Ensign Bradley and the U-853

On Friday morning, 5 May 1945, Ensign John G. Bradley Jr. and his Radioman 3rd Class, Clifford Brinson, were flying their TBM Avenger torpedo-bomber from out of Composite Squadron 15, Fentress Field, Virginia. Their assignment out of Quonset Point Naval Air Station was as an air detachment to act as targets simulating being an enemy plane for the U.S. submarines operating out of Groton, Connecticut, to train their lookouts to spot German subs. The theater of operations was south of Fish’s Island, New York, and Westerly, Rhode Island, just east of Long Island Sound. According to Bradley, they spotted the... Read the rest of this entry »