They flew across the English Channel both days on diversion trips designed to draw attention from other groups which were going elsewhere on real business trips.
- 305부대가 맡은 임무는 양일간 diversion trips(적이 진짜 타겟에 접근하는 것을 막기 위해, 그들을 꼬드겨 내기 위해 하는 비행) 임무를 맡았다.
- 진짜 업무 비행을 하는 다른 그룹들로부터 관심을 이끌어내기 위해
Ever since his arrival in England, LeMay had been thinking about, and asking questions about, Frank Armstrong’s belief that without evasive action during a bomb run, a plane was virtually certain to be shot down by German flak. He could find no one who disagreed with Armstrong though there were various estimates as to exactly how long a bomber dared continue in straight-and-level flight. The consensus seemed to be about forty-five seconds. Everyone agreed that to avoid destruction by flak it was absolutely necessary to keep zigzagging on the bomb run.
- 르메이는 Armstrong의 의견에 반대하는(동의하지 않는) 사람을 볼 수 없었다.= 모두가 Armstrong의 의견에 동의했다. [though] 하지만 얼마나 오래 일직선-수평 비행을 유지할 수 있는지는 사람들마다 달랐다.
It depressed LeMay to hear this. The only point in going to the expense of building all these bombers and airfields, training all these crews and putting their lives at stake was to destroy enemy targets and thereby destroy the enemy’s ability to make war.
- go to the expense of: -하느라 돈과 자원을 들이다, 시간과 노력을 감수하다
- 폭격기, 공군기지(airfield), 승무원 훈련, 그들의 생명을 위험에 처하게 하는 거, 그 모든 것을 하는 이유는 적의 표적을 파괴하고 전쟁 수행 능력을 무력화하는 것이다.
But you couldn’t destroy a target unless you hit it, and you couldn’t hit it, he was sure, unless you gave your bombardier a long enough straight-and-level run so he could line it up in his bombsight.
- 그런데 타겟을 맞추지 않으면 파괴할 수 없고, 폭격기에게 긴 직선-수평 비행을 해서 폭격 조준경에 목표를 선형 정렬하게 해주지 않으면, 타겟을 맞출 수가 없다.
-line it up in his bombsight: 폭격 조준경(bombsight)에 목표(it)를 선형정렬(line up)하는 것. 즉 조준을 정확하게 잡는 것.
To do so, you might have to pay, in casualties, a higher price of admission to the target.
- 그렇게 하기 위해서, 지불해야 한다, 사상자 측면에서, 타겟에 대한 더 비싼 입장료를.
If you paid that price without damaging the target you were losing those lives to no purpose. And then you’d have to go back, time and again, on successive efforts, wasting more lives. In the end it would cost fewer lives to pay the extra price the first time and destroy the target so you wouldn’t have to keep going back. Unless, of course, that initial price did indeed turn out to be prohibitive. Every one of the experienced commanders told him it would be, and they ought to know. […] LeMay couldn’t overcome the belief that only target was likely to benefit from “evasive action” by the bombers. But how could he be sure without accepting the risk of losing himself and his entire group on one disastrous mission?
- 타겟에 어떤 손해도 입히지 않은 채 사상자만 내면 그 목숨은 아무 쓸모 없이 사라진 것이다. 그러면 돌아와서, 다시, 연이은 노력의 일환으로, (또 사람 보내야 할 거고) 더 많은 생명을 낭비하게 된다.
- 그렇다면 결국은, 더 생명을 아끼는 방법은, 이 추가비용을 처음에 내고, 목표 타겟을 처리하는 것이다. 그러면 다시 돌아와서 또 다른 생명을 값으로 치를 일이 없어지니까.
- 물론, 초기 비용이 너무 크지 않다면 말이다. (너무 크면 못 하겠지)
- 경험있는 지휘관 모두는 그에게 ‘그럴 것(초기 비용이 너무 클 것)’이라고 말한다. 그들은 알아야만 하는 사람들이다=아는 사람들이다. (베테랑이고 다 잘 아는 사람들.)
- 르메이는 ‘그 믿음’을 극복할 수 없었다 à that이하라는 생각을 떨칠 수가 없었다: 오직 타겟만이 폭격기들의 이 ‘회피 기동’으로 이익을 본다는 생각.
- 하지만 그가 어떻게 확신하겠는가? 그 자신과 자기 팀 전체를 한 번의 재앙과 같은(참담한) 임무로 잃을 리스크를 감당하지 않고서? à 미션 해보고 나서야(모든 걸 걸고) 확신을 얻을 수 있을 것이다.
As time passed before the 305th was called upon to fly its first mission, LeMay began to lose sleep over this question.
- lose sleep over: -에 대해 걱정해서 잠을 못 자다
Then one night, lying awake in his narrow cot, he remembered what would appear to have been the most useless thing he had brought with him to England—an old field artillery manual he had picked up during his college days in ROTC at Ohio State University.
- field artillery manual: 야전 포병(field artillery)의 운용, 전술, 훈련, 장비 사용 등을 규정하고 설명한 교범을 말한다.
He didn’t even remember putting it in his footlocker, but he had noticed it there when he unpacked.
- footlocker: 병사나 학생이 개인 물품을 넣어주는 잠금식 상자
Jumping out of bed, he closed the blackout curtains
- blackout curtains: 암막 커튼
Needless to say, Hitler’s antiaircraft guns were not old French .75s. They were new German .88s. But with what LeMay had learned from intelligence reports about the .88s, he could interpolate roughly the differences between the two guns.
- 나치의 88대공포
- interpolate: (수학적으로) 두 값 사이를 측정하다, (일반적으로) 불완전한 정보를 보완해서 추론하다
“My challenge,” he recalled later, “ was the construction of a precision fire problem on a target the size of a B-17 sitting over there on an imaginary hillside, twenty-five thousand feet away.”
- precision fire problem: 정밀 사격 과제를 말한다. 여기서 problem은 사격 시나리오, 훈련 과제 따위를 말한다.
- construction of-: 설계하거나 구상하는 것.
- 이후 르메이가 회상하기로 그 당시 그가 겪은 문제는 저기 25천 피트 멀리 떨어진 가상의 언덕 위에 있는 B-17크기 만한 타겟을 향해 정밀 사격 시나리오를 설계하는 일.
He had won his degree in civil engineering. His pencil was soon spewing figures out onto the notebook paper. To the best of his ability, he took into account the number of guns the Germans might have in any one location and how much time they would have to aim and fire at a B-17 speeding through the sky. “They’ve got to lift a lot of rounds upstairs to get a hit on a target our size,” he concluded.
- spew ~ out: 뿜어내다
- rounds: 포탄
- upstairs: high up의 의미로, B-17 같은 폭격기 맞추기 위해서 아주 많은 포탄을 공중 높은 곳까지 쏘아 올려야 한다는 의미.
If he had calculated correctly the Germans would have to fire 372 rounds with their .88s to be sure of hitting a B-17 flying straight and level toward a target.
*르메이가 계산한 결과 372 rounds 값이 나왔다. 이것이 의미하는 건, 독일군은 372발을 .88대공포로 쏘아야 한다. 바로 B-17(직선-수평 비행하는)을 맞추기 위해서.
- 이때 372 rounds는 ‘확실하게 한 발 명중을 위해 필요한 평균 발사 수”이다. 그만큼 명중률이 낮은 것.
- “.88s”: “point eighty-eights”로 읽음. 구경이 88mm인 무기를 줄여서 말할 때 흔히 사용하는 방식으로, 영어에서 총기나 포의 구경(caliber)을 말할 때 ‘소수점+숫자’ 형태로 쓴다.
Cf.
- .50-cal machine gun: 50구경 기관총
- .303 rifle: 303구경 소총
LeMay had always invited his men to speak up, during a briefing, about anything that might bother them. This morning he might almost have wished he had never extended that privilege because they didn’t hesitate to tell him what they thought of his idea. [가정법 과거완료 구문]
Finally, one of the men said flatly, “Sir, it just can’t be done.”
“Yes, it can, LeMay insisted, “and you’ll see me do it first because I’ll be flying the lead plane.”
He learned a lesson that morning. If a commander is willing to do something himself, his men will go through hell to follow him.
*멋있어서 추가해둔다. …
LeMay knew that before his group-leading plane reached the target because three of the five groups on the mission were in front of him and he could see them catching hell from German fighters.
- 그가 탄 1번기가 타겟에 접근하기 전에 임무 수행 중엔 다섯 대의 그룹 중 세 (편대의) 비행기를 보았고 그들이 German fighter들에게 맹렬하게 공격당하는 걸 보았음.
“Our bomb run,” he had told his men, “will be from the time we see the target to the time the bombs are dropped.”
우리 폭격 구간(bomb run; 타깃을 향해 비행하며 정확하게 폭탄을 떨어뜨리는 작전 구간)은 우리가 타겟을 보는 시점부터 폭탄을 떨어뜨리는 시점까지이다.
Banking to fix a direct course, he leveled his wings and looked around to see what the rest of his group was doing.
- bank: 비행기가 방향 전환을 할 때 몸체(날개)를 기울이는 동작
- 항로를 바로잡기 위해 비행기를 기울이며 방향을 틀고서, 그는 그의 날개를 수평으로 하고(되돌리고), 편대의 나머지 비행기들이 무엇을 하고 있는지 보았다.
Not a single plane wavered, even when the flak came up to greet them. The nasty little black clouds began to burst above, below, and among them.
“After working out that artillery problem, I wasn’t particularly bothered by the flak,” LeMay later remarked.
- what’s the artillery problem?: 르메이가 열심히 계산했던 독일 대공포(.88 포)의 명중률 문제를 의미한다.
Not every man is capable of such cool courage, and he knew it. “Throughout history you’ve had assault troops and garrison troops,” he has since observed. “The garrison troops only fight behind a stone wall, and then not very well. Some people can do it and some people can’t. And even those that [can] –everybody I’ve come across with occasional exceptions—don’t think much of fighting. That includes me. But you do it because it’s your duty.”
- assault troops: 공격 부대, 적진을 향해 직접 돌격하는 부대. 전면전, 상륙작전, 참호 탈취전 등의 임무에 투입된다.
- garrison troops: 수비병력. 성벽, 요새 안에서 방어 임무 수행한다. (여기서는 돌벽 뒤에 싸우는데 그마저도 잘 못한다는 뉘앙스)
- think much of -ing: -을 높게 평가하다. 대단하게 여기다.
LeMay’s own plane took a piece of shrapnel in the right wing, then another in the left.
- shrapnel: 파편. 포탄, 수류탄, 지뢰 등이 터질 때 튀어나오는 금속 조각들을 의미하며 전투 중에 폭발로 인해 뿌려지는 금속 조각이다.
For seven minutes they continued, straight and level, toward the target. Six German fighters made passes at them but then moved on after doing only minor damage.
- make a pass at (someone/something): 군사에서는 ‘공격하려고 접근하다, 기총 사격 등을 시도하다’는 의미이다.
- 전투기에서 적의 항공기 또는 지상 목표를 향해 날아들어 사격을 하는 행위를 ‘one pass’라고 한다.
At one point, a British Beaufighter appeared suddenly from twelve o’clock low and LeMay’s navigator, doubling as the nose gunner, found out it wasn’t always easy to distinguish a friend from a foe. He opened up with his .50 caliber machine gun until the frightened Beaufighter pilot fired the colors of the day with his flare gun. As it happened, he needn’t have been that frightened. The excited navigator’s aim was no better than his identification. He hit nothing but air.
- a British Beaufighter: 영국 전투기 이름.
- nose gunner에서 ‘nose’는 비행기의 앞부분, 기수를 뜻한다. 그러므로 비행기의 앞부분에 위치한 총좌에서 기관총을 조작하는 사람을 의미한다.
- 영국군 전투기 한 대가 12시 low(정면 아래 방향)에서 나타났고 르메이의 항법사(navigator)는 (이 사람은 기수 사수 역할을 겸하고 있었음) 적과 친구를 구분하기 어렵다는 걸 알게 됐다.
He had dropped his bombs around the aiming point and he was convinced he had wiped out the north jetty, plus some machine shops.
- jetty: 일반적으로 해안이나 강가에 돌출된 구조물. 여기서는 군사 용어인만큼 항구 시설 방어를 위한 방파제 혹은 부두를 뜻한다. ‘the north jetty’는 전략적으로 중요하므로 폭격 대상이 된 항만 시설일 것이다.
- some machine shops: 기계를 제작하거나 수리, 가공하는 작업장을 뜻한다. 아마 군수 산업 관련 시설일 것이다.
It was two days before the photos could be analyzed by Eighth Air Force intelligence officers and the final results of the mission compiled.
- 제8공군 정보부에 의해 (폭격한) 사진이 분석되고 임무에 대한 최종 결과가 수합된 것은 이틀 후였다. (이틀이 걸렸다 ‘it was two days before~’)
[Chapter Four]
*St. Nazire Mission후 305th는 ‘Grafton Underwood’에서 ‘Chelveston[near the village of Higham Ferrers in Northampton]’으로 본부를 옮기며, 영국에서 철수할 때까지 이곳에 머무른다.
The return flights from the Continent with cold air whistling through the bullet holes in the fuselages, and the ambulances waiting at the end of the runway to carry off the blood-soaked, blanket-wrapped comrades who had caught those bullets. […] There were also less somber memories. The thin brown grass of winter; the little square church steeple of a nearby village; the British Land Girls, pressed into wartime service as farmworkers, pushing wheelbarrows in the fields, absorbing the hopeful stares and prurient suggestions of the more loose-mouthed Yank fliers.
- fuselages: 전투기 따위의 ‘기체 동체’를 의미한다. 여기서는 총알 때문에 구멍이 난 비행기 몸체이다.
- square church steeple: steeple은 ‘첨탑’으로 교회 첨탑인데, 그 모양이 네모난 것.
- pressed into wartime service as ~: 전시 상황에 ‘~로 차출되었다, 동원되었다’를 의미하는 pressed into이다.
- wheelbarrow: 손수레. 일륜 수레.
- prurient: 외설적인, 선정적인
Cf. prurient suggestions: 음탕한 암시, 즉 외설적인 농담
- loose-mouthed: 입이 험하거나 경솔한, 말이 많은
Cf. loose-mouthed Yank fliers: 입이 험한, 혹은 음담패설을 하는 미국인 비행사들.
He[LeMay] himself led the group against Lille on December 6, and against submarine pens at Lorient on December 30 with mixed results.
- lead A against B: A를 이끌고 B에 맞서다
He recommended “a bucket full of medals to pass out to the boys,” and he must have given some immediate thoughts, as he saw planes go down around him, to the precarious nature of the work he was doing.
- precarious: 불안정한, 위태로운
“That’s the first raid I’ve been on,” he told Helen, “that I haven’t written you a letter just before leaving and we ran into a hornet’s nest so I guess I had better not forget any more.”
- 그 기습이 르메이가 헬렌에게 편지로 전하지 않은 첫번째 기습 작전. 그리고 그건 말벌집으로 뛰어들어간 거였는데, 그래서 절대 잊지 말아야 겠다고 생각했음.
- hornet’s nest: 말벌집
- 말벌집을 건드리면 벌떼가 몰려오듯 격렬한 저항, 공격을 받은 상황을 의미함.
Why? After examining the data and impressions his intelligence section garnered from the crews, he came to some tentative conclusions […]
- garner: (정보, 인상, 지지 등을) 모으다, 수집하다
LeMay was beginning to believe that if fighters were welcomed by bullets before they even came close, they were not so likely to come close.
- 르메이가 알게 된 것: 가까이 가기 전부터 포탄 세례를 받는다면, 그들은 가까이 못 올/갈 확률이 높다.
[the fact: only two of LeMay’s planes had gone down.]
One had succumbed to propeller failure over France.
- 프랑스 상공에서 비행기 한 대가 프로펠러가 고장나서 임무 수행 실패(추락?까진 알 수 없다)
[in a letter to his mentor, Gen. Robert Olds, LeMay says]
“In general I am proud of my group. It has given me a great deal of satisfaction to take people right out of schools and after such a short training period, take them into action against the best pursuit and antiaircraft defenses in the world. […] Such things as landing with engine shot out, controls and trim tabs shot off, flat tire, etc., are routine matters and are not even mentioned any more, …”
- ‘take people right our of schools’에서 교육기관(학교)에서 막 나온(졸업한) 사람들을 데려다가, 짧은 시간 훈련 후에, 그들이 행동을 하도록 했다
- against the best pursuit 에서 ‘pursuit’는 군사 용어로 ‘요격기,’ ‘전투기’를 뜻함.
Cf. pursuit plane, pursuit ship: 전투기
- P-51 Mustang에서 ‘P’는 ‘pursuit’의 약자.
- 체제 개편 후 F-51 Mustang에서 ‘F’는 ‘fighter’의 약자.
- trim tab: 항공기 날개나 꼬리 날개에 붙은 작은 보조 조정판으로, 비행 중 조종사의 힘을 덜어주기 위해 자동/수동으로 기체 자세를 유지하는 것을 돕는다. 조종사가 조종간을 밀고 당기지 않아도 균형이 맞도록, 자동으로 중립을 유지시켜 주는 역할을 한다. 이게 고장나면 조종사는 계속 조종간을 억지로 눌러야 해서 엄청 피곤하다.
- trim: 기체의 균형을 맞추는 조정 장치나 그 설정 값
- the pilot should be taught “to fly formation on three engines and with the ship out of trim so they can stay in formation even though damaged by gunfire”
Unless LeMay’s group, and indeed the whole Eighth Air Force, improved dramatically, they were destined to catch hell when the real battle for Europe began.
- catch hell: 호되게 당하다, 큰 피해 입다, 심하게 혼나거나 공격을 당하다
“Here, the landscape is one jumbled mass of of railroads, roads and towns and once you lose track of your position, it is almost impossible to find yourself again.”
- jumbled: 뒤죽박죽 얽힌
- Unlike America, Europe was crowded, and it made navigation using landmarks(home, railroads, towns, rivers) much more difficult.
*당시 폭격 수준: 60%는 의도치 않은 곳에 떨어졌고 조준한 곳에 맞은 건 1퍼센트도 안 되었다. 500feet 안에서라면 3%정도였다.
He was beginning to think, though, that this wasn’t the fault of bombardiers. They often missed targets because they didn’t know enough about them[targets] to recognize them[targets].
- 폭격수들은 목표물에 대해 충분히 알지 못했다
- 그러니 목표물들을 식별할 수 없었다.
Otherwise they would see a drawing of it. And that was about as much target study as they were getting in those early months.
- 그림이 이 초기 시절에 그들이 할 수 있었던 타깃 스터디 수준이었다. [타깃 학습의 전부나 마찬가지였다]
Most of them had not received enough shooting, especially at altitude, to even familiarize themselves with their equipment.
- shooting: 사격 훈련(uc.)
While this letter to Olds was being typed, LeMay and the other group commanders were summoned to headquarters by Gen. Laurence F. Kuter, the wing commander, for a conference on standardization of the combat formation.
- wing commander: 비행단 지휘관으로, 여기서 wing은 공군의 조직 단위로 여러 대의 비행대(group or squadron)를 포함하는 더 큰 단위다. 그 전체 비행단을 지휘하는 지휘관이므로 장성급이다.
Convinced that his was the best formation so far developed, LeMay arrived with a set of B-17 models mounted on sticks of varying lengths, which he set up to demonstrate the increased firepower and self-protection afforded by his modified stagger.
- B-17 모형들을 들고 / 장착된 / 길이가 다른 막대기에
Convinced that his was the best formation so far developed, LeMay arrived with a set of B-17 models mounted on sticks of varying lengths, which he set up to demonstrate the increased firepower and self-protection afforded by his modified stagger. He argued hard, though with his usual minimum words, for this formation, expecting opposition from the other commanders, each of whom was using some other formation. As he soon learned, however, his argument was almost superfluous. The deciding argument lay in the fact, already well known to Kuter, that the 305th group was putting more bombs on the targets and suffering fewer losses(only two to date) than any other group. With some slight changes suggested, LeMay’s modified stagger was officially adopted for use by the entire wing.
- superfluous: 그의 주장이 불필요했던 이유는 그가 이미 성과로 모든 걸 입증했기 때문.
With some slight changes suggested, LeMay’s modified stagger was officially adopted for use by the entire wing. And on January 13, LeMay, at the head of his 305th Group, led the First Wing in a return mission against the steel works at Lille.
- Lille: 프랑스 북부에 위치, 벨기에 국경과 면하고 있음. 불어로 [릴]이라고 읽음. 이 지역은 2차 세계대전 당시 독일이 점령했던 전략적 요충지 중 하나였음.
- steel works: 철강 공장(전쟁에 필요한 무기 및 장비를 생산하는 군수 시설)
- return mission: 과거에도 공격했던 곳을 다시 공격했음을 알려주는 정보
- 이번에도 르메이는 선두였다(at the head of), 이번에도 선두기(1번기)를 탄 것.
*르메이의 포메이션이 그 wing 전체 공식 채택됨.
We were first sighted just short of the bomb release line and made their first attack just after the bombs were away.
This outfit seemed to be the most experienced and disciplined of any I have encountered so far. They flew a string formation of 5 or 6 airplanes; all attacks were made from dead ahead and on the same level.
- the bomb release line: 포탄 투하 선으로 가상의 선을 정해놓은 것. 여기서 포탄을 투하한다!하는 선이다. 거기 도착했을 때 공는 포탄 투하 선에 도착했을 때 적의 첫번째 공격 있었다 (포탄 투하 후)
- outfit: 군사 단위에서 ‘부대, 편대’를 의미한다. informal하게 소규모의 군 조직을 가리킨다.
- string formation: 비행기들이 일렬로 나란히 비행하는 편대 형식
- dead ahead: 정면에서 (dead: 정확히, 딱)
- cf. dead last: 완전 꼴찌, dead wrong: 완전 틀린
- 정면, 같은 수평에서 공격이 이루어짐
[In a letter to Olds]
During the second attack on the top squadron ships, “A” in the diagram was hit, pieces flew off #2 engine and it was definitely out. One other engine must have failed shortly after. After being hit he fell back about 150 yards. I immediately slowed down to 150 indicated [airspeed] and he was able to regain his place in formation. At about the same time ship “B” got a cannon shell through the windshield killing the Squadron Commander, who was flying the ship, and wounding the co-pilot. The ship went into a dive initially then pulled up diagonally across the formation, almost stalled, recovered and managed to get into the formation with the top squadron, [which] fell in around him to protect him.
The ship received attacks by 4 FW-190s while out of formation. At about this time ship “A” lost another engine and could not stay in formation. He was seen going into the clouds under control, but did not get home. Ship “C” was shot up and had the ball turret gunner wounded. Ship “D” received a few holes. Our group was the only one attack on the rest of the Wing. Our score on the pursuit was three destroyed, two probables and five damaged. We lost three, ours [from the 305th] shot down and two [from] the 306th [which] ran together in the air.
- indicated airspeed: 계기상의 속도. 속도계(airspeed indicator)에 직접 표시되는 속도를 뜻한다.
- 그가 피격 당함, 150야드 뒤로 쳐짐, 나[르메이]는 즉시 속도를 150으로 줄였음. 그러자 피격당한 부대원은 다시 formation에 합류할 수 있었음.
- cannon shell: 대포(기관포)에서 발사된 포탄
- 전투기 B가 포탄 맞은 뒤 앞유리를 강타했고, 그 팀의 대장인죽었고 함께 비행하는 사람도(부조종사) 부상을 입음. 그 비행기는 처음에 급강하(dive)하다가 포메이션을 가로질러 비스듬히(diagonally) 상승. 거의 실속(stall) 상태에 빠질 뻔 했다가 회복. 상단 편대(top squadron)와 함께 포메이션에 재합류.
- 우리 그룹만 편대(Wing)의 다른 부대와 달리 공격을 받았음.
- 적기 추적한 결과: 격추 3대, 격추 추정 2대, 손상 5대
- 우리 측 결과: 3대를 잃었는데 1대는 305편대의 기체가 격추되었음. 나머지 2대는 305편대 소속의 기체였다. 그런데 그 둘은 공중에서 충돌하며 같이 추락했다(ran together in the air).
Almost as interesting as LeMay’s description of the raid was the casual, laconic style in which he wrote about the experience.
- laconic: 무뚝뚝한, 간결한, 말을 아주 적게 하는.
- 고대 스파르타 지역인 ‘Laconia’에서 유래했다고 한다. 스파르타 사람들은 말수가 적고 실용적인 말만 했다고…
Since he was the group commander, he believed that, as an example to his men, he had to appear calm at all times.
*이때는 미군이 Norden bombsight를 이미 사용하던 시기임.
He knew not only how to navigate and how to bomb but also how to shoot, and several times on missions he replaced gunners to make sure he would have a full understanding of their problems and limitations when they tried to explain to how hard it was to shoot down a four-hundred-miles-per-hours fighter plane.
It was a valid theory under ordinary circumstances, yet in the Rouen raid, as LeMay himself admitted, it didn’t work. Though his group was presumably tucked in tighter than any other, it still absorbed the bulk of the fighter attention. According to his observation, only two of the German fighters attacked the rest of the wing, and each of them made only one pass.
- tuck in: 이불을 끼워 넣다, 옷자락을 넣다 따위로 무언가를 단단히 끼워 넣거나 고정한다는 의미이지만 군대에서는 ‘tuck in formation’이라고 해서 편대가 바짝 붙어 밀집한 상태를 뜻한다.
- 오직 두 대만 나머지 부대 공격, 그 두 대의 전투기는 한 번씩만 돌진(only one pass)했음.
Those first five missions were against targets in France, to be sure, and the “success” of which Eaker wrote could not be measured against the success that would be necessary to defeat Germany.
- 처음 5개의 임무: 프랑스의 타깃을 향한 것임
- Eaker가 편지에 쓴 ‘성공’이란 독일을 패망시키기 위해 필요하다고 여겨지는 성공에는 견줄 수 없는 것.
- could not be measured against-: -와 비교해서 평가될 수 없었다.
The skies were broken there, allowing at least a partial view of the ships and wharves below. Firty-eight of the bombers dropped their loads with results that were estimated to be, at best, “fair,” even though no flak or fighters came up to disturb them.
- wharves: wharf. 부두, 선창
This less than gratifying result was understandable since no one in any of the bombers had ever before seen the target. But it left LeMay profoundly unhappy. And he became even more so on the way home when sixty German fighters finally did appear and shot down three of the bombers, while American gunners filled the air with lengthy, wasteful bursts of aimless bullets that sometimes hit the darting enemy but too often hit each other.
[…]
LeMay could not concern himself with the other groups but as for his own, he was so dissatisfied with that when they got home and landed, he took advantage of the relatively good weather in England to send his tired troops right back into the air for formation and gunnery practice. *최고다. 정말.^^..
He decided they were going to keep catching hell from him until they started giving it back to the Germans.
- catch hell: 호되게 당하다
- 그들이 독일군에게 반격을 가하기 시작할 때까지는 르메이한테 호되게 털려야 하는 부대원들…
He had also developed by this time the practice of full-scale debriefing sessions after each mission. Everybody connected with the mission gathered at the enlisted men’s mess hall, the largest meeting place on the base.
Like most people, he had been taught since childhood to grieve at death and to abhor killing.
- abhor: 혐오하다
“It used to be particularly vile,” he recalled, “when I realized that I’d lost someone, and felt that I shouldn’t have lost him. That’s when it really comes home to you. […]” Hence, the postmission critiques and the amazing invitation to his men to pour out their gripes even against their group commander.
- vile: 도덕적으로 나쁘고 역겹고 충격적인 것을 표현하기 위해 사용하는 형용사. 그 상황이 너무 참기 힘들고 고통스럽다는 맥락이다.
- gripe: 불평, 투덜거림
[postmission critique에서 부대원들이 심지어 chief commander인 LeMay에게도 open their minds했을 때.]
He[LeMay] didn’t argue with them. He sat there and listened until they were through. Then he might say a few words. But he seldom said more than a few.
“Hell, I used to chew out everyone.” But people close enough to observe him say it was seldom so. He was too miserly with words to spend them on sermons or harangues. If he was displeased, which was often enough, he seemed able to show it convincingly with a glance, or a cod stare, or a devastating, “You can do better than that.”
- chew out: 호되게 꾸짖다, 심하게 야단치다
- harangue: 장황한 훈계 또는 비난, 특히 듣는 사람의 입장에서 지겹고 강압적인 말을 뜻한다.
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