“Hit By My Own Blast”
The target of the 353rd Fighter Group on June 6, 1944, was a grouping of German armored trucks and other vehicles, six miles south of Mortain, France. A P-47 Thunderbolt, piloted by Flight Officer Earl W. Green, dove towards the target.
His flight leader, Captain James N. Poindexter (himself shot down and killed over Germany months later, on January 3, 1945) reported that:
F/O Green, 23 years old, from Klamath Falls, Oregon, had been in the military just short of four years. He was...