
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994                   TAG: 9406070006
SECTION: THE GREAT CRUSADE                    PAGE: D-DAY2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

D-DAY WAS JUST ANOTHER OF THE MORE THAN 60 MISSIONS BOMBER PILOT AL BUCKLE

BY D-DAY, Al Buckley had been piloting missions in his B-26 Martin Marauder bomber over the Europe for more than a year.

Buckley, a retired president of Roanoke Gas Co., entered the Army Air Corps at age 21. He trained in Texas, Oklahoma and Illinois before returning to his native Louisiana, where he was assigned to B-26s.

Buckley arrived in England in May 1943. His group was put to work bombing targets in France, Holland and Belgium. The B-26, which had a short range, would sometimes bomb Nazi airbases to help clear the way for the bigger B-17 and B-24 bombers on missions into Germany.

Although he was supposed to fly 25 missions and go home, the Air Corps kept raising the number. By D-Day, Buckley had flown 60 missions.

Buckley flew over the invasion fleet but isn't sure he flew on D-Day. He has copies of his unit's old records that show he flew to France on June 7, the invasion's second day.

"It was unbelievable, the number of ships of varying sizes I saw out there on the water," Buckley said. He recalls seeing what looked like "some big barns" floating on the channel. These probably were the concrete artificial harbors that were being towed to the coast to aid in landing the invasion armies.

On the bombing mission to Normandy, the B-26s flew lower than usual, and a bomber in front of his plane dropped a bomb and it exploded. "I could see pieces of box cars flying around in the air."

by CNB