◆ SpookStack

whenever we could get them. But near the end, as you know, everyone got a little bit apprehensive, as we got near the D-date; and they were beginning to think, "do we have enough"; and people were saying, "well, maybe we ought to have a few more pilots here and there:' 106/ But like Gaines and Thorsrud in response to the question of whether more pilots could have changed the course of the action, Beerli said: I don't think so, because what you are doing here ..• you're not going to send aircraft in there that are going to be shot down. Once we let that T-33 off the ground, it raised havoc with us. Then there was no number of aircraft ••• there was no number of crews that were going to do it. 107/ In addition to the problem of insuring adequate numbers of air crews to fly the three types of aircraft that were involved in the operation, there were addi- tiona1 difficulties that cropped up at TIDE, prior to the D-2 air strike. Through D-2, as a matter of fact, one of the problems of considerable importance concerned the availability of 230 gallon drop tanks for use on the B-26's. These were necessary to extend the range of the aircraft. TIDE was going to Eglin requesting supplies of these tanks -- while at the same time, Headquarters was going to Eglin and saying that the - 169 -