IN ITALY—Technician 4th Grade Martin P. Kennedy of Rt. 1, Waunakee, and S/Sgt. Robert W.Fisher, 110 S. Fourth St., Mt. Horeb,• I *Wis., recently completed 30 months overseas with a veteran aviation en-TCuropeun andM * m! j t e rr an e a n t. h eat e rs.The story of this battalion is in reality the story of first U. S. participation in the war against Germany. Among the first AAF troops to land in England in 1942, they helped build the.first giant 8th Air Force bases from which aerial warfare against German-occupied Europe was first launched. Pulled out of England to participate in the North African invasion landings, they soon found themselves at the borders of Tunisia, rushing the construction of forward fighter fields, the lack of which had almost stopped the Allied campaign. They played a vital part in Kasserine Pass by building five airfields in three days, one of them under fire in no-man’s-land.They went with the invasion forces again to Sicily after the fall of Tunis and Cape Bon, constructing airfields on the beachhead. While constructing their first airfield there, an enemy machine gun nest peppered the field, until one of their members, making use of his bulldozer as a tank, charged the enemy strong point in the face of point-blank fire and plowed it under with a mighty push of his machine's blade.With the occupation of Southern Italy, these men mov^d into the bootwhere they constructed many of the heavy bomber bases which for the past year and a half have launched mighty aerial blows against enemy strategic targets in the Balkans, Southern France and Germany. Then up beyond Rome to build airfields in direct support of the 5th Army.Wearers of five battle-participation stars, these veterans have succeeded at their hard, unglorious job—the building and maintaining of airfields for the Mediterranean Allied Air E’or-ces.
Newspaper Details
Waunakee Tribune
Waunakee, Wisconsin, US
Thu, Feb 15, 1945
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Mj K.
WI, USA 05 Sep 2019
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