December 1943 - 445BG

The 445th Bomb Group started operational flying in early December 1943. They began by flying practice missions, working on formation flying, navigation, redio procedures and more formation flying. When the pilots weren't up flying they were in the Link trainers working on their blind flying skills. They needed to know how to maintain heading, altitude and airspeed when flying through clouds.

Special navigation aids were installed in some of the aircraft. This consisted of a special radio receiver that allowed the navigator of a crew to determine his location based on azimuth readings from 2 stations. The point where the beams intersected showed them precisely where they were. The beams could also be used for "blind bombing" or Bombing Through Overcast (B.T.O.). These missions were regarded as GH missions or just GEE.

Practice bombing missions were conducted using concrete practice bombs, dropping them in an area of north-west East Anglia on the east coast of England. The Wash, as it is known, is famous for the legend of King John of England losing some of the Crown Jewels in The Wash in 1216. Once operational flying started, the Wash became a convenient location to drop ordnance when returning from a mission in a damaged aircraft.

Radio operators received additional training in message formats that were to be transmitted or received during a mission. All of the gunners for the various turrets continued their training in the use of the various types of turrets on the aircraft: Sperry ball turret, Model A-13; Consolidated Nose/Tail Turrets, Models A-6 and A-6A; Emerson Nose/Tail turrets, Model 111; and the Bendix Dorsal Turret, Model A-9A.  They also continuously reviewed aircraft silhouette identification cards to be able to identify both Allied and Axis aircraft, both single engine (s/e) and twin engine (t/e) types.