Testimony of Crawford J. Ferguson III
D-Day veteran – B-17 Gunner, 92nd Group, 8th Air Force
Crawford J. Ferguson III was 19 years old in June 1944. He served as a side gunner during World War II on the famous American Flying Fortresses, four-engine Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress” bombers.
On D-Day, he participated in the preparatory bombing raids for the Normandy landings, notably the attack on the formidable coastal battery at Longues-sur-Mer, between Omaha Beach and Gold Beach.
Crawford Ferguson’s father fought in France during World War I. He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre. The Ferguson family vividly remembers Lafayette’s actions in the United States during the American Revolutionary War.
After the Normandy landings, Crawford Ferguson III participated in numerous bombing raids on strategic targets in Europe. In chronological order: Evreux, Lille/Vendeville, Paris, Nantes, l’Evesque, Renascure, Bremen, Orléans, Leipzig, Aires, Leipzig (second bombing), Munich, Saint-Lô, Orléans (second bombing), Montech, Senlis, Frankfurt, Cologne, Magdeburg, and finally Kassel.
Wounded by FLAK (German anti-aircraft gunfire) during a raid over Auxerre, he vividly remembers the impressions he experienced during the flights.
Crawford Ferguson died on January 12, 2013.
“D-Day was not a surprising surprise for our group (the 92nd Group, nicknamed “The Old Slam-Bam 92”). In the days leading up to June 6, 1944, the 92nd was bombing enemy installations all along the coast of northern France. And on the evening of June 5, 1944, we were ordered back to base (a restriction we were unfamiliar with and which made us think that “something was brewing”).
What was brewing for D-Day was that 85 Flying Fortresses of the 92nd Group had been grouped into three squadrons, each of which was to conduct three different missions.
Shortly before dawn on June 6, 1944, the crew of the B-17 named “The Old Shillelagh” (a shillelagh is a war club) Irish. Most of the crew were Americans of Irish descent, hence the name. I, for one, am of Scottish descent.) took off with 39 other Flying Fortresses. The target was the German coastal battery at Longues-sur-Mer, where four high-caliber guns could endanger Allied ships.
We bombed the target from 17,000 feet, and while we usually encountered fierce resistance during bombing raids over Berlin or Munich, the FLAK (German anti-aircraft defenses) were far from intense in the vicinity of Longues-sur-Mer. Moreover, the Luftwaffe did not show up.
On the way back, we could see the first assault wave heading towards the shore. The “Shillelagh” returned safely to base.
We were then briefed at the Intelligence Service (where We were always served excellent Scotch. After three glasses of Scotch, some of us imagined we had single-handedly defeated the entire Luftwaffe.
Then we went into town and stopped at a few pubs where we were very, very attracted to the young English ladies (I was 19, like everyone else in the crew).
The next day, June 7, 1944, we received a new mission order: to bomb a Luftwaffe airfield near Lorient.
I knew the French appreciated their beautiful language, and I had practiced a few phrases (in case our plane was shot down and we had to parachute over France), including this one: “Please don’t shoot me.”
