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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.
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 (SHEAF). 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.
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.”
ARTICLES
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)
“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)
INFO Eduard
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May 2024