556TH BOMBARDMENT SQUADRON, MEDIUM

Miss Satan II
Black Fury
Martin B-26B-25-MA Marauder
Sn: 41-31866
Squadron Code: FW-Z

        Black Fury's last flight was on June 8, 1944, two days after D-Day, as part of a mission against a fuel dump behind the Normandy beachead, in the Forêt de Grimbosq. The mission began at 1958 hrs, with a ceiling of 900 ft. The formation became widely separated during its ascent thru the solid overcast. Fourteen of the eighteen-ship formation aborted. Twenty-two year old Lt. Jerald Fisher became lost trying to find the formation. He saw the RAF fighter strip at Gravesend and landed on the short, steel-matted strip. His nose tire was punctured, collapsing the nose gear and causing Black Fury to tear up 50 feet of the strip as it came to a rest in a field. Cpl. Elton A. Armstrong, 556th Armament Section, who had volunteered to replace the hung-over EG on Fisher's crew, was impressed that Lt. Fisher missed "...all of those barrage balloons" during their perilous landing. Fisher replied, "What barrage balloons?!!" ...forty years later. Black Fury was salvaged for parts.