Maj. George A. Doersch, a leading Ace of the 359th Fighter Group, enlisted on 16 May 1941. Assigned to the 370th Fighter Squadron in April 1943, by July 1944 he had flown 78 missions before returning to the Zone of the Interior. On 20 September 1944 he returned to complete a second tour, transferring to the 368th Fighter Squadron on 19 February 1945. The Major flew 147 combat missions in the ETO for 526:30 hours, earning 10.5 aerial victories and 1.5 ground.



April 1944: On the 11th, Lt. George A. “Pop” Doersch knocked down a Fw190 in a long stern chase at 50 ft. altitude, and the day was notable also for the thorough beating up of an airfield at Volkenrod and Bielfeld and blowing up one enemy plane at every pass. Total claims were 13-1-14.



May 1944: The enemy was sighted in strength five times and was engaged in force on four of these days. The scoring was concentrated in three of these engagements and in the flashing ground attack on Mecklenburg on 21 May. Similarly with the losses. With one exception, they came on each of the four scoring days. The exception was the near disaster of an impromptu strafing run by two flights of the 370th on the heavily defended Reims-Champagne airdrome 11 May. Both flight leaders, as well as Lt. Maslow, were lost, another pilot crash-landed in England, and Lt. G.A. “Pop” Doersch did one of those incredible things by pretzeling his propeller on the enemy airdrome surface and somehow egg-beating his way to the emergency field at Manston.



October 1944: The six air claims in the group were all gotten the hard way, as Captain George A. Doersch, beginning his second tour, revived his personal tradition of implacable pursuit by leading his flight from Stettin on into Poland to score two victories himself and two others in his flight on the 6th of October, and two isolated conquests of 190s during the ordered railroad strafing on the 24th were the only air claims in the Eight Air Force that day. Doersch also led the seaplane strafing on the 7th.





Feb. -Sept. 1945, P-51D 44-72067 'Ole Goat'



10.5



Doersch went on to serve in Strategic Air Command after the war, retiring from the USAF as Colonel in 1967. He subsequently worked with Hughes Aircraft Company, retiring as district manager in 1989. He died in 1994 in Williamsburg, Virginia, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, D.C.