78th FG 83rd FS. “My first encounter with the Luftwaffe came recently when our 78th FG tangled with 24 Me 109’s. I am still trying to figure out whether those German pilots were flying students or whether they were full-fledged combat airmen. I believe they were the latter, because they tried to fight. If so, then the German air force has sunk a long way from the early days of 1940 when it was rated the best in the world.



It was over in eight or nine minutes. Our leader, Lt Col. John D Landers, spotted the Nazi formation 10,000 feet below us just after we got almost in range of the Nazis, they turned sharply into us, as if to make a head-on pass. Some of them swung wide on the turn. I tailed one of them and got in a good burst. Bullets smashed into his cockpit and engine. The German plane rolled on its back and spun into the ground.



I continued on my turn and there was another one, dead ahead in the same circle. This time the Me 109 caught fire when bullets hit. It flipped on its back with flames shooting out from the underside and dived into the ground.



The third Nazi pilot probably never saw me. I glimpsed him flying low, just off the ground, as if sneaking away. I gave him a long burst, about five seconds, which amounts to some 300 bullets. They must have hit his gas tank, because the plane burst into flames. It ploughed into the ground, exploding when it hit, cartwheeling and throwing burning wreckage through trees and bushes.



The fourth German pilot was probably the only experienced one in the bunch. He dodged in and out of clouds with me following and shooting when I got a chance. He was trying to lead me over Burg airdrome. I made four or five passes on his plane, and on my next one saw that the entire left elevator and part of his right wing had been shot away. When I fired again bullets hit his engine and cockpit. The plane lurched as if the pilot had been hit and was instinctively grabbing his controls. Cooling liquid poured out of the engine and the plane slid off on one wing into a steep dive with no further attempts at evasion. About this time, gunners on the field got my range, forcing me to leave the area without seeing the Me 109 crash.



I was too busy to see the rest of the action, but other pilots tell me it looked like a practice para-troop landing, and the German caterpillar club was getting a new member at the rate of one every 30 seconds. Totals for the 78th Group were 13 planes destroyed, one probably destroyed and four damaged, and another P-51 Mustang group which joined the fight got several more.”



Awards: DFC, AM (5OLC), ACM, EAME with one or more campaign stars, WW II Victory Medal