Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

Free Sample Chapters 61
it was bound to suffer combat losses as soon as it began escort duty with
the heavy bombers. The entire early production output had gone to the
354th, and all or most of the replacement Mustangs that arrived in
England would be used to keep the 354th up to strength.
By the time we had been in England for a month, we still had no
airplanes. All we did was slosh around in the mud and take classes in
the morning and in the afternoon on aircraft identification. But we were
doing no flying. I got checked out in a P-51, but only because I was a
squadron commander. We eventually got a few of our own, but barely
enough to check out the other pilots in the group.
Finally, on January 24, an important decision was made. Outside of
keeping the 354th up to strength, all the available P-51Bs in En-gland
would be assigned to the Eighth Air Force. A few days later, the 358th
Fighter Group, a P-47 group from the Eighth Air Force, was transferred
to the Ninth Air Force, and the 357th Fighter Group was reassigned to
the Eighth Air Force’s 66th Fighter Wing. Within a few days, the 358th
moved from its base, Leiston, to our base, Raydon Wood, and we moved
from Raydon Wood to Leiston. That way, we would be in the north,
about forty miles closer to the bomber routes to Ger-many, and the 358th
would be in the south, closer to France.
The Eighth Air Force couldn’t get us operational quickly enough. In
a week’s time, our group’s strength in P-51Bs went from something like
a dozen airplanes to seventy-five. It was busy. In addition to checking
out the airplanes, we had to get all the pilots checked out. And, in the
meantime, our command pilots—group, squadron, and flight leaders—
started going out on missions with the 354th Fighter Group to learn
about the war over northern Europe.
The 357th Fighter Group was declared operational on February 8,
1944. Following three relatively easy group combat missions over
France—on February 11, 12, and 13—we went to Germany for the first
time on February 20. It was the first mission of Big Week, and the target
was Leipzig. The 362d and 363d Fighter squadrons posted their first
victories on that mission. My 364th Fighter Squadron posted its first
three victories during the February 22 mission, which was against the
Me-109 factory at Regensburg, Germany, and the ball-bearing plant at