Forgotten Fifteenth

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Forgotten Fifteenth Page 28

by Barrett Tillman


  31st Fighter Group

  Mondolfo

  52nd Fighter Group

  Piagiolino

  325th Fighter Group

  Mondolfo

  332nd Fighter Group

  Ramitelli

  5th Photographic Reconnaissance Group

  Bari

  F-4s, F-5s, December 1943

  15th Photo Recon Squadron

  32nd Photo Recon Squadron

  37th Photo Recon Squadron

  2641st Special Group

  Brindisi

  Previously 15th Special Group, December 1944

  B-17s, B-24s

  859th Bomb Squadron

  Rosignano

  885th Bomb Squadron

  Rosignano

  Independent Unit

  P-38s, January 1944

  Bari

  154th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron

  BOMB TONNAGE BY COUNTRY

  BOMB TONNAGE BY TARGETS

  FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE FIGHTER GROUP AERIAL VICTORIES

  SELECTED STATISTICS

  Bomber sorties

  152,542

  Fighter sorties

  89,835

  Total air victories

  3,946

  Rounds of ammo

  25.1 million

  Gallons of gasoline

  450 million

  Aircraft lost

  3,410

  Aircraft damaged

  14,181

  KIA

  2,703

  MIA

  12,359

  WIA

  2,553

  LEADING FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE ACES

  CONTRIBUTORS

  Anderson, Ralph

  464th Bomb Group armorer

  Boesch, Oscar

  Jagdgeschwader 3 pilot

  Chalmers, Robert T.

  461st Bomb Group pilot

  Clemens, Robert C.

  463rd Bomb Group navigator

  Davis, Barrie S.

  325th Fighter Group pilot

  Fieldler, Arthur C., Jr.

  325th Fighter Group pilot

  Goebel, Robert J.

  31st Fighter Group pilot (d. 2011)

  Heilbrun, Herb

  301st Bomb Group pilot

  Hess, William N.

  97th Bomb Group gunner

  Jenkins, Lawrence L.

  2nd Bomb Group pilot.

  Karr, Robert A.

  52nd Fighter Group pilot

  Loving, George F., Jr.

  31st Fighter Group pilot

  Mortensen, Gale

  14th Fighter Group pilot

  Panas, John N.

  461st Bomb Group radar operator

  Peters, James S., Sr.

  99th Bomb Group gunner

  Steinhoff, Johannes

  JG 7, JV 44 (d. 1994)

  Stigler, Franz

  JV 44 (d. 2008)

  Sternfels, Robert W.

  98th Bomb Group pilot

  Wickersham, Charles

  2nd Bomb Group pilot

  National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency

  U.S. Embassy in Sofia

  Terry Aitken, William H. Allen, Dénes Bernad, Duane and Betty Bohnstedt (460th Bomb Group Association), Colonel Walter Boyne, Jim Busha, John Bybee, Laura Caplan, Ed Clendinin (376th Bomb Group Association), Mark Coffee and Mary Crowley (449th Bomb Group Association), Henry L. deZeng IV, Scott Douglas, P.M. Fravel, Rick Furr, Hughes Glantzberg (461st Bomb Group Association), Jim Graham, Dr. Richard P. Hallion, Colin Heaton, Jon Jarmon, Frank Kalinowski, Thomas Lauria, Craig Mackey, Ray Merriam, Holly C. Merrigan, Mark Morgan, Phyllis Mullins, Snejana V. Laneva, Seth Paridon, John Seward, Jay Stout, Roy Tebbutt, John L. Tillman, Robert von Maier, Troy White.

  A NOTE ON SOURCES

  Official records are essential to a book such as this, and numerous unit histories, operational summaries, and archival assets were consulted. As already noted, the Air Force Historical Research Agency was a mandatory source and a frequent resource.

  However, officers who served in both the Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces noted less emphasis on documentation in the Mediterranean. Speculation held that by November 1943 the Eighth had a year and a half of experience in administration whereas the Fifteenth had to hit the ground running, with operations necessarily overriding record keeping.

  Of particular aid were the Fifteenth Air Force’s study of the Ploesti missions and the AAF Evaluation Board survey conducted after Romania’s capitulation.

  The utility of Fifteenth Air Force unit histories varies considerably. By far the best wing history is the Forty-seventh’s, whereas some of the other four bomb wings produced little or no postwar material. The two fighter wings (one purely administrative) released little on their own, but individual unit histories generally are excellent. Some group histories run to multiple volumes, as with the extremely detailed 449th Bomb Group accounts.

  The Fifteenth has a wide presence on the internet, with websites providing both official and unofficial material. Personal narratives abound, from mechanics to mission planners to aircrews and prisoners of war.

  The following links were active as of January 2013. Excepting the 483rd Bomb Group, every unit of the Fifteenth Air Force is represented, but some have minimal online presence, especially those without active member associations. Most Fifteenth groups have Wikipedia entries, but the specific unit websites are more inclusive and more reliable.

  When in doubt, visit the 15thaf.org site for at least some information on each unit. A few unit designations have been “hijacked” by internet marketers.

  Army Air Forces

  http://forum.armyairforces.com/.

  Aviation Archaeology

  http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/AFmacrMO.htm.

  15th Air Force

  http://www.15thaf.org/index.htm.

  XV Service Command

  http://www.15thaf.org/XV%20SC/.

  1st Fighter Group

  http://www.1fgww2.org/.

  http://raf-112-squadron.org/1stfghonor_roll.html.

  2nd Bomb Group

  http://www.2ndbombgroup.org/.

  5th Photo Recon Group

  http://www.15thaf.org/5th_Photo_Recon/.

  14th Fighter Group

  http://raf-112-squadron.org/14thfghonor_roll42_43.html.

  31st Fighter Group

  http://raf-112-squadron.org/31stfghonor_roll43_44.html.

  52nd Fighter Group

  http://raf-112-squadron.org/52ndfghonor_roll42_43.html.

  82nd Fighter Group

  http://www.82ndfightergroup.com/.

  97th Bomb Group

  http://www.15thaf.org/5th_BW/97th_BG/97th_BG.html.

  98th Bomb Group

  http://pyramidiers.com/.

  99th Bomb Group

  http://www.99bombgroup.org/.

  154th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron

  http://www.15thaf.org/154th_Weather_Sqdn/.

  http://tabacofamily.com/jtabaco/AWRA/0154wrs.html.

  301st Bomb Group

  http://www.301bg.com/.

  325th Fighter Group

  http://www.325thfg.org/.

  332nd Fighter Group

  http://www.332ndfg.org/.

  376th Bomb Group

  http://www.376hbgva.com/.

  449th Bomb Group

  http://449th.org/449assoc.php.

  450th Bomb Group

  http://www.450thbg.com/.

  451st Bomb Group

  http://www.15thaf.org/49th_BW/451st_BG/index.htm.

  454th Bomb Group

  http://www.15thaf.org/304th_BW/454th_BG/index.htm.

  455th Bomb Group

  http://www.455th.org/.

  456th Bomb Group

  http://www.456thbombgroup.org/.

  459th Bomb Group

  http://www.459bg.org/.

  460th Bomb Group

  http://www.15thaf.org/55th_BW/
460th_BG/index.htm.

  461st Bomb Group

  http://www.461st.org/.

  463rd Bomb Group

  http://www.463rd.org/.

  464th Bomb Group

  http://www.zplace2b.com/464th/index.htm.

  465th Bomb Group

  http://www.frankambrose.com/pages/465.html.

  483rd Bomb Group

  No active website.

  484th Bomb Group

  http://www.484th.org/.

  485th Bomb Group

  http://www.485thbg.org/.

  859th Bombardment Squadron

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/859th_Bombardment_Squadron.

  885th Bombardment Squadron

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/122d_Fighter_Squadron#World_War_II.

  Carpetbaggers

  http://harringtonmuseum.org.uk/OtherLinks.htm.

  ARTICLES

  Churchill, Eugene E. “Weather or Not.” Stars and Stripes (December 1944).

  Gigova, Irina. “Sofia Was Bombed? Bulgaria’s Forgotten War with the Allies.” History & Memory 23, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2011).

  Karatsonyi, Mihaly, and James P. Busha. “Summer of Hell.” Flight Journal (Winter 2011).

  Roe, Tom, with James Bilder. “Flying With the Fifteenth Air Force.” WWII Quarterly (Summer 2012).

  Sauter, Dale. “‘So Near Heaven and Surrounded by Hell’: The Character and 1942–43 Military Career of WWII Pilot Frank A. Armstrong, Jr.” North Carolina Historical Review (April 2011).

  Seyer, Sean. “The Plan Put Into Practice: USAAF Bombing Doctrine and the Ploesti Campaign.” Thesis. University of Missouri, St. Louis. 2009.

  Tilghman, Andrew. “New Medal ‘Insulting.’” Army Times (February 15, 2013).

  NOTES

  CHAPTER ONE

  1.Author interview, Los Angeles, 1976.

  2.John W. Huston, American Airpower Comes of Age: General Henry H. Arnold’s World War II Diaries, Volume II (Fresno: Minerva Group, 2004), 32.

  3.Lowell Thomas and Edward Jablonsky, Doolittle, A Biography (New York: Doubleday, 1976), 297.

  4.James H. Doolittle and Carroll V. Glines, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again (New York: Bantam, 1991), 366.

  5.W. F. Craven and J. L. Cate, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. II: Europe—Torch to Pointblank, August 1942 to December 1943 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949), 572.

  6.Haywood S. Hansell, The Air Plan That Defeated Hitler (Stratford: Ayer, 1979), 168.

  7.Doolittle and Glines, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again (New York: Bantam, 1991), 367.

  8.Ibid. The Italian may have been Regia Aeronautica chief of staff, General Rino Corso Fougier.

  9.Eric Niderost, “World War II: German Raid on Bari,” originally published in World War II magazine, Historynet.com, June 12, 2006, http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-german-raid-on-bari.htm.

  10.Doolittle and Glines. I Could Never Be So Lucky Again (New York: Bantam, 1991), 269.

  11.Craven and Cate, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. II: Europe—Torch to Pointblank, August 1942 to December 1943 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949), 571.

  12.Charles E. Sorensen, “Willow Run’s Glory Days,” Ann Arbor Observer, August 3, 2009; see also J. Richard, “Liberator Production Pool,” historyofwar.org, December 14, 2007, http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_liberator_production_pool.html.

  13.“The Willow Run Airport History,” yellowairplane.com, http://yellowairplane.com/Book_Reviews/Warren_Benjamin_Kidder/WillowRun_Cover.html.

  14.Dominic Licata, Autobiography (Reno: University of Nevada, 2004), 5.

  15.Craven and Cate, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. VII: The Services Around the World, Washington, D.C., 1945 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949), 260–61.

  16.Herschel H. Green, Herky!: The Memoirs of a Checkertail Ace (Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 1996),182.

  17.Craven and Cate, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. VII: Services Around the World, Washington, D.C., 1945 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949), 261.

  18.Ibid.

  19.Ford J. Lauer III, “History of the 99th Bombardment Group,” 99bombgroup.org, http://www.99bombgroup.org/history.html.

  20.Anne Shelton, “Coming Home on a Wing and a Prayer,” Anne Shelton.

  21.“August 1943 USAAF Missing Air Crew Reports,” aviationarchaeology.com, 2004, http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/MACRmonthly/43AugMACR.htm.

  22.Robert F. Dorr, B-24 Liberator Units of the Fifteenth Air Force (UK: Osprey, 2000), 41.

  23.Craven and Cate, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. II: Europe—Torch to Pointblank, August 1942 to December 1943 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949), 582; Craven and Cate, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. III: Europe: Argument to V-E Day, January 1944 to May 1945 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949), 25.

  24.Charles Richards, The Second Was First (Bend: Maverick Publications, 1999), 92–93.

  25.Niderost, “World War II: German Raid on Bari,” originally published in World War II magazine, Historynet.com, June 12, 2006, http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-german-raid-on-bari.htm.

  26.The Germans grossly overclaimed this time, taking credit for fifty-one kills.

  27.John W. Huston, American Airpower Comes of Age: General Henry H. Arnold’s World War II Diaries, Vol. II (Fresno: Minerva Group, 2004), 71.

  28.Ira C. Eaker interview with Hugh Ahmann, Washington, D.C., February 1975.

  29.“Honor Roll 1st Fighter Group 1941–APR 45,” raf-112-squadron.org, August 24, 2008, http://raf-112-squadron.org/1stfghonor_roll.html.

  30.“Honor Roll 14th Fighter Group Jun 1941–Nov 1945,” raf-112-squadron.org, August 31, 2008, http://raf-112-squadron.org/14thfghonor_roll42_43.html.

  31.Watson to William N. Hess, related to author by Hess, 2011.

  32.Undated letter from Colonel Oliver B. Taylor, USAF (Ret), via William N. Hess.

  33.Steve Blake with John Stanaway, Adorimini (“Up and at ’Em!”): A History of the 82nd Fighter Group in World War II (Marceline, MO: Walsworth, 1992), 128.

  34.325th Fighter Group history, http://www.325thfg.org/325thGroup.htm.

  35.Copy of undated letter in author’s collection.

  36.Nico Sgarlato, Italian Aircraft of World War II (Warren, MI: Squadron-Signal, 1979).

  37.Arthur M. Leadingham, “Escape from Vicenza,” 376th Heavy Bomb Group, 2006, http://www.376hbgva.com/memoirs/leadingham.htm.

  38.Dale Sauter, “‘So Near Heaven and Surrounded by Hell’: The Character and 1942–43 Military Career of World War II Pilot Frank A. Armstrong, Jr.,” North Carolina Historical Review (April 2011): 172.

  39.Allan Palmer, “Survey of Battle Casualties, Eighth Air Force, June, July, and August 1944,” U.S. Army Medical Department, Office of Medical History, Table 184, http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwii/woundblstcs/chapter9.htm.

  40.Jack McKillop, “Combat Chronology of the USAAF,” United States Army Air Force, http://www.usaaf.net/chron/index.htm.

  41.“Daily Weather History for Foggia,” Freemeteo.com, http://freemeteo.com/default.asp?pid=155&la=1&gid=3169070&monthFrom=7&yearFrom=1944&sid=162603.

  42.The Statistical Story of the Fifteenth Air Force, 28th Statistical Control Unit, 1945, http://www.afhso.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-110401-019.pdf.

  43.Craven and Cate, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. II: Europe—Torch to Pointblank, August 1942 to December 1943 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949), 572.

  CHAPTER TWO

  1.James H. Doolittle and Carroll V. Glines, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again (New York: Bantam, 1991), 372.

  2.Brian Hutchins, “General Nathan Twining and the Fifteenth Air Force in WWII,” Master’s thesis, University of North Texas, May 2008, http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc6094/m1/1/high_res_d/thesis.pdf.

  3.14th Fighter Group activities sheet, January 1944, author’s collection.

  4.Ronald Schaffer, Wings of Judgment: American Bombing in World War II
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 56.

  5.Kenneth P. Werrell, Who Fears? 301st Bomb Group in War and Peace (Dallas: Taylor, 1991), 67.

  6.325th Fighter Group press release, January 1944.

  7.“456th Bomb Group: Find Out More,” encycl.opentopia.com, http://encycl.opentopia.com/term/456th_Bomb_Group.

  8.William N. Hess, telecons 2013.

  9.“Error led to bombing of Monte Cassino,” Guardian, April 3, 2000, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2000/apr/04/johnezard.

  10.Charles W. Richards, The Second Was First (Bend, OR: Maverick, 1998), 141.

  11.David Hapgood and David Richardson, Monte Cassino: The Most Controversial Battle of World War II (Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2002), 199.

  12.Dominic Licata, Autobiography (Reno: University of Nevada, 2004), 6.

  13.Hapgood and Richardson, Monte Cassino: The Most Controversial Battle of World War II (Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2002), 203.

  14.Brian Hutchins, “General Nathan Twining and the Fifteenth Air Force in World War II,” Master’s thesis, University of North Texas, May 2008, 44.

  15.Donald Caldwell and Richard Muller, The Luftwaffe over Germany: Defense of the Reich (Barnsley, England: Greenhill Books, 2007), 169.

  16.Hans Werner Eulen, In the Skies of Europe: Air Forces Allied to the Luftwaffe (UK: Crowood Press, 1998), 79. The First Fighter Group was the only P-38 unit making claims on March 11, but all were German aircraft near Toulon. On the 18th the group claimed two kills and a probable against MC 202s and 109s. Frank Olynyk, MTO aerial victory list, 70.

  17.R. F. Downey and D. W. Shepherd, Maximum Effort: A History of the 449th Bomb Group in World War II (Panama City: Northfield, 2000), 27–28.

 

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