Word: coningham
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Tactical airmen, whose task is to blaze the way for troops on the ground, knew by now that they had done a job which would be a textbook model for all time. This pleased none of them more than their commander, big, brisk, breezy Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham, R.A.F. For three years Air Marshal Coningham had set the pace for the trade...
...Heavies. The Luftwaffe was almost down & out. For that, Air Marshal Coningham and his tactical flyers were glad to yield most of the credit to Lieut. General Carl ("Tooey") Spaatz's strategic heavy bombers and their fighter escorts. The strategic crews had taken on the Luftwaffe in the air and smashed it in its factories on the ground. They had cut it down - at considerable cost to themselves - to the point where it could only rise intermittently and over the most vital objectives...
Umbrella Switch. On Dday, Coningham expected the Luftwaffe, which had been hoarding its last ounces of strength, to throw everything it had left against the invasion fleet. The Allied air commanders had made an estimate of the amount of Luftwaffe opposition expected. When only 20% of this expected strength turned out for a fight, Coningham was surprised. He promptly switched a sizable part of his defensive umbrella to offensive operations and the Germans quickly found what it was like to fight against total air superiority...
...Coningham's command responsibility on the Western Front covers two tactical air forces: the British Second, which he commands himself, and the U.S. Ninth, headed by Lieut. General Lewis H. Brereton, whose rough buccaneering spirit Coningham readily understands and approves. Brereton's Ninth is not only larger than the. Second; in number of planes and men, it is the biggest air force in Europe. This fact would make Coningham's position somewhat delicate, if he did not have a talent for friendly collaboration. He gets along famously with Brereton, who speaks his mind bluntly in conferences...
...flew to France in General Brereton's transport," Graebner reported. "Then Generals Brereton and Royce, Air Marshals Coningham and Bottomley and I piled into a jeep and command car and headed up the peninsula along the long straight road to Cherbourg. Later we flew along the American and British lines. Allied fighter bombers and rocket-carrying Typhoons screeched and screamed across the sky just south of our plane...