The United States Army Air Forces fielded two major air arms for the Allied invasion of France in 1944. The more famous of the two was the Eighth Air Force, the strategic arm whose four-engine bombers devastated Nazi Germany’s industrial capacity by day, while Britain’s Royal Air Force pounded it by night. The other American contribution was the Ninth Air Force, the tactical arm whose twin-engine aircraft supported the ground troops.

Among the the Ninth’s many outstanding pilots was the only Martin B-26 Marauder crewman to be awarded a Medal of Honor.

When the United States entered World War II, Iowan Darrell Robins Lindsey enlisted as an Army Air Corps cadet in Des Moines on Jan. 16, 1942. His training included introduction to the B-26 at the 314 Bombardment Group’s base at MacDill Fiel

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