 |
| Jack at a "Nissen" hut (British version of a quonset hut) |
There he was in
England, one in a million and a half Americans who were either stationed in England
or moved through en route to Europe.[1] With thousands of others Jack had been
trained to repair aircraft, to keep them flying, part of the U.S. role in the
Allies’ response to the German invasion of Europe. After spending his first
month in England at a former Royal Air Force (RAF) base, on 4 February 1944
Jack’s squadron joined its group at a new base east of London.[2] One of nearly five hundred airfields hastily
built in Great Britain during the war, this one at Rivenhall lay on land that a
few years earlier had been part of someone’s farm.[3]
 |
| Rivenhall air base[4] |
A New Base
Jack’s photos illustrate the
move described by his squadron history:
On February 5, 1944 the [380th] entrained for the
new base at Rivenhall, Essex. At 1000 the officers and enlisted men lined up on
the road along Site 8 at Keevil and marched out to trucks waiting on the main
highway. We boarded our train at Sean and arrived at Kalvedon, Essex about
1700. Again we boarded trucks waiting and by 1730 we were in our site at
Rivenhall. The site was still under construction. No lights had as yet been
installed and for the first few nights we had to do the best we could under the
circumstances.[5]
 |
| The convoy in preparation for departure |
 |
| Jack's buddies on the truck |
 |
| The convoy passes a Gypsy caravan. |
 |
| Passing English homes and gardens en route |
Planes at Last!
At
Rivenhall we were issued our planes. Ours was the A9 P-51 Mustang airplane. I
got a pilot by the name of First Lieutenant McCall.[6]
He made captain later. He was a real nice fella, very nice fella. I got my
plane, and there was lots of tech orders to read, and lots of things to check
out on the plane. We learned a lot about P-51s in a hurry. We had
to because they were flying missions.[7]
 |
| Capt. Evan McCall and "Fool's Paradise III" |
 |
| Jack's first plane with Sgt. Clare McGlynn, armorer; S/Sgt. Kellar, crew chief; 1st Lt. Martin L. DeLong, pilot; Sgt. Thomas F. Hanley, assistant crew chief |
 |
| Pilot DeLong and crew chief Kellar The crew's names, ranks and functions are stenciled in front of the cockpit. |
The A9 plane Jack refers to was
the code for the P-51s of the 363rd Fighter Group’s 380th Fighter Squadron.[8] The P-51B was no longer using the Allison engine Jack had learned about
in Indianapolis. The V-1650
Merlin (a Rolls-Royce engine manufactured in the U.S. by Packard) allowed the
plane to perform better at higher altitudes.[9] Jack’s new plane came with the new engine,
and both he and his pilot had to get up to speed quickly!
 |
| The P-51B in its original camouflage paint A9 is code for 363rd Fighter Group, 380th Fighter Squadron. |
A Crew to Work
With
Jack describes his job as crew
chief, the man in charge of all the work done on his plane:
A fella
by the name of Leon Prince was my assistant crew chief. I had a radioman, but
they weren’t necessarily assigned to one ship. They’d work on any ship that
needed radio work. And I had an armorer by the name of Roeger who took care of
the guns and so forth. Most of the time.
They would change off every once in a while, too. But not the mechanics. The
crew chief and the assistant crew chief stayed right on one plane. Then we had
fellas who took care of the propellers. Leonard Art took care of the
propellers. There was certain technical things, so we had an instrument man. We
crew chiefs took care of the biggest part of the plane, though.[10]
 |
| Sgt. Leon E. Prince, assistant crew chief |
 |
| Cpl. Herbert H. Roeger, armorer |
 |
| Tech Sergeant Richard "Leonard" Art, propellor mechanic |
Keenly aware of his
responsibility to his plane and his pilot, Jack worked hard to be a reliable
crew chief. His Squadron history describes the importance of the crew chiefs:
The crew chiefs and their helpers
who repair and keep the planes in good operating shape work long and hard at
making sure their pilot officers fly ships that are in the best shape human
hands can put them in. This work has done more than anything to raise the morale
and esprit de corps of the whole squadron than any other work that might have
come along in the past. The boys on the line . . . realize that it is they who
keep the ships in the air.[11]
Letters from Alice
When he wasn’t thinking about
work, Jack’s mind was on Alice. He wrote her every day and lived to receive
news from her. Sometimes letters came regularly, sometimes, especially when
Jack’s unit moved, they took some time to catch up with him.
England,
Feb 14, 1944, Valentines Day
Dearest
Alice,
Gee
today is valentines day and I sure feel swell as I recv’d your valentines card
today and I sure do appreciate it. It sure is nice. Thanks so very much. I recv’d
11 letters from you dated from Jan 17 to 26 also one from my mother, one from
papa, one from Dave [brother] & one from Betty [sister]. Gee it was sure
swell getting so much mail but it is sure going to take a long while to answer
it all. Oh honey I sure wish you could hear the things that are being said and
done in our barracks here tonight. Some of the boys got busy and hooked up our
lights and it is the first time we have had lights for over a week now and it
seems to have made them all go a little off their head. They sure are a crazy
bunch and we sure have a good time. My plane has been O.K so far. I sure hope
it keeps it up. Winkler was on K.P. today so we have really been eating lots
today Ha. Excuse my scribbling but the fellow who sleeps next to me is
out in the middle of the floor in his long johns trying to do a dance. Maybe I
should get out and show him how it is done.[12]
 |
| Gene "Red" Pelizzari and Jack letting off steam |
Horsing around
mediated the anticipation of actual participation in the war, which was soon to
come.
[1]
“American Soldiers Arrive in Great Britain,
January 26, 1942,” The National WWII Museum, New Orleans, See & Hear: Museum Blog, posted 26 January 2012 (http://www.nww2m.com/2012/01/january-26-1942-american-soldiers-arrive-in-great-britain/ : accessed 29 March 2018).
[2]
Nick Marinelli, The History of the 363rd Fighter
Group, 380th Fighter Squadron, 381st Fighter Squadron,
382nd Fighter Squadron, 9th Air Force, ETO, IX Tactical
Air Command, 70th Fighter Wing until August 1, 1944, XIX Tactical
Air Command, 100th Fighter Wing until August 29, 1944, Reorganized
as the 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Group, 160th
Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 161st Tactical Reconnaissance
Squadron, 162nd Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron after September 4,
1944, and attached to the XXIX Tactical Air Command (South Lynn, Mich.:
Nick Marinelli, 1992), 2-15.
[3]
Bruce Stait, Rivenhall—The
History of an Essex Airfield, 1984; digital reprint 2007, The Parish of St. Mary & All Saints,
Rivenhall, Essex; digital images, Internet
Archive Wayback Machine (http://www.rivenhall.org.uk/default.asp?pg=history+of+rivenhall+airfield+1 : accessed 11 April 2018). The 2007 reprint seems no
longer to be available online. Much of the text is incorporated into an edited
digital version: Bruce Stait, Rivenhall:
The History of an Essex Airfield, ed. Andrew Stait (The Hill, Stroud,
Gloucestershire, Amberly Publishing: 2013), no page numbers, “Building the
Airfield”; preview, Google Books (https://books.google.com : accessed 20
April 2018).
[4]
“Operational Command Post Buildings, RAF
Rivenhall, England,” photograph, 1944, by U.S. Army Air Force, Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rivenhall-basecp-1944.jpg
: accessed 20 April 2018); from Roger A. Freeman, UK Airfields of the Ninth: Then and Now (1994); public domain.
[5]
380th Fighter–160th Tac. Rcn. Squadron
History, February 1943–August 1945 ([unknown place]: [unknown publisher], printed
by A. Roßbach, Eschwege, Germany [1945]), 11–12.
[6]
If Jack’s identification of his pilot as First
Lieutenant McCall is correct, he probably worked with him for only a short
time. A photo of Jack with pilot First Lieutenant DeLong is annotated: “Jack’s
first plane.” McCall was the company commander, a major early on, and his name,
with the same vowels as DeLong, is also a composite word (with Mc and De), easily confused after fifty years.
[7]
Jack J. Kellar, interview about his first years
after high school by Judy Kellar Fox, 12 April 1993; cassette tape recording
and transcription held by the author.
[8]
“RAF Rivenhall,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Rivenhall : accessed 10 April 2018), History.
[9]
“Packard V-1650 Merlin,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard_V-1650_Merlin : accessed 28 February 2018).
[12]
Jack J. Kellar (England) to “Dearest Alice”
[Alice Streeter Kellar] (Santa Rosa, California), letter 14 February 1944,
excerpt.
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