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GAME CHANGER

Major James A. Goodson (in cockpit), CO of 336th Fighter Squadron was known in the spring of 1944 as “King of the Strafers,” credited with 15 aerial and 15 ground victories. (USAF Official) 


Text: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

Adapted from “Clean Sweep: VIII Fighter Command Against the Luftwaffe 1942-45"

 

During September 1943, rumors abounded among the pilots in the fighter groups regarding things to come. When Chesley Peterson returned to take command of the 4th Fighter Group, he told the pilots that there was a new airplane in the works. Steve Pisanos recalled him saying, “They’re coming up with a new fighter that will be far superior to he P-38 and P-47, a kite that can be used for long-range escort.” That rumor became reality on September 26, 1943, when Pisanos returned from escorting B-17s to Les Andelys in northern France. “I taxied into the dispersal area only to find a P-51 Mustang with a four-bladed propeller parked on the grass across from my stall.” Pisanos was familiar with the Allison-powered RAF Mustang I, having flown one for 40 hours in OTU training and then another 40 operational hours with 268 Squadron before transferring to 71 Eagle Squadron. He met the pilot, Captain Jack Miller from VIII Fighter Command staff, who had flown the new Mustang to Debden, in the squadron operations office. “He told me it was equipped with a Merlin engine and that it was on loan to our group for the pilots to fly and evaluate it.”

Colonel Don Blakeslee, commander of the 4th Fighter Group, promised VIII Fighter Command he could transition the group from P-47s to P-51s in 48 hours. The group became the leading exponents of the Mustang. (USAF Official)


A week later, the Mustang was released for flying. Pisanos recalled, “I was more familiar with the Mustang than anyone else in the group. When Captain Miller saw I had 80 Mustang hours in my logbook, he turned it over to me.”

Pisanos found the new airplane to be “everything I hoped it would be.” After checking himself out for 15 minutes, “I dropped down on the deck and decided to make a pass over Debden, clocking some 450 miles per hour. As I passed over, I zoomed up and rolled left and right. Then I did a loop, after which I buzzed the runway a few more times.”

Everyone was interested in the new fighter. Over the next two weeks Don Blakeslee flew it several times, as did Don Gentile, Jim Goodson, Deacon Hively and Duane Beeson. All were effusive in their praise of the flying qualities of the new Mustang. Steve Pisanos recalled, “Everyone was paying attention to the P-51. When I was in 268 Squadron, flying Allison-powered Mustangs, those of us with experience in Spitfires talked about how wonderful the airplane would be with a Merlin up front.”

Duane Beeson was leading ace of the 4th‘s 334th Fighter Squadron. His P-51B was named “Boise Bee” in honor of his hometwon, Boise, Idaho. The dark areas on the airplane are residue from the cocooning done to protect the airframe on its trans-Atlantic delivery voyage. (USAF Official)


While U.S. Air Attache Thomas Hitchcock worked with Rolls-Royce in early 1943 to mate the Merlin and the Mustang, Edgar Schmued and his team at North American also began planning such a powerplant upgrade. Hitchock’s report on the performance of Rolls-Royce’s Merlin-powered Mustang X test bed, which gave an 80 mph speed increase and a doubling of effective combat altitude, provided North American with all the evidence it needed to convince the Air Force to support the work. Word of the first flight of the P-51B in Los Angeles spread through the world of Air Force fighter pilots like wildfire. The pilots of the "Fourth" had been unanimous in their verdict it was the best fighter any had flown.

On October 8, 1943, the 354th Fighter Group was declared operational and boarded the train for the five day trip from California to New Jersey. On October 20, the men were aboard the troop transport HMS Athlone Castle. Ten “fortunately uneventful days” later they arrived in Liverpool on November 1. After three days at anchor waiting for the fog to lift, the ship docked and the 354th went ashore in England. Then they were trucked to Greenham Common. The morning of November 11, 1943, the first four P-51B Mustangs were flown in. The 354th would be the first fighter group anywhere to fly North American’s new fighter.

Captain Don Gentile (l) and his crew chief, T/Sgt John Ferra (r) of the 4th Group’ 336th Fighter Squadron. (USAF Official)


356th Squadron commander Major James O. Howard later remembered, “On November 13 we were sent to our new base at Boxted, near Colchester. At first, it looked like we were going to be very comfortable in this English countryside setting. However, we were no more settled in than the rains came, and the whole base became a giant quagmire. The conditions were so bad it made it difficult to do the work of converting to the Mustang.”

The pilots of the 354th group were ecstatic to be given the Mustang. The group historian later wrote that after only one day of test hops, “they realized that they had the best airplane of the war to work with.” To honor their good fortune, a vote was taken and the 354th adopted the name “Pioneer Mustang Group.”

1st Lieutenant John T. Godfrey (l) with his dog Lucky and crew chief T/Sgt Ed Krantz. Godfrey flew missions as Don Gentile’s wingman and the two were hyped by VIII Fighter Command Public Relations as the famous “leader” and “wingman” during the “Ace Race” publicity stunt in early 1944. (USAF Official)


On December 1, the pilots were considered proficient enough to fly their first mission in the ETO, a “Rodeo” fighter sweep over Belgium and the Pas de Calais flown by 24 P-51s led by Don Blakeslee, with group commander Lt. Colonel Harold Martin flying as Blakeslee’s wingman. Takeoff was at 1429 hours and they returned 70 minutes later at 1559 hours, with the only excitement having been one flak hit on the plane flown by Lieutenant Lane of the 356th Fighter Squadron. The 354th had established a record, flying its first combat mission only 20 days after its first combat aircraft was assigned to it and 27 days after arriving in England.

The Mustangs had been modified by VIII Technical Command when they arrived in England with an additional gas tank, mounted immediately behind the pilot in the fuselage on the Center of Gravity, that could carry an additional 90 gallons. When filled, pilots discovered the airplane was slightly tail-heavy, which restricted maneuverability. Operating procedures were modified so that a pilot took off with gas fed from the wing tanks, once airborne they would switch to the cockpit tank to burn off that fuel before reaching enemy territory, when that was empty, they would switch to the drop tanks until they were either empty or the enemy was engaged. The fuselage tank was invaluable. The Mustang had the range on internal fuel only to fly to targets in western Germany the P-47 had only been able to reach, in the weeks after the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission in August, when the fighters were finally equipped with the 108-gallon drop tank. A P-51B carrying two of those drop tanks could reach Berlin.

1st Lieutenant Ralph “Kidd” Hover (in cockpit) was the 4th’s leading “eccentric.” He joined the RCAF on a lark with friends after a party in Detroit where he was a professional boxer. He transferred to the USAAF after training and was assigned to the 334th Fighter Squadron, where he scored a victory on his first mission, an unheard-of event. (USAF Official)


When it was announced that the fighter group would be incorporated in the newly-established Ninth Air Force, which had recently transferred to England from North Africa to become the USAAF tactical air force in the coming invasion, Eighth Air Force fighter leaders were shocked. VIII Fighter Command’s General Kepner immediately protested that a fighter like the Mustang, with a vulnerable liquid-cooled engine and a radiator that only needed one minor-caliber hit to be put out of action, was exactly what was not needed in action over a battlefield in a ground support mission. For VIII Fighter Command, the P-51B was the solution to the problem they had faced since the command first began flying missions. Tests conducted between P-51Bs and captured Bf 109 and Fw 190 fighters demonstrated the Mustang was competitive in ways the P-47 would never be. Above 25,000 feet, the Mustang was superior to the Fw 190 in all flight regimes, only being out-rolled by the early versions of the Wurger, it was more maneuverable than the Bf 109 at all altitudes, and its equal in all other aspects of high altitude performance. Don Blakeslee told Kepner “The Mustang is a long-range Spitfire!” Both Blakeslee and Chesley Peterson begged VIII Fighter Command to let the "Fourth" be the first VIII Fighter Command group to take the Mustang to war.

Johnny Godfrey (l) and Don Gentile after the March 4, 1944 Berlin mission failed due to bad weather. The 4th had adopted their red nose marking on March 1, but Gentile and Godfrey left the front of their spinners white as an identification. Blakeslee told them to have the noses painted by the next mission on March 5. (USAF Official)


No one in England could understand the decision not to send the fighter to the Eighth; the decision had been made in the Pentagon, by officers in Materiel Command who had no knowledge of or dealings with operational realities. The Merlin-powered Mustang was declared a “tactical fighter” because both the RAF and USAAF had decided the earlier, Allison-powered Mustangs would be used in the tactical roles of battlefield reconnaissance, ground strafing and dive-bombing. The decision to send the Mustang to the Ninth Air Force was based on bureaucratic precedent, if it was based on anything.

The first thing VIII Fighter Command did on discovering the Mustang had been assigned to Ninth Air Force was to “go to the top” and get an agreement that, while the group would remain a part of Ninth Air Force administratively, the unit would operate under the control of VIII Fighter Command until the invasion. When they learned that the 363rd Fighter Group, also assigned to the Ninth Air Force, was second in line to receive Mustangs, VIII Fighter Command put the engines of military bureaucracy into overdrive to insure that the rest of the Mustangs went to the Eighth Air Force as they became available. Additionally, the RAF had received P-51Bs, which were called the Mustang III in that service, and was in process of equipping four veteran Fighter Command squadrons with the new fighter. RAF Chief Sir Charles Portal agreed to send these units to support VIII Fighter Command as soon as they were operationally qualified.

On April 8, 1944, Don Gentile became the top-scoring American ace in Europe. On April 13, following his final mission, Gentile made repeated high speed passes for newspaper and newsreel reporters in his Mustang, “Shangri-La.” He struck the center of the Debden runway, which was higher than either end, destroying the Mustang in the process. He then went back to the U.S.A. for a war bond tour. (USAF Official)


The need of the Mustang for over-the-target support was so great that the 354th group participated in their first escort mission over enemy territory on December 5, a record for arrival-to-first mission timing in VIII Fighter Command. The group sent 36 P-51s, again led by Don Blakeslee with group commander Martin flying wing, escorting bombers striking airfields around Bordeaux. The 55th's 34 P-38s flew along with the 354th’s 36 Mustangs for target cover, though the Luftwaffe failed to come up. On December 11, the 354th suffered their first loss during a mission to Bremen, though no enemy fighters were encountered.

On December 13, the 354th celebrated their first month with the P-51 by sending 36 Mustangs to fly target cover over Kiel, their first trip to Germany. The 354th finally met the enemy in combat during the escort mission to Bremen on December 16, and claimed one Bf 110 shot down by 2nd Lieutenant Lt. Charles F. Gumm of the 355th squadron. Colonel Martin led this all-354th mission. On the way home, the 353rd squadron’s 2nd Lieutenant Glenn T. Eagleston became the first pilot to survive bailing out after he managed to get across the Channel and almost to the English coast after his Mustang had been damaged by the rear gunner of a Bf 110 G he claimed as a probable. Fortunately for him, he was spotted by the crew of an RAF rescue launch just as he touched down in the icy waters and was plucked aboard after only five minutes of what he later said was, “The coldest I ever was in my life.”  

Debden air station was home of the 4th Fighter Group. It was a pre-war RAF air base, and the 4th was assigned there in 1942 when they were still the Eagle Squadrons of the RAF. (USAF Official)


A third mission to Bremen, on December 20, saw the group contribute 47 P-51s led by Colonel Martin to an escort force of 26 P-38s and 418 P-47s; the 546 B-17s and B-24s made this the largest mission so far in Eighth Air Force history.

Over the target, James Howard spotted three Bf 109s. One made the mistake of pulling up under a B-17 as he completed his gunnery pass, giving Howard the chance to close in from four o’clock. While still out of range, he fired a burst to scare his opponent away from the bomber as the pilot positioned for another attack. Howard rapidly closed the Bf 109 from dead astern. When it filled his gunsight, he fired a two-second burst and it emitted heavy black smoke. Back at Boxted after their return, his wingman, Lieutenant H. B. Smith reported that he saw parts fly off the Bf 109 before the engine exploded and it fell away in an uncontrollable vertical dive. The 354th claimed three victories but suffered their first combat losses when three Mustangs failed to return, including Major Owen Seaman, commander of the 353rd squadron, who went down over the North Sea after his fighter had been damaged over the target.

On December 22, the group escorted bombers to Osnabruck and Münster. The P-51 at this point was not reliable, and suffered numerous instances of engine problems, forcing a pilot to abort the mission, that were later traced to the poor combination of British aviation gasoline and American spark plugs. On this mission, 20 Mustangs were forced to abort due to rough engines.

P-51Bs of the 354th “Pioneer Mustang” group take off from their base at Boxted, England in the Spring of 1944. (USAF Official)


On October 23, 1943, the officers and men of the 357th Fighter Group went aboard the RMS Queen Mary in New York harbor with 11,000 other Allied troops, headed for England. The liner dropped anchor in the Clyde on October 29 and the men of the 357th soon made the acquaintance of the English train system, when they were transported to their base at Raydon Wood in Suffolk. On December 19, a well-worn RAF Allison-powered Mustang II arrived for use in conversion training, In the next ten days, 14 P-51Bs arrived. The 363rd squadron’s Flight Officer Chuck Yeager recalled, “It only took me an hour in one to be convinced I was among the most fortunate pilots in the world, that I was assigned to fly this airplane.”

Air Force bureaucracy again had the 357th and their Mustangs intended for the Ninth Air Force, but this changed in one of the first decisions General Dwight Eisenhower made after his arrival in England as Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF). The 357th was transferred to VIII Fighter Command, with IX Tactical Air Command receiving the new P-47-equipped 358th Fighter Group.

The missions in December 1943, had shown VIII Fighter Command could now provide effective cover to the bombers. Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, it wasn’t the beginning of the end, but it was the end of the beginning.

Major James H. Howard (l), CO of the 354th group’s 356th Fighter Squadron was awarded the Medal of Honor for single-handedly defending the B-17s of the 401st Bomb Group from Luftwaffe attack over Ochersleben, Germany, on February 11, 1944, becoming the only fighter pilot in the ETO so honored. (USAF Official)


Symbolic of the major changes coming in VIII Fighter Command, Don Blakeslee took command of the 4th Fighter Group on New Year’s Day, 1944. He told the pilots what he expected of them: "The Fourth Fighter Group is going to be the top fighter group in the Eighth Air Force. We are here to fight. To those who don’t believe me, I would suggest transferring to another group. I’m going to fly the arse off each one of you. Those who keep up with me, good. Those who don’t, I don’t want them anyway.” Steve Pisanos later recalled, “If anyone had any doubts, it was clear from Colonel Don’s statement that the gloves were coming off in 1944.”

On January 11, 1944, former Flying Tiger ace James O. Howard demonstrated what the P-51B was capable of. The weather over central Germany cleared that day, allowing VIII Bomber Command to send 663 B-17s and B-24s to bomb the A.G.O. Fleugzeugwerke A.G. at Oschersleben, the main center of Fw 190 production; the Junkers Fleugzeug und Moterenwerke at Halberstadt, which was producing wings for Ju 88s; and three plants in Brunswick operated by Muhlenbau Industrie A.G. engaged in production of Bf 110s. Only the formation that would strike the Focke-Wulf factory at Oschersleben would have fighter escort in the target area. This was the 354th’s assignment.

1st Lieutenant Willian T. Whisner of the 352nd Fighter Group with his P-51B “Princess Elizabeth” in June 1944. (USAF Official)


Weather over England made take-off and assembly difficult. The enroute weather deteriorated so badly that the 3rd Bombardment Division’s B-17s and the 2nd Bombardment Division’s B-24s were recalled. By the time the recall was made, the B-17s of the 1st Bombardment Division were 50 miles from the target. The leading combat wing of the 3rd Bombardment Division was so deep in enemy territory when the recall was received that its commander decided to continue on to the primary target. With the targets only 60 air miles from Berlin, the Luftwaffe controllers feared the capital was finally the goal of the American force. The Luftwaffe’s reaction demonstrated the Jagdwaffe had lost none of its ability to exact heavy losses on a deep bomber penetration by daylight. Indeed, it appeared they had improved their tactics.

The P-51s of the 354th group rendezvoused with the Oschersleben force to find themselves in the midst of these attacks. Howard, the most experienced pilot in the group, was leading. He later recalled, “We climbed to 25,000 feet through a couple of cloud layers and on a course directly to our rendezvous point. As we crossed the coast of Holland, it was a clear day, with the sun shining brightly. Down below, snow covered the ground. The outside air temperature at my altitude was minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit... As we reached the bomber stream, I realized it was under intense attack by enemy fighters. I saw no friendly fighters.”

After shooting down a Bf 110 G, Howard saw a Bf 109s. “I applied the throttle and raked my guns in his direction from about 150 yards. I could see flashes from my slugs hitting the fuselage. It spewed smoke and fire and spun down out of control.” An instant later, an Fw 190 flew in front of Howard. “I pulled up after it in a chandelle. I was less than a hundred yards behind and ready to let him have it when the pilot suddenly jettisoned his canopy and bailed out.” The battle was far from over, as Howard defended the 401st Bomb Group in what is considered one of the epic fights any American fighter pilot was ever in.

“Snoot’s Sniper,” a P-51B of the 352nd Fighter Group, known as the “Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney” for the group’s distinctive blue nose marking. (USAF Official)


According to the official account, Howard was up against 36 enemy fighters and was the only American fighter in position to oppose them. He flew straight at them, attacking first one, then another as he twisted and turned for several minutes in their midst. His “one man air force” attack forced the enemy fighters to break away and saved the B-17 formation.

After forcing several enemy fighters to break of their attacks, Howard closed on one of the lead 401st B-17s. He was now down to one working machine gun. “I had already been with the bombers for nearly thirty minutes, and there were still enemy planes around. So I decided to bluff by making feints in their direction to scare them off. I still had the one gun working.” Howard chased away a persistent Ju 88 three times before the enemy dived away for good. “After the Ju 88 finally dived away, I saw no more enemy planes. So I set course for England, picking up a couple stray P-51s as I did.”

The 354th claimed 18 destroyed, eight probably destroyed and 16 damaged, with no American losses. The actual losses for the three formations that bombed targets were 60 missing and presumed shot down by fighters or flak. Howard himself claimed two destroyed, two probables and two damaged.

On February 14, each of the Fourth’s three squadrons received a P-51B when the fighters were delivered to Debden. Blakeslee informed the pilots he expected all to check out in the new fighter between flying combat missions. There would be no down time to permit pilots to transition en masse.

The Mustang was so easy to fly that little thought was given to extensive conversion training before entering combat. When the 352nd Fighter Group received their new Mustangs on April 7, 1944, pilot Robert “Punchy” Powell remembered, “We were coming back from a mission and when the field came in sight, we saw all these P-51s parked there.” On landing, Powell was informed by his crew chief that he was expected to take one of the Mustangs for an initial flight in 30 minutes. Powell was surprised and initially resisted the idea of not even studying the flight manual. “But that’s what we did. Our engineering officer showed me how to start it, and the next thing I knew, I was at 15,000 feet. To get the feel of it, I did some tight turns, a chandelle in both directions, and a barrel roll. I tested the stall by putting the wheels down, cutting power and bringing the nose up till she stalled. I was surprised by how stable it was. I went back and landed and we flew our first mission in the new planes the next day.”

Berlin had been listed as an especially suitable target in USSTAF’s  (United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe) original assignment of priorities issued in January. The purpose of attacking Berlin was not just to destroy the several important industries located within the city, or to shake the enemy’s morale. The desire was to goad the Luftwaffe into defending a target, so the defenders became targets of the fighters escorting the bombers, inflicting losses of pilots as well as aircraft. If there was a target the Germans could not ignore regardless, Allied planners believed it was Berlin.

Since January, the P-51's range had been extended. The P-51 with two 75-gallon tanks had an escort range of 650 miles, and with two 108-gallon tanks that range was 850 miles, no target in Germany was out of range. The only holdup was a bottleneck in the supply of P-51s.

By March 1, VIII Fighter Command had a second Mustang unit, the 4th Fighter Group flying their first Mustang mission on February 28. There were now some 150 P-51s available to the 354th, 357th and 4th groups. The airplanes were still not fully reliable as the “bugs” were worked out and changes made on the production line. North American opened a second production line for the fighter in their Dallas, Texas, factory in addition to those produced in Los Angeles.

The weather that had closed in at the conclusion of Big Week didn’t really open up all that much through the month of March. It took three tries to get the maximum force over Berlin.

“Li’l Kitten” a P-51B assigned to the 357th Fighter Group, the first Mustang-equipped group assigned to VIII Fighter Command. The “Malcolm hood” the fighter is equipped with greatly improved the pilot’s visibility from the cockpit. (USAF Official)


On March 3, the first Berlin mission was launched, but the bombers ran into steadily worsening weather over the North Sea. On March 4, 29 B-17s of one combat wing got through the weather and bombed the Berlin suburb Klein Machnow, but the rest of the force had to turn back or bomb targets of opportunity in the Ruhr. Steve Pianos later remembered, “Eight Mustangs from our squadron and almost an equal number from the other two squadrons had to abort for various mechanical problems.” Finally, March 6 saw the Eighth Air Force over Berlin, the 354th managed to arrive with 33 P-51s after suffering 15 aborts, led by James Howard; they claimed eight. The 357th claimed 20 victories, the group’s first “Big Day.” The Fourth claimed 15. Of the more than 600 bombers that hit the city, over 60 were lost. The Eighth returned to Berlin on March 8 with 623 bombers escorted by 725 fighters; 37 bombers and 18 fighters were lost. On the third mission, flown on March 11, the defenders didn’t show up. Eighth Air Force replaced their losses by mid-month. The Luftwaffe never replaced their crucial losses of experienced pilots.

Allegedly, after the war, when he was questioned by American interrogators at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial, Reichsmarschal Hermann Göring said "When I saw Mustangs over Berlin, I knew the jig was up." Whether he said that to his interrogators or anyone else is open to question, but the fact that American fighters did show up over Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany on March 6, 1944, with the Luftwaffe failing to appear on March 11, was proof that the only question remaining was how long the Second World War would last. The winners were already known.

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INFO Eduard is a monthly scale model-historical magazine published in Czech and English by Eduard Model Accessories since 2010. The magazine is available for free on the Triobo platform and can be downloaded in PDF format. Eduard is a manufacturer of plastic models and accessories with over 30 years of tradition. Throughout its history in the plastic modeling industry, Eduard has become one of the world's leaders. Further details about the company and its product range can be found at www.eduard.com. You can subscribe to the INFO magazine and receive product information for free at: https://www.eduard.com/cs/info-eduard/

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