Atlantic Crossing — July, 1943

Atlantic crossing map

The red line above shows the flight path Billy took in crossing the Atlantic during July of 1943. Red dots indicate stops along the way. (Note that we do not know for sure if the plane actually stopped at Stornoway, Scotland; a check-in there was noted in the navigator's log, but the Journal's description of the crossing ends with Billy's sighting of the Icelandic coast.)

Some of the B-26 Marauder crews crossed using a southern route which took them to northern Africa, then skirted the Atlantic coasts of Portugal and France, and so on up to England. The southern route was taken for crossings occurring during the winter, when the northern route was not available due to weather conditions. Moench (pp.134-36) describes his own southern crossing, undertaken in February of 1944.

To see a PDF file showing Billy's navigator's log for the crossing, click here. (Note: the pages in the file are presented in pairs that were opposite each other in the log booklet)

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