Photo: MACR via Fold3
HISTORY
A copy of the sketch on which Carroll Henry marked the position of Righetti’s crash-landing. It does not
correspond to the information that he headed 270° from the airfield, which was located southwest of Riesa.
returning from the day’s flying with Frank
Stitch, another pilot celebrating a birthday that day. When the bomber formation
turned around to head back home, Righetti, along with pilots from the 343rd FS,
dropped down as he had done many times
before to search for targets of opportunity on the ground. They neared the town
of Kamenz, home to a part of Schlachtgeschwader 77, equipped with Fw 190s.
Lieutenants Robert Welch and Philip Erby
spotted a pair of Focke Wulfs just after
take-off and came at them from above
and from behind. The Fw 190 pilots had
no time to react and both were downed.
In return, Welch and Erby were both hit
by flak and both turned in the direction
of American positions. Erby announced
14
INFO Eduard
that he needed to bail out of his stricken
plane and was not heard from again. Lt.
Richard Gibbs and his wingman followed
Welch and Erby but broke off when they
spotted the flak, flew around Kamenz at
a safe distance, and found another pair of
enemy fighters after take-off. They waited
until they were out of range of the flak,
attacked the fighters and Gibbs downed
them both. Besides these kills, the 343rd
FS shot down another five SG 77 aircraft
but paid a high price for success. Besides Erby, flak also brought down George
Apple and Daniel Langelier. The bodies of
Erby and Langalier were never found …
In the meantime, Righetti and his wingman Carroll Henry spotted a small airfield at Riesa. Righetti wanted to attack
it first alone and ordered the rest of the
squadron to stay higher up and off to the
side. “He wanted me to stay up there with
the other guys. But when I requested, he
let me go.” Wrote Henry in his report.2)
Righetti conducted the first strafing run
himself, missing the target. He adjusted
his gunsight, turned around, and peppered the aircraft on the ground. He repeated the attack two more times. And then,
it happened. Katydid shuttered and it was
clear that she had been hit. Righetti radioed Henry and told him that he was quickly
losing oil pressure. Henry also advised
Righetti that he had been losing glycol.
It was only a matter of a minute before
the P-51’s engine would critically overheat, and Righetti knew this. It is difficult to
understand why, with about a minute of
engine life left that could have given him
some 10 km (six miles) of coverage, Righetti chose to come around for another
attack rather than get as close to friendly
positions as possible. American positions
were about 20km away, and with a little
extra luck, it was possible for Righetti
to reach them. But instead, he opted to
spend the remainder of his ammunition in
another attack, and then head out to find
a field to crash-land. Henry tried to follow: “I called him, telling him that I was
tacking on. He acknowledged, saying that
he was heading out on 270 degrees. I was
about 3,000 feet and overran him due to
excess speed gained while letting down.
He was at six o’clock to me and I rolled
out on 270 degrees,” wrote Henry later in
his report.2)
He was unable to locate his commander
and due to haze, none of the squadron
that was higher up was able to do so either. Then, the radio announced: “Tell the
family I’m okay. Broke my nose on landing.
It’s been a hell of a lot of fun working with
you, gang. Be seeing you a little later.”2)
Ray Sharp, one of the pilots circling above, broke radio silence and he could be
heard saying: “Good luck, Colonel!”
Due to a lack of fuel, practically the entire
55th FG had to land at fields in continental Europe. Frank Stitch had to open the
bottle of champagne himself, and under
a shroud of a somber mood that corresponded to the day’s loss. This was reflected in the day’s summary report, that
read: “We’re going to miss you Colonel, all
twenty-nine years of your bursting energy and vitality, your eagerness and courage, your initiative and leadership that
moulded us into a deadly fightin’ machine,
whipping the Nazis at every turn. We’re
going to miss your cheerfulness, your decisiveness, and your understanding of human nature. You spelled aggressiveness
wherever and whenever you flew and
made us into one of the eagerest gangs
of eager beavers. Your record speaks for
February 2023