8th Air Force
Eighth Air Force Bomber Command became the Eighth Air Force on February 1944, it oversaw bombardment of strategic targets in Europe until 1945.
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Captain Howard M. Posson (Back row, third from the left) with the crew of "Fightin Cock", Serial Number 41-31765, Coded ER-X, 322nd BG, 450th BS, mostly likely taken at Bury St. Edmonds, England or Great Salig, Essex [Renamed Andrew Fied] circa early August 1943.
In a letter Howard Posson wrote to his brother John, he said the following....
“I've got a new ship now and after a lot of sweating, cussing, and even thinking, we named it the Fightin' Cock. One of the fellows painted a chicken on the side and now we're all set. It's not a very good or original name, but it's hard to think of a good name for a plane. Remember how much trouble Freddie and I had trying to pick a name for the canoe and then never did find a good one. It's the same way with a plane only I've had five of them now and am about out of names. If you can think of one, send it to me together with an idea of a picture to go with it and I'll use it on my next plane. How bout some help brudder John?”
Connections
Units
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322nd Bomb Group
Group
The 322nd Bombardment Squadron (Medium) was activated on 19-Jun-1942 at MacDill Field, Florida with B-26B Marauder aircraft. In late September 1942 the unit moved to Drane Field, Florida. The Ground echelon sailed for the UK aboard the Queen Elizabeth... -
450th Bomb Squadron
Squadron
People
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Howard Posson
Military | Captain | Pilot
Howard M. Posson hailed from Fresno California. He was one of four children. Howard served with the 322nd Bomb Group/450th Bomb Squadron, 8th/9th Air Force in the European Theater of Operations. He received ground school training at the San Antonio...
Aircraft
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41-31765 "Fightin' Cock"
B-26 Marauder
Assigned to 450BS, 322BG, 9AF USAAF. ...
Locations
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Andrews Field
Military site : airfield
The base was known as Great Saling when construction – by US Army engineers – began in 1942 but was renamed Andrews Field in honour of the memory of Gen. Frank M. Andrews, who was killed when the B-24 he was travelling in crash-landed in Iceland on 3... -
Bury St Edmunds
Military site : airfield
The airfield was purpose-built for American bomb groups and as such had a 2,000 yard main runway that lain in concrete with a tarred and wood-chipped surface. The scale of bases such as this meant that very often the technical, administrative and...
Revisions
| Date | Contributor | Update |
|---|---|---|
| 23 February 2021 02:43:41 | PossonNephew | Changes to unit associations |
| Sources | ||
Posson family records/photos, Los Angeles Times and Fresno Bee newspaper articles |
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| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 23 February 2021 00:15:56 | PossonNephew | Changes to caption |
| Sources | ||
Posson family photos |
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| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 23 February 2021 00:13:17 | PossonNephew | Changes to caption, unit associations and place associations |
| Sources | ||
Posson family photos |
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| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 22 February 2021 23:57:06 | PossonNephew | Created entry with collection, caption, unit associations, place associations and aircraft associations |
| Sources | ||
Photograph was enclosed in a letter that Howard M. Posson wrote to his younger brother John L. Posson. The letter was written on August 6, 1943. The photo did not have a caption or further description. Further information "clues" were provided via an aircraft database maintained by aviation artist Mark Styling, See www.markstyling.com |
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