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Mason claimed two Bf 109s and one Fw 190
destroyed and one Bf 109 damaged.
George Preddy, leading the 487th squadron,
joined the fight shortly after Mason scored his
victories. Spotting 30 Bf 109s below, Preddy led
the squadron’s bounce on them and personally
downed two, with these he became an ace with
a tally of 5.333 aerial victories. While Preddy
scored, Lieutenant Nutter closed in when the
remaining Bf 109s tried to flee and sent another
down on fire. “Ace in a day” Carl Luksic and
his wingman Glennon Moran spotted a Ju 88
attacking a B-17. Both attacked and the Junkers
crash-landed in a ploughed field. When it didn’t
catch fire, Luksic strafed it and set it afire.
The 352nd’s score of 16 destroyed made them
the top-scoring VIII Fighter Command group for
the day. Colonel Joe Mason was awarded a DSC.
The Jagdwaffe reported 58 losses, three less
than the day before.
The result of the success the fighter groups
had achieved in April and early May saw morale
in the bomber groups begin to recover as the
crews realized they were flying missions with
fewer casualties, due to the offensive fighter
escort tactics. Losses would get progressively
lower for the rest of the war, but May 1944
was when those who climbed into the bombers
began to believe they had a chance to make it
home, even when Doolittle increased the tour to
35 missions that summer.
Range for P-51s would increase as the
Mustang-equipped groups saw their aircraft
modified to allow them to carry two 108-gallon
paper tanks, rather than the metal 75-gallon
tanks they had been using. The modification took
several days for each group and was carried
out a group at a time over mid-May, the Fourth
was the first to do this between May 14-18. Now
able to take their Mustangs to places where no
American fighter had been seen before, or to stay
longer for the fight over targets like Berlin, the
Fourth continued amassing victories.
On May 21, as part of the Transportation
Program SHAEF planners had developed to
disrupt German rail transportation, VIII Fighter
Command and IX Tactical Air Command flew
what was called “Chattanooga Day” (named for
the popular song, “Chattanooga Choo-Choo”),
with 552 Mustangs, Lightnings and Thunderbolts
turned loose over central and western Germany,
and northern France and Belgium, to attack
railroads. The groups came back with claims for
225 locomotives attacked, with 91 considered
destroyed. Strafing ground targets had not been
limited to railroads, since the pilots also claimed
102 aircraft destroyed on airfields, with a further
76 damaged. The 361st Fighter Group, led by
Philippines and Guadalcanal veteran Colonel
Thomas J.J. Christian, the great grandson
of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson,
made their first appearance flying P-51s after
transferring from P-47s and submitted claims for
wrecking 23 locomotives. Chattanooga Day was
the pre-invasion high point of railroad attacks
that had begun back in February and saw over
900 locomotives destroyed over four months.
Berlin was attacked again on May 24. Jim
Goodson led the Fourth and spotted 40-plus
near Hamburg gathering for an attack on the
bomber stream. When the Mustangs hit the
formation, they soon came across several other
gaggles nearby. Ralph Hofer later reported
seeing “several gaggles of Fw 190s.” When they
returned to Debden, the pilots claimed another
eight destroyed.
The next day, Goodson again led the group,
this time an escort to bomb the railyards in
Chaumont-Sarreguemines in northern France. He
later reported,
"We saw fighters and immediately
went to investigate.”
The opponents were from JG
26, with 20 Fw 190s from II Gruppe, covered by
The 352nd’s Captain Bill Whisner flew P-51B “Princess Elizabeth” - so named to commemorate a visit to Bodney
in June 1944 by the future queen - throughout the summer of 1944. (photo represents currently flying warbird
P-51C-10NT now operated in USA under registration N487FS; photo: American Air Museum in Britain)
P-51D-5 “Short Fuse” was flown by Captain Richard E. Turner of the 354th Fighter Group’s 356th Fighter
Squadron. (USAF Official)
The Resumé
of the hunting
Chattanooga Day
Return to Berlin
HISTORY
INFO Eduard
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