Woodbine Red Leader: A P-51 Mustang Ace in the Mediterranean Theater by George Loving

Author:George Loving [Loving, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780307417787
Publisher: Random House, Inc.
Published: 2007-12-18T06:00:00+00:00

12

On May 2, we set out to rendezvous with two groups of B-24s tasked with bombing the railway yards at Castel Maggiore, Italy. It turned out to be a little messy. On the climb through the overcast, 1st Lt. Ralph Adams, flying as a wingman, spun out and lost the formation. A few minutes later, Hank Mann announced that his oxygen system was on the blink and that he was returning to base. Flying on, we arrived over the rendezvous point, Po di Primaro, on time at 1058 hours, and found a whole flock of bombers and P-38s milling around. After a few recognition flares were fired, things got more or less sorted out and our bombers set course for the initial point.

We were at 20,000 feet, a couple of thousand feet above the B-24s. The whole force was sandwiched between clouds, almost solid, with the tops just below the bombers and a thin overcast 2,000 feet above. The P-38s that had been unable to locate their assigned bombers tagged along.

Shortly before we reached the target area, we came under attack from nine Me-109s that made repeated passes through the overcast. This got our undivided attention. Whenever a pair of Me-109s reached firing range we turned sharply into them, whereupon they zoomed back up into the overcast. This continued for some minutes; each German airplane made a couple of passes. The Luftwaffe pilots were looking for some cheap victories, but they didn’t get any. The engagement ended with no damage to either side, and the Me-109s disappeared.

A couple of minutes before we reached the target four Macchi C.205s with Italian markings came barreling through our formation. Yellow Flight gave chase; Dick Faxon destroyed one, and Sam Brown damaged another.

Shortly thereafter, the 307th Squadron spotted fifteen Me-109s and FW-109s approaching the bombers from six o’clock in a line-astern formation. As soon as the Mustangs turned toward the incoming fighters, the Germans broke off the attack.

A total of thirty-six enemy fighters were sighted, but none was observed firing on the bombers. This was a surprise because the bomber formation was spread out and there were many stragglers flying in and out of the clouds during the withdrawal phase. Timidity on the part of the attackers played a big part in their failure to go after the bombers.

The final bit of drama involved friendly aircraft. Shortly after departing the target area, one flight of Mustangs was fired upon by six P-38s. The Mustangs rocked their wings and called out their identity on the radio; that stopped the attack. So despite the weather and all the enemy activity, there were no losses on our side.

We headed out for Braşov, Romania, on May 6 as escort for five groups of B-17s and four groups of B-24s. This was my first mission as a Mustang fight leader and, given the location of the target area, fifty miles north of Ploesti, I had high hopes of some real action. But that’s not the way it turned out. Apparently low clouds kept almost all enemy fighters on the ground.

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