1943-1944 From Hamilton Field, California to France
Some of my old WW II pictures. Below are most of the pilots of the squadron, November 1943 at Hayward Army Airfield, Hayward, California
Bingham, Aldrich, Pawlak, Deeds, Edwards, Watson ---Top Row
Lewis, Theil, W. McGee, Kunz, Bullard, Schmidt
WHERE type < 4 ORDER Schillereff, Coble, Heberlein, Boatright
Pollard, Brink, Thompson, Cahill, Pederson. ---Bottom Row
These are the pilots of the 382nd fighter Squadron, 363 rd Fighter Group. We had finished nearly a year of our stateside flying training in the Bell P-39 Airacobra , < Look at P-39's >and were in the process of breaking camp at Hayward Army Airfield and going overseas. The squadron started out at Hamilton Field, then moved to Santa Rosa Click for an aerial photo of Santa Rosa and then to Hayward. I was the Operations Officer of the Squadron.
Our flying training consisted of flying the P-39N model in Formation Flying, Aerial Gunnery against a towed target ( 4 foot by 20 foot usually towed by a P-39D) and ground gunnery which we fired at a 36" diameter target in the center of a 10 foot square support. Although we had the 37 MM cannon, the two 50 Cal and four 30 cal machine guns we usually only fired the two 50 Cal on ground gunnery. On aerial gunnery it was usually the two 50's but on occasion I was able to load 5 practice rounds of 37 mm. If we fired the regular 37 mm High Explosive shells on a practice target we were charged some $30.00 per shot ! !
Lt. Col. Harry N. Renshaw, Commander of the 328th Fighter Group was probably the most experienced gunnery expert in the entire Army Air Corps at that time was instrumental in getting us off to a really fine start in our training. He had competed in the 1936 Olympic Pistol competition and had been awarded an Olympic Medal. He also had developed the Renshaw system for aircraft recognition training. It consisted of silhouettes of various aircraft in varied positions and they could be flashed on a screen in a darkened room for various periods of time. The student would enter on a test paper his appraisal of the plane depicted in the quick flash on the screen. Aerial gunnery is the most demanding flight experience of any. To be good, requires an accurate estimation of the "lead" required that you aim ahead of and in the correct estimated path of the target. This visual perception continuously changes as you approach the target and are drawn into a stern chase. We had to break-off our shooting at 20 degrees to keep from possibly hitting the tow aircraft.
Also in our training was the Link Trainer, instrument flying under a hood, night flying and night interceptions where the Army Ground anti-aircraft batteries would vector us toward an enemy target by flashing their searchlights vertically (for us to rendezvous over and then lowering the light beam in the direction we were to fly. Remember this was before radar was in use. The anti-aircraft ground crews got their information over telephone lines from Ground Observers. Very, very primitive by today's standards.
At the time this photograph was taken we did not know yet just where we were going but were hoping to go to England rather than North Africa or to the Pacific Theatre. Also, I had been a test pilot in the Accelerated Service Test Branch, at Wright Field and had flown test flights in the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, P-51B Mustang, History and Technical Info A-35 Vultee Vengeance (Click for pic and data on A-35) and P-39N Bell Airacobra < Click on Aircraft--then P-51 and P-47 >.
In my opinion the P-51B (The "B" model was soon replaced with the "C" and then the "D" model) The P-51D model is the best one having six 50 caliber machine guns and a teardrop bubble canopy. It was far superior to the P-47 in that it could fly higher, farther, faster, had a superior ability to turn and maneuver. The only drawback was it was not as sturdy as the P-47 which had an air cooled engine that was much less vulnerable than the liquid cooled Packard built Rolls Royce Merlin that made the P-51B so desirable in every other category.
We did go to England, a long troop train ride from Hayward to Camp Kilmer,
New Jersey. At Camp Kilmer we were given the POM (Preparation for Overseas
Movement) training which consisted mainly of going thru gas chambers,
and learning how to identify various gases by smell and how to don a gas
mask and our immunization shots were brought up to date. After about
a week we boarded the Queen Elizabeth for a 6 day ride to Gourock, Scotland.
Then it was via a troop train to a newly constructed air base at Keevil
a small village near Bath in southwest England.
This was part of the training, crashes !!! We had quite a few, some were just careless mistakes that damaged or destroyed aircraft, one was a fatality, and I was the pilot of the P-39 i; } } check_perm('index_canview',0); $include = '';ff from Santa Rosa Army Airfield and the engine quit when I was about 50-100 feet in the air, going about 140 MPH and it was just wham, bam and I took out 27 trees of an orchard. In those days nobody had thought about "strong helmets" to protect the head in accidents like this. We wore just a thin summer weight light canvass strap-on. They called them helmets, but were just to hold the oxygen mask over your nose and mouth, it had a microphone built in the oxygen mask, and earphones to hear the radio were over each ear in the helmet. Sometimes we just wore a headset and throat mike
Although we did have shoulder straps, I was not wearing them when this happened and consequently my head hit the gun sight and I received a cut on the forehead at the hairline, the doctor cleaned it and put a bandage over the cut and off I went. I was back flying the next day. The date, time, place and aircraft serial number are on the photo.
This is me beside my P-39 at Hayward Army Airfield. I had named all my aircraft "Roscoe II"
This photo was taken in late November 1943,
at that time, for two weeks, I was Squadron Commander, 382nd Fighter Squadron and also Base Commander Hayward Army Airfield.
It is really difficult, now, to imagine how hard up we were to have a 20 year
old, 2nd Lt. with only 9 months of Commissioned Service, with all the responsibility that job entailed. At the time, it seemed perfectly logical and Ok to me. Other than the lack of good, adequate, actual, instrument flying training (the facilities just did not exist at that time to accomplish that and the need for more than what we did, had not been established. This fact, was firmly established after we had so many losses of pilots and planes due to the IFR weather conditions that were encountered most every mission from England to Germany. The escort mission, March 4, 1944, was a disaster, the 363rd Fighter Group lost 11 P-51 and 11 pilots that mission. Most of us thought they went in because of weather conditions, probably crashed into the English Channel, none of the aircraft on the mission, that returned safely, reported hearing any radio calls that would give a clue as to what actually happened. Just recently I received some information concerning the 4 March 1944 mission......
363rd Fighter Group Losses 4 March 1944?
This is me on the wing of my P-51B, Roscoe II recently modified by installing a Malcolm Hood, a British design that replaced the original canopy. This was a great improvement for comfort and visibility and safety. General Quesada, Commander of 9th Fighter Command, had just awarded our unit the first Air Medals we had received for combat. It was quite a momentous day, it was bitterly cold during the ceremony, the wind was blowing about 30 MPH and I was freezing standing there on the wing.
One of the popular magazines carried "Petty Girls" and I cut them out of the center fold of the magazine, with about 1/4th inch of white border and then the crew chief, Sgt. K. K. Thach, used clear aircraft dope to fasten them to the sides of the aircraft. The idea was to protect me from enemy gunfire, as no self respecting pilot would dare shoot holes through such lovely feminine pulchritude. That worked as far as fighter pilots were concerned but did not afford any protection from the antiaircraft gunners that managed to shoot me down 18 June 1944 while I was dive bombing a bridge in France. I managed to get back over England and the engine caught fire and I parachuted to safety, landing in Lady Bennetts back yard. she had been Director of the British Red Cross during WW I. Her yardman carried me to her bedroom and she cared for me until the ambulance arrived with our squadron flight surgeon, Dr. Edward Foster. He examined me and all I had was an injured left foot, it had hit the horizontal stabilizer during bail out, sort of like hitting the ankle with a baseball bat. Lady Bennett insisted that I stay with her and Doc Foster was quite sure that I had no broken bones. So I stayed, and Doc foster visited me every day to see how I was progressing, but after a couple of days Doc Foster said I had better come with him for further examination. That was a ruse to get me away, Lady Bennett had been quite insistent to Doc Foster that I stay and he rightly surmised that the longer I stayed, the harder it would be to leave. I managed to walk with quite a limp for a couple of weeks but it gradually became better. I flew my next combat mission on 22 June 1944, 4 days after the bailout.
07/11/2002 15:07:52
Here are some photos of the Lincoln-Page, also known as a Standard J-1,
Designed by Charles H. Day and built originally in 1914 as a WWI military
trainer, the Standard J-1 was powered by a 90 horsepower Hall-Scott engine.
After the war, many of these and the well known Curtis JN-4 "Jennies" were
sold as military surplus. Some were re-engined with 150 HP Hispano-Suiza
engines by the Nebraska Aircraft Co. and became known popularly as the Hisso
Standard. Others were re-engined with the 90 hp Curtis OX-5s.
This is like what I first flew in the summer of 1937 from a wheat field near Holden, Missouri.
Another Standard with description.....