and Bn. Hqs. received several concentrations which riddled pup tents and sleeping bags, but mira-culously missed all flesh and bone. At 0830 hours friendly fighter bombers worked over the enemy front lines in the area to be assaulted and then followed the greatest aerial spectacle of the war to be observed at the "ring-side" by the 440th. Long formations of heavy bombers came directly over our heads from the north at about 10,000 to 15.000 ft. altitude and cascaded their bomb loads into the enemy lines immediately in front of us. What a sensation to observe "Fortress" and "Lib" bomb bays open up and release their bombs while the planes were still behind us, the momentum carrying the bombs (at least most of them) into enemy territory. The enemy "Ack Ack" belatedly opened up on the streaming formations bringing down in flames a couple of the mammoth "Forts." But the procession of formations continued to file over, the bombs kept falling, and the enemy "Ack Ack" dwindled with each passing formation. A feeling of exhilaration surged through all of us as we wit-nessed the beginning of the "St Lo Breakthrough" which was to become so important in the defeat of the German Armies.
A couple days later "Baker" had four bombs dropped near No. 4 gun position. That was during a thirty minute raid in which flares illuminated the target while the bombers made a number of passes at the vulnerable area. In spite of the repeated attempts there was no damage inflicted on the pro-tected site. So far not one of the objectives under the guns of the 440th had suffered any damage. The planes were either brought down or turned away by our hail of flying tracers, not a Jerry plane had been able to get to the target. But though the enemy had been unable to get to the vulnerable

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