LeMay was shoved into the back door of the plane, his belongings were thrown in on top of him, and away they went, up through two layers of overcast.
- shove: 난폭하게 밀다, 밀어내다
To the uninitiated it could look like 150 reckless planes playing a risky game of tag. All over East Anglia, where the Eighth Air Force bases were concentrated, people were awakened on mission mornings by the roar of B-17s assembling overhead.
- a risky game of tag: 위험한 술래잡기(tag) 게임.
- concentrated: 밀집된
- B-17s assembling: B-17들이 집결하는, 모이는 소리에 깼다.
LeMay was furious. There were low clouds and fog at his fields too, but his planes got off the ground. Years later, he was sill miffed about it.
- miffed: 기분이 상한, 약간 화가 난, 섭섭해 하는
“If the First Division had been concentrating on the same sort of bad-weather-instrument-takeoff procedure which we had been developing for a solid month,” he insisted, “they might have been able to get off the ground. […]”
- a solid month: 빈틈 없이, 빠짐 없이라는 의미의 solid가 붙어서, ‘꼬박 한달간,’ ‘한달간 집중해서(개발해온)’
So LeMay turned his armada eastward at about 9:30 A.M. and headed for the unfriendly Continent. The First Division was still on the ground. It was not destined to get into the air for another three hours, by which time the German fighters, having finished their business with LeMay’ planes, would be ready for it.
- It was not destined to get into the air: The First Division은 이후 세시간 동안 공중으로 올라오르지 못할 처지였고, 그 시간에 독일 전투기는 르메이의 폭격기와 볼일 다 끝내고 The First Division(1사단) 기다리고 있을 것이었다.
Today, it seemed, their[fighter planes for LeMay’s team] range was shorter than ever. They apparently hadn’t even made it out to the ends of their own runways.
- range: 항속 거리를 줄여 쓴 말.
- hadn’t even made it out to the ends of their own runways: 활주로 끝까지도 가지 못한 것 같다 (비꼬는 표현으로, 르메이의 부대를 호위했어야 할 전투기들이 오지 않은 것에 대한 실망감을 담은 서술)
Someone on the interplane radio said, “Fighters at two o’clock low!”
- interplane radio: 기내 라디오
Lt. Col. Beirne Lay: a member of Ira Eaker’s staff
When Lay first saw those radial-engined 190s he entertained a momentary hope they might be Thunderbolts, which were also powered by radial engines, but that hope was dashed when two of them raced through the formation at a closing speed of five hundred miles per hours—so fast that one of them nicked a pair of B-17s in passing.
- radial engine
- nick: 얕게 베다, 살짝 상처를 내다
*190s: 아마 ME-109s [독일군]
*FW-190s
*Thunderbolts: P-47
Within five minutes, whole squadrons of German fighters were climbing from below to engage them. By 10:40, when the tail-end One-hundredth Group was over Eupen, the sky around it was full of bullet-spitting Me-109s and W-190s, but there were no Thunderbolts in sight. A twelve-ship squadron of 109s came in from twelve to two o’clock firing machine guns and .20 millimeter cannons. An exit door of one of the forward B-17s came hurtling through the formation, followed by a man who had apparently been sucked through that door when it was blown away. He was “clasping his knees to his head, revolving like a diver in a triple somersault.”
- 5분 이내로 독일군 전투기 전체 중대(squadron)은 아래에서 그들과 싸우기 위해 올라왔다.
- engage: 교전하다
- whole squadrons: 편대 단위 전체 *squadron은 편대인지 중대인지 [뒤에 정리]
- 10:40까지, (전체 대형의) 끄트머리에 위치한 [즉, 폭격기 대형의 맨 뒤를 맡은] 100 Bomb group이 유펜(Eupen) 상공에 도착했고, 그때 그 주변(유펜 주변의 하늘)은 총알 쏘아대는 Me-109, W-190으로 가득했으며, 시야에 (르메이의 아군인) Thunderbolts는 없었다. (자신들을 엄호하거나 싸워주는 전투기 없이 폭격기만 독일 영공-Eupen-에 있는 상황)
- 109전투기 12대로 구성된 편대가(A twelve-ship squadron) 12시에서 2시 방향에서 접근하며(시계 방향으로 보면 정면에서 오른쪽 방향을 일컫음. 공중전에서 사용하는 표현) machine guns[기관총], 20mm 포를 쏘며 오고 있었다.
- 대형 앞쪽에 위치한 한 대의 B-17의 exit door[비상구 문]이 대형을 이탈, 즉 대형을 가로지르며 날아왔다. 그 뒤에 한 남자가 따라 날아왔다. 그는 그 문이 날아가며 발생한 압력으로 빨려 나간 것으로 보였다.
- came hurtling through: 돌진하듯 날아왔다
- sucked through: (폭발 등으로 생긴 기압 차로 인해) 빨려 나가다
- 그는 머리 쪽으로 무릎을 끌어 안은 채(clasping his knees to his head) 마치 삼중 공중제비를 도는 다이버처럼 회전하고 있었다.
- triple somersault: 삼중 공중제비 (체조,다이빙에서)
A stricken B-17 fell gradually out of formation to the right, then moments later disintergrated in one giant explosion. As the fighters kept pressing their attacks, one plane after another felt their fury. Engine parts, wing tips, even tail assemblies were blasted free.
- A stricken B-17이 오른쪽으로, 대형에서 멀어졌고, 이후 한 번의 큰 폭발로 분해됨.
- stricken: 피격당한
- 독일군 전투기 조종사들은 계속 공격을 밀어붙였고, 비행기들은 그들의 분노를 느꼈다
- 엔진 파트, 날개쪽 끝, 심지어 꼬리 쪽 조각들이 분해되었다.
- blast free: 폭발 따위로 튀어나가다, 떨어져 나가다
As more German fighters arrived and the battle intensified, there were so many disintergrating airplanes that “sixty ‘chutes in the air at one time were hardly worth a second look.” A man crawled out of the copilot’s window of a Fortress engulfed in flames. He was the only person to emerge. Standing precariously on the wing, he reached back inside for his parachute—he could hardly have gotten through the window with his chute on—used one hand to get into the harness while he clung to the plane with the other, then dove of the wing for an apparently safe descent, only to be hit by the plane’s onrushing horizontal stabilizer. His chute did not open.
- “sixty ‘chutes in the air at one time were hardly worth a second look.” 공중의 60벌의 패러슈트[낙하산]는 ‘hardly worth a second look’ 두 번째로 쳐다볼가치도 없다. à 너무 흔해서, 너무 많아서 새삼스럽지 않다. 놀랄 일이 아니다. 낙하산 60개가 하늘에 떠 있는게 놀랄 일이 아니었다. (낙하산은 승무원의 비상탈출용이다)
- 불타는 B-17 공동조종석의 창문에서 한 남자가 기어왔는데, 그가 그 비행기에서 기어나온 유일한 사람. 날개 위에서 위태롭게 서서, he reached back inside. 즉 기내로 팔을 뻗었다. For parachute. 낙하산을 꺼내기 위해.
- 왜냐하면 그는 낙하산을 멘 상태로는 창문을 통과할 수 없으니까.
- 한 손은 낙하용 하네스(harness)를 착용하고 그러면서 다른 손으로는 비행기를 붙잡고 있었음.
- 그리고 dove off the wing: 날개에서 몸을 던짐, for an apparently safe descent: 무사히 낙하하기 위해. 무사히 낙하하는 듯 했음.
- only to be hit 그런데 부딪혔음. By the plane’s onrushing horizontal stabilizer: 비행기의 빠르게 다가오는(onrushing) 수평꼬리날개(horizontal stabilizer)에.
[Lay reported] “Seven of our group had been shot down, the sky was still mottled with rising fighters and it was only 1120 hours, with the target time still thirty-five minutes away. I doubt if a man in the group visualized the possibility of our getting much further without one-hundred percent loss. I know that I had long since mentally accepted the fact of death.” (87)
- 우리 그룹에서 일곱대가 격추됐고 하늘은 여전히 독일군 전투기로 가득했다(mottled)
- 1120시간 뿐이었다, 타겟 시간이 여전히 35분 거리에 있었다. (군대식 표현이므로 "1120시"라고 직역하거나, "오전 11시 20분"이라고 바꾸면 됨)
- 우리 팀 누구라도 100% 손실 없이 더 멀리 갈 수 있는 가능성을 그려볼 사람이 있는지 의심됐다.
- 나는 이미 죽음이라는 사실을 정신적으로는 오래전부터 받아들였음을 알고 있었다. (I had long since mentally accepted the fact of death과거 완료 표현으로 이미 오래전에 받아들였음을 강조하는 뉘앙스)
Others introduced a new tactic—aerial bombs dropped from above to explode in the midst of the Fortresses. Damaged, and therefore straggling, Fortresses were virtually doomed as whole German squadrons bore in on them.
- 동사 bore로, bore in on: 강하게 다가가다, 몰려들다, 공격적으로 접근하다
[…] because the Germans often zeroed in on the leaders.
- zero in on: 목표를 정확히 겨누다, 집중하다
Almost all the Fortresses had suffered some damage, yet they pressed on toward Regensburg, the survivors still holding their ranks, moving forward to fill in for their fallen comrades.
- 추격 많이 당했으나 생존 폭격기들은 여전히 대형을 유지해 Regensburg로 감.
Despite the onslaught, he had led his division to the target. […] At 11:45 A.M., Lt. Dunstan T. Abel, the bombardier in LeMay’s plane, dropped his load of explosives and incendiaries directly on the factory’s buildings, and the rest of the planes in the group, releasing on his cue, did likewise.
- incendiary: 소이탄
이 폭격에서 르메이의 팀이 떨어뜨린 폭장량은 303톤. Messerschmitt plant에. 이것은 이후 그 전쟁에서 갖아 정확한 폭격 중 하나로 밝혀짐.
The respite from fighter attack was not of long duration. Even before the Fortresses finished dropping their bombs, fifteen Me-110s and Junkers-88s caught up with the 94th and 385th Groups to continue their harassment as the task force flew south toward Africa. At the postbombing rally point, the Fortresses of the lead wing resumed their normal formation and continued south to a second rally point just north of the Alps, where LeMay’s plane led them into two big circles to give the second and third wings time to catch them. By now the German fighters had disappeared but so had three more of the bombers. Two others, with no hope of reaching Africa, had headed toward Switzerland for sanctuary.
- TF는 아프리카를 향해 남쪽으로 비행. (착륙지=the postbombing rally point가 아프리카 북쪽이라서)
- lead wing[선두 비행단]의 비행기들은 대형 유지하고 두번째 집결 지점인 알프스 북쪽을 향하여, 남쪽 비행을 함, 이때 르메이가 비행기 이끌어서 그들을 두 번 크게 돌면서, 뒤쳐진 2번째와 3번째 wing[비행단]에게 따라잡을 시간을 주었음.
- 독일 전투기가 사라졌는데, 세 대의 폭격기도 사라졌고(우리 팀도 없음), 두 대의 다른 비행기는 아프리카까지 갈 수 없어서 sanctuary[피신] 위해서 스위스로 향함.
After circling twice at the north end of the Brenner Pass, the first wing had been joined by the second, but the third hadn’t yet caught them and it would be foolish to wait any longer because a new problem was looming—shortage of fuel. The long wait over England for approval to launch the mission had used precious gasoline which would have given the bombers a comfortable reserve. Now they had no appreciable reserve. Some of the planes might not even have enough gas to reach Africa. LeMay gave the order and the first two wings moved on down the boot of Italy which, that day, was as bright and sunny as it is advertised to be.
- After circling twice at the north end of the Brenner Pass(유럽 알프스 산맥의 주요 고개 중 하나, 오스트리아와 이탈리아 지역 사이, 국경 넘는 북-남 알프스 교통로)
- 임무 수행 이전에 영국에서 명령 떨어지기를 기다리면서 기다렸던 시간 때문에 기름을 많이 사용했었음.
- appreciable: 상당한, 무시할 수 없는
- 즉, 의미 있는 수준의 예비 연료가 없었음.
As the task force left the southern tip of Italy and headed across the Mediterranean, it began a slow, gradual descent to save gasoline.
- Italy 최남단을 지나 북아프리카로 비행하면서 연료 절약을 하려고 고도를 낮추기 시작. (이태리에 착륙했던 것은 아니고 영공을 벗어난 지점을 의미)
The lead navigator hit the African coast about eighteen miles off course (which didn’t win him any congratulations from LeMay) but soon located the airfield at Telergma where the first forty-four planes landed, one right behind another at the shortest possible intervals, about 6 P.M.
- Telergma에 착륙. 가능한 한 짧은 간격으로 착륙해서 6시 경에 모두 44대가 착륙함. 르메이 부대 전체(task force)는 이탈리아 거쳐 아프리카로 비행 중이었고 선두 비행기들이 먼저 Telergma에 도착했으며, 그 중 44대가 오후 6시 경 짧은 간격으로 연속 착륙했다. 같은 부대 내에서 가장 먼저 도착한 비행기들을 뜻한다. (이제 뒤이어서 촤라라락 왔을 것)
When LeMay’s plane landed at Telergma and taxied toward the conglomeration of ramshackle structures around the operations tower, he was still expecting to find in those buildings “a B-17 parts depot” with “all the parts necessary plus 500 mechanics.”
- conglomeration: (서로 다른 것들의) 모임, 집합체
- depot: 창고
The war in Africa had moved on to Sicily, and with it all the parts and mechanics Luaris Norstad had described so glowingly when LeMay visited Africa a few weeks earlier. Even the project officer assigned to help the incoming B-17s was absent.
- glowingly: 아주 긍정적으로, 극찬하며, 장밋빛으로
- project officer: 군대나 행정 조직 내에서 특정 작전이나 임무(project) 맡아서 관리하고 조율하는 책임 장교
LeMay was still fuming about all this when Col. Beirne Lay arrived with the twelve planes of the rearmost One-hundredth Group which had somehow managed to survive.
- LeMay는 여전히 씩씩거리고(fuming) 있었다.
Lay, who had just flown through Armageddon, and had watched counless Fortresses fall, including nine from the One-hundredth alone, was amazed to find LeMay complaining, not about the losses, but about the conditions at Telergma. Didn’t LeMay know what a beating his division had taken? (89)
- beating: 르메이는 그의 비행사령부(division)가 얼마나 심하게 당했는지(a beating, 심각한 피해, 대참사) 모르나?
당시 계급도 정리
- Curtis LeMay: Third Division [하위의wing을 포함하는 지휘관, 제3비행사령부], 수백 대의 폭격기 거느림
- Col. Beirne Lay: 100th Bomb Group의 하위 지휘관. Colonel. 대략 40-50대의 폭격기 그룹을 이끔.
*공군의 작전 단위 구조
Third Air Division[LeMay] 이번 작전에 자신이 이끄는 Third Division 전체 이끌고 출격
>> 4th Combat Wing >> 100th Bomb Group >> Squadron
- 1 Bomb Group: 4대의 Squadron (1000명 이상, 40-50대)
- 1 Squadron: 정비병 포함 수백명 (12대 내외)
- Division 안에는 100th Bomb Group이 있었고 유난히 심각한 피해 입음 (100th만 9대 격추 당함)
- B-17 한 그룹(40-50대) 기준으로 약 20% 손실.
Squadron à Bomb Group [Lt. Colonel or Colonel] à Bomb Wing [Brigadier General] -> Air Division [Major General]
The plain fact was he did not know. This mission, like all others, had been flown in radio silence to avoid giving valuable information to the enemy. The leading Ninety-sixth Group with which he flew had lost no planes. He realized the air battle waged most intensely several miles behind him had been ferocious but he did not know how destructive it had been until Lay described it to him and, after all the planes had landed, he got the preliminary loss-damage report.
- ferocious: 흉포한; 맹렬한, 격렬한 (=savage)
[he sent General Eaker the preliminary report and] Then he ate what he could find at a canteen built by the French when the base had been theirs, and finally, on this clear, star-filled desert night, settled down, like the other exhausted men he had brought to this depressing place, and fell asleep under the wing of his airplane, using his parachute as a pillow.
- canteen: a small water bottle, as used by soldiers or campers.
