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510th Dedication by Ralph C. Jenkins Written by Ralph C. Jenkins on Saturday, 20 November 2004 22:11 Ralph C. Jenkins Colonel U.S.A.F., Retired Commander, 510th Fighter Squadron (1945) I
hope I won't be out of line speaking for all the 510th Fighter Bomber
Squadron commanders, from the beginning at Walterboro, South Carolina
through war's end in Europe. Bruce Parcell was commanding officer from
the unit's organization, 5 November 1943, until his death in combat on
or about 27 July, 1944 when I took command. Parcell organized the unit,
supervised its training, moved it to Christchurch and led its first
combat missions. Then there were those who took over while I was on
stateside leave in November and December, 1944 when the 510th
distinguished itself on missions at Metz (and its Ft. Driant),
Chateau-Salins, Saar Valley east of Nancy, and Bastogne in the
Ardennes. Upon returning to Europe I was privileged to command until
war's end.
Ralph JenkinsI was a twenty-four-year-old pilot, and I thought the German navy scarcely existed and would offer no resistance to the invasion. I was the squadron operations officer of the 510th based at Christchurch, which was west of Southhampton. We had been confined to the base. For the past several weeks, tremendous quantities of military gear had been heading to the southern ports of England. There was little doubt that the invasion was at hand. In the early morning hours of June 6, we were summoned by our intelligence officers to the ready rooms and were briefed on our missions for the day. We were disappointed to learn that we had not been assigned to do close air support or fighter bombing on the ground in advance of the invasion forces. Instead, we were to go out over the English Channel, out toward the tip of the Brest Peninsula, and look for units of the German navy that could menace the invasion troops. We were very disappointed. It was very boring. We saw no submarines or traces of submarines. We did finally see a large ship heading for the Cotentin Peninsula. I descended from twenty thousand feet to ten thousand to have a better look, and suddenly the sky was filled with antiaircraft fire coming from this ship. I reported this to headquarters. I suspect it was a German ship heading for the invasion area. This was most likely the only capability left in the German navy to resist the invasion. "Willie the Wolf"  is
believed to have painted most
of the nose arts displayed in the 510th Fighter Squadron and he was
described
by many in the outfit as "the only indispensible man in the
squadron." It was he who designed the unit emblem "Willie the
Wolf" after a request from CO Ralph Jenkins. His work undoubtedly
raised
the morale of the fliers and ground
crew and helped them to cope with the difficult conditions they had to
endure,
especially in the drive across France
into Germany in the last
year of the war in Europe |
This is the P-47 that flew on August 28, 2010. It has been coated as Ralph Jenkins flew one in WWII.
Ralph thanks the P-47 pilot Greg Anders, CO of "Cascade Warbirds", who flew this day. Captain Ron Miller, a F4-Phantom Pilot, Thanks Ralph.
...
A friends dad, Delbert Harris
Note: My Kodak C875 Stops propeller motions :) The B25 was Grumpy
This is the F7F Tigercat that John Sessions flew on August 28, 2010. Click picture for detail
This is a "Douglas A-1 Skyraider"
This bird carried a vast assortment of weapons, and carried a greater load than the B-17. The Air Force got a lot of the Navy's old ones
to use in VietNam. On one VN cruises, the CO of the A-1 squadron was shot down by a SAM when he ventured too close to the N. VN coast.
In Pensacola, passing by the Douglas plant in El Segundo, rows of these could be seen in 1956.
and 