*The D-Day Highway
The Lt Donald Day Crew 524th Bomber Squadron of the 379th BG
Lt Marshall Sulloway (kneeling second from the right)
THE D-DAY HIGHWAY
By
Lt Marshall Sulloway
Navigator Swamp Fire 06 June 1944
D-Day is the one memory of the war that keeps coming back to me. The memories of the 5th, 6th and 7th of June 1944 are as fresh today as they were then. Those three days, in fact the entire week, are revisited every time I drive the freeway to work. Looking up and down the expressway with all the cars approaching and following me like men marching in rank and file conjure up mental images of that week. Thousands of oncoming cars ahead of me and thousands behind, following me, all in formation. Some are on the outbound leg of their journey and some on the inbound. Just like the skies over England, the channel and Europe were during the week of D-Day.
We were in the air early on the 6th of June and really had not been given any head's up knowledge of what was going on. We were out over the channel when we were alerted by the bombardier on the inter-phone to look out a window. I climbed into the bombardier's cabin and gazed quietly and in total awe and wonder. I was impressed and beyond words at the sight just below and out to our port side. Thousands of aircraft all painted with white stripes on the wings and fuselage returning from their missions over Europe. We've seen transport planes before on our way over and back but not this many and these had those fresh white stripes added to the wings, fuselage and even the tails! When did they do that? Are we supposed to have them? Who painted all those stripes on? They had to have been added last night because none of the ships we encountered yesterday had them. As the light of an early morning brought more visibility we also noticed the sea had become an expressway to Europe as well. Ships of every shape and size dotted the ocean below. A representation of every type of vessel in the Allied navy was on display below us.
We flew two separate missions on D-Day, one to bomb choke points & marshaling yards and one in support of troops later that afternoon. On the second mission I noticed something else odd on the ground between our air base and the English Channel. We have flown over these same farmer's fields, small towns and fishing villages many times in the last month, only now the landscape and terrain had visibly and drastically changed. Gone were the small English farms, barns, buildings and haystacks had disappeared from the farmer's fields. Even some buildings from that little English town had changed or just disappeared. They had been replaced by stock piles of ammunition and supplies for the largest invasion force ever assembled. The barns, haystacks and buildings had only been camouflage and now they were overturned or cast aside as easily as a piece of paper blown away by the wind. The little English fishing village had become a port outfitted with new moorings and piers that had appeared over night, possibly by one of Merlin's magic spells. Cargo ships had replaced the fishing trawlers. The fishing nets were now cargo nets full of needed supplies in support of our ground troops.
Each trip was an amazing spectacle of aircraft and ships. Thousands of ships at sea and aircraft were encountered on each leg of our missions. As we flew from England and across the channel to the mainland of Europe, other ships and aircraft were coming out and returning to their bases for more supplies. Then as we flew back to our home bases in England, we met them again on their way back to the mainland and so this cycle kept up for those three plus days. It was the D-Day rush hour on the expressways of the sea and sky.
I wondered if the crews on the ships and aircraft were thinking the same about us. I could almost hear them wishing us well and God speed on the inbound leg to Europe. We had to look just as impressive to them! Thousands of cargo aircraft, heavy bombers and all with fighter escorts, all on the inbound lane to Europe, off for a days work of bombing the Third Reich. We all knew the invasion was coming soon but these sights really drove it home. Now that I am back home in America, it all comes back to me on my daily commute to work and back home again. It's hard not to think back on those three days flying in the express lane of the D-Day Highway.
Remembrances of Marshall Suloway of the 524th Bomber Squadron - 379th Bombardment Group - Navigator for the Lt. Day's Crew on board Swamp Fire 06 June 1944