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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.”
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 1549 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.
When it was announced that a fighter group
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.
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
ARTICLES
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)
INFO Eduard
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May 2024