56th F.G.

BOXTED AIRFIELD HISTORICAL GROUP

COL FRANCIS (GABBY) S. GABRESKI
TOP SCORING AMERICAN ACE IN THE EUROPEAN THEATRE

Gabreski was born in Oil City Pennsylvania of Polish stock. He was not a great academic at school, but it was decided he would follow his brother to university to study medicine. He never became a doctor but did develop an interest in aviation.He left the campus to join the Army Air Corps cadet program. When America entered the war he was stationed at Pearl Harbour, by the time he got into the air the Japanese had gone. A few weeks later he was ordered to England and initially flew with one of the Polish Squadrons. When he joined the 56th he proved himself a good commander and began to run up his score. Gabreski became an ace on 26th November 1943. On May 22 1944 he had a great day he scored three and a probable. By D- DAY he had scored 21 victories, and making plans to go home get married and see his family. He flew his 166th mission on 20th July to Frankfurt, when he got a bit low and bounced his p47 on a knoll and bent the propeller. After crash landing he evaded capture for five days, but then spent the rest of the war in a stalag. During the Korean War he was back on active duty. After scoring two victories he was given command of 51st FIW.

Gabreski was finally credited with 34½ victories, a good leader and a great Fighter pilot

Hub Zemke

Fighter Leader

Of the

56th

The 56th was formed on 20/11/40, it was not activated until 14/01/41 at Savannah air base Georgia. Three officers and 150 enlisted men were drawn from the 27th bomb group to man the three new squadrons, the 61st, 62nd and 63rd. At this time there was not enough equipment within the expanding air corps, so in the summer of 1941 the group moved to charlotte air base, with three p39 Airacobras, five p40 Tomahawks, and a few trainers.

PEARL HARBOUR

After the attack, training over it was for real, several moves of base followed, until June 1942 they arrived at Farmingdale airfield.

This was the home of the Republic aviation factory, manufacturers of the P47 and so began a long association with the Thunderbolt that was to last throughout the war

MAJ HUBERT "hub" ZEMKE

On 16th September ZEMKE took over as group commander, he had just returned from liason missions, where he had observed the airwar first hand.

So began a rigourous training schedule. On 6th january 1943 the group 800 men strong boarded the Queen Elizabeth bound for England. They arrived at Kingscliffe followed by a move to Horsham St Faith, and then to Halesworth and combat.

MAY 1944 THE MOVE TO BOXTED

Zemke and his staff moved into Langham Lodge and used it as an H.Q. First mission was 10/5/44 Zemke tried a new tactic called "THE FAN" in this the fighters flew ahead of the bombers to break up groups of enemy fighters. The group fanned out into a semi circle,but promptly lost two aircraft. B group lead by Gabreski came to their aid they were now in the middle of about seventy enemy fighters. the sky was now full of flying aircraft and bullets, the Germans lost eighteen aircraft with Capt Robert Rankin accounting for five. At this time everyone was preparing for the long talked about second front. The action at this time was strafing enemy airfields on the Continent and destroying Aircraft on the ground. The 56th also provided escort when thebombing missions were concentrated on Hitlers oil supplies. After one herendous mission when he had to dodge german fighters on a number of occassions, diving at top speed then climbing into the sun, after over four hours in the air and virtually out of fuel he arrived safely at Boxted, then drove to his favourite club in London to get blind drunk D DAY The 56th patrolled the Beachead from Boulogne to north of the Seine, but saw little of the enemy. In July 1944 Dave schilling was offered Command of the 479th which he declined because they flew P38’s and Schilling was a definite Thunderbolt fan, so Zemke took that command and Schilling commanded the 56th.

So ended The "Hubs" connections with Boxted. The 56th stayed at Boxted until the end of the war in Europe, the last few men leaving about October 1945.