“After all, we
were a bunch of kids just having a ball, fighting a war.”
—Major General
James B. Tipton, 1985[1]
 |
| Lt. Killingsworth |
 |
| Lt. Huff |
Risk-Taking
between the Earth and Sky
Filled with
exuberance and youthful enthusiasm and sure they were immortal, the P-51 pilots
flew high over the earth faster than ever imaginable on the ground. They
savored the thrill and the adrenaline rush of entering into combat with enemy
planes.
 |
| Pilots of the 380th relaxing together |
The German pilots
were just as anxious to knock them out of the sky. Sometimes they were
successful. That spring of 1944 the 380th Squadron sent up their
P-51s on bomber escort missions and then on dive-bombing and armed
reconnaissance missions. Their gutsy pilots had successful encounters with
Messerschmitts, Focke-Wulfs, and Junkers, destroying or damaging them in the
air. They also hit locomotives, barges, and radio and flak towers, dive-bombing
ground targets to cripple the Nazi offense in any way possible.[2]
Waiting: On the
Ground
From Jack’s perspective
on the ground: After a mission it was always exciting to see the planes
come in four at a time, peel off, and land. This
thrilling video shows what Jack saw daily, P-51s taking off, flying in
formation, and peeling off for landing.
 |
| Ground crew members waiting |
The pilots were
at the mercy of the weather, the mechanical capabilities of their planes,
Luftwaffe fighters, and flak from the ground. Not all returned. In March the
380th Squadron’s roster included four flights of eight or nine
pilots each. In three months, it lost ten pilots and their planes.[3] Some of the pilots parachuted to safety. Some were taken
prisoner. Some were killed. The ground crews didn’t always know what happened
to them.
8 April: Lt. Alfred Fontes disappeared near
Brunswick [Braunschweig], Germany, on a bomber support run.[4]
11 April: 2nd
Lt. James B. McKenna, piloting one
of two radio relay planes, “developed engine trouble and was last seen by his
wing man when they entered the overcast while over the channel on their return
to base.”[5]
23 April: Lt. James E. Barlow encountered heavy flak
over Ooterwalde [Osterholz?] Airfield and was believed to bail out safely.[7]
11 May: Lts. Roy Benson and Lloyd M. Bruce were attacked by ME-109s in the Marche area and may
have bailed out.[8]
11 June: 1st
Lt. Edwin E. Vance was hit by flak
and crashed near Carentan on the Cherbourg peninsula after successfully
targeting a bridge at Sainte-Suzanne-sur-Vire and railway repair shops at
Gourfalant [Gourfaleur], France.[10]
17 June: 1st
Lt. Herbert F. Lyman scored hits on
a truck concentration and then was hit by flak and crashed near Savigny,
France.[11]
19 June: 1st
Lt. Ernest L. Nicholas’ plane was
damaged by flak over Calais. Another P-51 escorted him to a point in the
Channel near Cap Nez-Gris, where he had to bail out. Rescue boats were unable
to find him.[12]
 |
| A P-51 formation as seen from the ground |
Finally I Lost
a Plane
Captain
McCall had flown his missions, and I had a fairly new replacement pilot, a
young second lieutenant pilot. One day after a strafing mission to France my
plane did not come back. When you hear the planes coming back, you’re always
looking for your formation. Mine was A9B, which means that it would be in the
first formation; usually it would be the end. We’d watch as they peeled off,
and you could tell whose planes were coming back. Well, there was no 19 9B in
that flight that day. My plane was missing.
Did
I do something wrong? I immediately contacted the pilots in his flight who were
flying his wing. They said German artillery was firing at our planes, and he
had gone down to strafe a German flak tower. They could see the tracer bullets
going into my plane and pilot and not coming out. He never pulled up at all, so
he must have been killed immediately. I had tears in my eyes.[13]
 |
| From another pilot's perspective |
Jack didn't
mention his pilot’s name. None of his surviving letters to Alice mentions a pilot by name. He
may not have known him well enough to remember. Three who were killed that
spring were Jack’s age (twenty-two) and younger: Lts. McKenna, Vance, and
Nicholas. 2nd Lt. McKenna was most likely Jack’s pilot. He was born
in England in 1921, a couple weeks before Jack. His family emigrated to the
U.S. when he was a toddler and settled in Miami, Florida. An ironic twist of
fate places his memorial plaque in the Cambridge American Cemetery and
Memorial, Cambridge, England, returning his memory to the country of his birth.[14]
 |
| “Tablets of the Missing” entry for James B. McKenna Courtesy of Geoffrey Gillon, photographer[15] |
Waiting: At Home
 |
|
Vera (Lewis) Nicholas and her son Ernest Courtesy of Karie Nicholas[16] |
 |
|
John L. Nicholas receiving the Purple Heart on behalf of his son Ernest Courtesy of Karie Nicholas[17] |
Opportunity
So
I was without a plane. While I was waiting for a new plane, I was given the job
to crew the small C[essna]-78 two-engine [five-seater] transport plane that we
had. I made a lot of flights with the pilot, transporting people back and forth
to different places. I traveled around quite a bit. Sometimes we would go where
one of our planes had landed after being shot up or out of gas and just able to
reach England, but not our base. They took me there in the C-78, and I would
get the aircraft going again so it could be flown back to our base.
 |
| C-78[18] |
One
time I got into the C-78 with some pilots and a couple of us crew chiefs, and
we went down to Land’s End, way down in Plymouth in southern England. We had
planes downed down there, and we worked on them until we could get them fixed
up good enough to get them home. So I crewed that C-78 for a while, and that
was fun.[19]
The ground
crews had to steel themselves for the possibility that their pilots would not
return. Working hard gave them the focus necessary to keep their emotions in
check. Sometimes, as in Jack’s case, that hard work was also fun. Decades later
he could still recall the detailed work that was his part of the D-Day effort.
[1] Judd A. Katz, U. S. Air Force Oral History Interview of
Major General James B. Tipton, July 15, 1985, Auburn University, Montgomery,
Alabama; digital images, The University of Alabama Libraries Digital
Collections, James Tipton papers (http://purl.lib.ua.edu/122063 :
accessed 19 March 2018), 35.
[2] 380th
Fighter–160th Tac. Rcn. Squadron History, February 1943–August 1945 ([unknown place]: [unknown publisher], printed by A.
Roßbach, Eschwege, Germany [1945]), 33.
[3] 380th
Fighter–160th Tac. Rcn. Squadron History, 14, 20, 25.
[4] 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), 4–45. Also, 380th Fighter–160th Tac. Rcn.
Squadron History, 20, 21. Also, Kent D. Miller, Seven Months Over Europe: The 363rd Fighter Group in World
War Two (Hicksville, Ohio: Kent D. Miller, 1989), 9-10.
[5] 380th
Fighter–160th Tac. Rcn. Squadron History, 22. Also,
Marinelli, History, 4–47, 4–48.
[6] 380th
Fighter–160th Tac. Rcn. Squadron History, 23. Also, Miller, Seven Months, 13. Also, Marinelli,
History, 4–53.
[7] 380th
Fighter–160th Tac. Rcn. Squadron History, 23. Also, Marinelli,
History, 4-56.
[8] 380th
Fighter–160th Tac. Rcn. Squadron History, 24, 25. Also,
Miller, Seven Months, 17.
[9] Miller, Seven Months, 19.
[10] 380th
Fighter–160th Tac. Rcn. Squadron History, 33–34.
[11] 380th
Fighter–160th Tac. Rcn. Squadron History, 35. Also Miller,
Seven Months, 25.
[12] 380th
Fighter–160th Tac. Rcn. Squadron History, 35. Also, Miller,
Seven Months, 27.
[13] Jack J.
Kellar, “Autobiography,” 1998; two ninety-minute cassette tape recordings; held
and partially transcribed by the author.
[14] EKRINGC,
owner, “Ellie Schoppe Family Tree,” Ancestry
(http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/33809727
: accessed 3 February 2017), James B. McKenna. Also, “2Lt James B McKenna,” Find A Grave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56292337/james-b-mckenna
: accessed 10 May 2018), Memorial no. 56292337.
[15] darealjolo,
“Tablets of the Missing,” detail, photographer, Find A Grave (https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2015/33/56292337_1423009357.jpg
: accessed 10 May 2018), Memorial no. 56292337, James B McKenna.
[16] kjnicholas,
owner, “Nicholas-Lewis,” family tree, Ancestry
(https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/7053735/person/1482546948/gallery
: accessed 11 May 2018), gallery for Ernest Nicholas.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Cessna UC-78
“Bobcat,” photograph, Wikimedia Commons
(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cessna_UC-78_Bobcat_in_flight.jpg
: accessed 10 May 2018), a public domain image created by a U.S. Army soldier
or employee as part of official duties.
[19] Jack J.
Kellar, “Autobiography,” 1998.
Thank you!!! Karie
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Karie. Are you a family member?
ReplyDelete