Model and Story
Bill Cullerton seated on the wing, with ground crew members tending to Cullerton's Mustang. Standing second from left is Staff Sergeant Jerome E. Seidl, Crew Chief.
William J. Cullerton Sr. and ‘Miss Steve’
Text: Vladimír Šulc
Model built: Jan Baranec
Bill Cullerton was born on June 2nd, 1923, in Chicago to a well-off family from Oak Park, Illinois. Oak Park is now part of Greater Chicago. It is home to several notable landmarks, including the birthplace of writer, journalist, and Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway. The city also still has a number of buildings designed by the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who lived and worked here for two decades in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His architectural studio is now a museum and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Bill Cullerton's family also includes several notable individuals, such as former Chicago City Council member and Illinois State Senator Edward Cullerton, and his cousin John Cullerton, who was even President of the Illinois State Senate. His grandfather Bill Jamison, in whose fishing bait manufacturing company he helped as a teenager, had a great, perhaps fundamental influence on his personal development. Bill Cullerton graduated from the local high school in Oak Park, the private Catholic Fenwick High School, and after graduating, he entered university. However, he did not complete his university studies, because after the US entered the war he put them on the back burner and on September 11th, 1942, he joined the USAAF. After completing his training, he became a member of the 357th Fighter Squadron, 355th Fighter Group at Steeple Morden Air Base on June 12th, 1944. He completed his first operational tour on November 4th, 1944.
Bill Cullerton in the cockpit of ‘Miss Steve’.
Bill Cullerton at Steeple Morden in the fall of 1944.
During his first operational tour, Bill Cullerton flew P-51D-5, serial number 44-13677, named ‘Miss Steve’ after his fiancée Elaine Stephen. After his departure, the aircraft was taken over by David P. Watkins and renamed ‘Fickle Fanny’. The aircraft was written off after an emergency landing when another pilot, Richard F. Misner, crashed about a mile from Steeple Morden Air Base on March 18th, 1945, following an engine failure. Cullerton returned to the unit, probably in early March of 1945, and flew P-51D-20, serial number 44-64011, also named ‘Miss Steve’. On April 8th, he was shot down by flak while strafing Ansbach airfield. According to the report of another pilot who participated in the attack on the airfield, Walter Griswold, Cullerton's Mustang was hit by about four rounds from a 20 mm anti-aircraft gun in the fuselage tank. The aircraft caught fire after being hit, and the pilot managed to bail out. Griswold saw the parachute open and the impact on the ground, but he did not see Cullerton flee from the impact site.
He was captured by an SS unit after coming down. German soldiers disarmed him and after a brief discussion among the soldiers, the officer shot him in the stomach with the words "The war is over for you". He was found wounded by a German farmer who took him to the hospital. There he was treated and hospitalized, and after a few days he escaped from the hospital. He stated that he had jumped out of a window into a pile of sheep manure. On April 20th, advancing American troops found him hidden under a bridge near Feuchtwangen in Bavaria. American soldiers verified his true nationality by the usual question about Boston Red Sox baseball player Ted Williams and handed him over to the paramedics.
German 20 mm Flakvierling 38 anti-aircraft gun. The anti-aircraft quad had a rate of fire of 600 rounds per minute.
This photograph, dated March 30th, 1945, is most likely from Cullerton's ‘Miss Steve's’ gun camera and shows the shelling of the airfield at Lowenstadt.
Bill Cullerton in front of ‘Miss Steve’, probably in the spring of 1945.
Crew Chief Jerry Seidl with ‘Miss Steve’, also probably in the spring of 1945.
Aerial view of Steeple Morden base.
The control tower at Steeple Morden base.
Bill Cullerton was an ace with five confirmed kills. He shot down his first two Bf 109s on the 16th of August, 1944, another B 109 on November 2ndand was also credited with an Fw 190 near Wernigerode on the same day. His last kill, another Fw 190, was on April 4th 1945 in the Halberstadt area. Just four days before he was shot down near Ansbach. He also claimed fifteen enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground and nine damaged. In terms of the number of aircraft destroyed on the ground, he was the second most successful pilot of the 355th FG. For his service, Cullerton was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC), the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), the Air Medal, and the Purple Heart. His flying career was followed by the local (Chicago) press, which also noted Cullerton's near-miraculous rescue, described in an article entitled ‘Capt. Cullerton's Return Hailed as Near Miracle.’ After the war, John J. Kevil Jr. wrote a biography about Cullerton entitled ‘The Last Dragon of Steeple Morden’.
He retired as a civilian with the rank of captain in the Air Force. He returned to his grandfather's fishing business and married his ‘Miss Steve’, Elaine Stephen. Their wedding again did not escape the attention of the local press. They lived together in Elmhurst, a suburb of Chicago, but later moved on several ocassions. They raised five children, three daughters and two sons, and had nineteen grandchildren. In the 1950s, Bill Cullerton founded the Cullerton Co., a company selling outdoor and fishing equipment. From the 1970s, he hosted the Saturday morning talk show Great Outdoors on Chicago's local radio station WGN for two decades. He retired as a host in 1999, when he handed over his hosting position to Charlie Potter and retired.
Mustang low over Steeple Morden base, summer 1944.
Bill Cullerton sitting on the wing of ‘Miss Steve’, autumn, 1944. The aircraft still has remnants of invasion stripes and on the frame of the sliding portion of the cockpit canopy are ten kill marks of destroyed German aircraft. This appearance of the aircraft was the reference for Jan Barance's model that accompanies this article.
Later appearance of ‘Miss Steve’, without invasion stripes and with eighteen kill markings of destroyed enemy aircraft.
This photo is dated March 18th, 1945, the date of the emergency landing due to an engine failure, after which the aircraft was written off. The pilot was Richard F. Misner. The photo contradicts the information that this aircraft, s/n 44-13677, was renamed ‘Fickle Fanny’ in November, 1944 and recoded OS-N. It is possible that Bill Cullerton flew P-51D-5 44-13677 again after his return to the unit, and received a new P-51D-20 with serial number 44-64011 only after the illustrated and irreversible damage suffered by 44-13677 in the emergency landing and its subsequent writing off.
He was not only a businessman and a popular talk show host, but he was also a pioneer in fishing tourism and conservation. A nature lover, he was an advocate for environmental protection in Illinois and other states west of the Great Lakes. He was instrumental in restoring the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, now a United States National Grassland in Illinois, and was involved in the creation of an artificial reef on the shore of Lake Michigan that improved the habitat for native fish. He was also a founding member of the Illinois Conservation Foundation and was later inducted into its Hall of Fame, as well as the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward, Wisconsin. On May 9th, 2000, Illinois Beach State Park and North Point Marina in Zion, Illinois, were named the William J. Cullerton Complex in his honor. Two P-51D Mustangs flew over the 4,160-acre complex during the opening ceremony.
Willian J. Cullerton died on January 12th, 2013, and is buried in Bronswood Cemetery in Oak Brook, Illinois.
The citation for his Distinguished Service Cross states:
The President of the United States is pleased to award the Distinguished Service Cross to William J. Cullerton (0-706360), Lieutenant Commander, United States Air Force, for extraordinary gallantry in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving as a pilot of a P-51 fighter aircraft with the 357th Fighter Wing, 355th Fighter Group, Eighth Air Force, in aerial combat against enemy forces on the 2nd of November, 1944. On that day, Lieutenant Cullerton shot down two enemy aircraft. Lieutenant Cullerton's unquestionable gallantry in aerial combat is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and brings great credit to himself, the Eighth Air Force, and the United States Army Air Forces.