Forgotten Fifteenth

by Barrett Tillman

  42.Robert J. Goebel, Mustang Ace (Pacifica: Pacifica Press, 19), 206.

  43.Daniel Haulman, Operation Reunion and the Tuskegee Airmen (Maxwell AFB: Air Force Historical Research Agency, 2012).

  44.Charles W. Richards, Second to None (Bend: Maverick, 1999), 356.

  CHAPTER SIX

  1.E. E. Churchill, “Weather or Not,” Air Force (December 1944): 62.

  2.Ibid.

  3.William H. Allen email, October 2012.

  4.Francis S. Kalinowski II, The History of the 154th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, 1940–1945, 12.

  5.Frederick W. Gillies, The Story of a Squadron (Medford, MA: Privately published, 1946), 124.

  6.Kalinowski II, History of the 154th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, 1940–1945, 12.

  7.Ibid., 13.

  8.Army Air Forces, The Air Battle of Ploesti (n.p., 1945), 57.

  9.Ibid., 60.

  10.Besides the F-4 and F-5 versions of the P-38, recon variants of other AAF aircraft were the F-3 (A-20), F-6 (P-51), F-7 (B-24), F-9 (B-17), and F-10 (B-25).

  11.Gillies, The Story of a Squadron (Medford, MA: Privately published, 1946), 92.

  12.E. E. Churchill, “Weather or Not,” Air Force (December 1944): 63.

  13.Thomas K. Follis, He Wore a Pair of Silver Wings (Bennington: Merriam Press, 2005), 147.

  14.“F-5 Lightning Development,” 34thprs.org, http://www.34thprs.org/html/aircraft/F5dev.html.

  15.Strategic Photo Reconnaissance: Fifth Recon Group (n.p.: APO 520, October 1944–March 1945).

  16.Follis, He Wore a Pair of Silver Wings (Bennington: Merriam Press, 2005), 160.

  17.“F-5 Lightning Development,” 34thprs.org, http://www.34thprs.org/html/aircraft/F5dev.html.

  18.Ibid.

  19.The Fifty-second Group history states that the airfield attack was an impromptu decision mandated by poor weather during an escort mission.

  20.Attributed to First Lieutenant David Toomey, Third Photo Group, P-38 National Association Facebook page, October 30, 2012.

  21.Follis, He Wore a Pair of Silver Wings (Bennington: Merriam Press, 2005), 163.

  22.Strategic Photo Reconnaissance: Fifth Recon Group (n.p.: APO 520, October 1944–March 1945).

  23.“Heroism Doesn’t Require Death,” lowcountrynewspapers.net, September 4, 2006, http://www.lowcountrynewspapers.net/archive/node/98842.

  24.Strategic Photo Reconnaissance: Fifth Recon Group (n.p.: APO 520, October 1944–March 1945).

  25.Philip D. Hart, “Heroes of the Skies: The Yugoslav Detachment,” 376hbgva.com, http://www.376hbgva.com/history/yugoslavia/index.html.

  26.Ibid.

  27.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, 1951), 500–1; Gerald Schwab, OSS Agents in Hitler’s Heartland (New York: Praeger, 1996), 48.

  28.Army Air Forces, Periodic History, 859th Bombardment Squadron (USAF Historical Research Agency, December 1944).

  29.Ibid.

  30.Ibid.

  31.Robert W. Fish, ed., Memories of the 801st/492nd Bombardment Group “Carpetbaggers” (San Antonio: privately published, 1990), 275.

  32.Ibid.

  33.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, 1951), 517.

  34.Army Air Forces, Periodic History, 859th Bombardment Squadron (USAF Historical Research Agency, February 1945).

  35.Ibid.

  36.Gerald Schwab, OSS Agents in Hitler’s Heartland (New York: Praeger, 1996), 115.

  37.Ibid., 48.

  38.William M. Leary, Fueling the Fires of Resistance: Army Air Forces Special Operations in the Balkans During World War II (Air Force History & Museums Program, 1995), 27.

  39.Adam S. Eterovich, “American Airmen Rescued in Croatia, Bosnia, and Hercegovina by Croatian and Bosnian Partisans in World War II,” croatians.com, http://www.croatians.com/MILITARY-AIRMEN-PILOTS.htm.

  40.Thomas T. Matteson, Air University Report no. 128, An Analysis of the Circumstances Surrounding the Rescue and Evacuation of Allied Aircrewmen From Yugoslavia, 1941–1945 (Maxwell AFB: Air War College, April 1977), 26.

  41.Ibid., 31.

  42.Interview with William N. Hess, September 2012.

  43.Adam S. Estrovich, “American Airmen Rescued in Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina in World War II,” croatians.com, http://www.croatians.com/MILITARY-AIRMEN-PILOTS.htm.

  44.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, 1951), 500–1.

  45.Dennis Kucera, In a Now Forgotten Sky: The 31st Fighter Group in WW2 (Stratford: Flying Machines Press, 1997), 271.

  46.Tom Rowe with James Bilder, “Flying with the Fifteenth Air Force,” WWII Quarterly (Summer 2012): 23.

  47.Matteson, Air University Report no. 128, An Analysis of the Circumstances Surrounding the Rescue and Evacuation of Allied Aircrewmen From Yugoslavia, 1941–1945 (Maxwell AFB: Air War College, April 1977), 35.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  1.G. H. Blasé and R. W. Cassell, 47th Wing History: June 5, 1942, to October 17, 1945 (Fifteenth Air Force, 1945), 54.

  2.Ibid., 55.

  3.Army Air Forces Statistical Digest (December 1945): 256; Army Air Forces 28th Statistical Control Unit, The Statistical Story of the Fifteenth Air Force (n.p., 1945).

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

  5.Clayton Kelly Gross interview, 1980.

  6.“Bob Clemens, B-17 Navigator,” 8th Air Force Historical Society of Minnesota Presentations, https://sites.google.com/site/8thafhsmn/pictures/bob-clemens.

  7.After the war Mildred Gillars was tried for treason and remained in prison until 1961. She died in 1988, age eighty-seven. Frank Kurtz retired from active duty in 1960 and died in 1996, age eighty-five.

  8.Hess telecons, 2013.

  9.Mihaly Karatsonyi and James P. Busha, “Summer of Hell,” Flight Journal (Winter 2011): 11.

  10.Ibid., 14.

  11.“The Luftwaffe’s Ground-Bound Stealth Fighter,” Flight Journal (Winter 2013): 90.

  12.Edward B. Westermann, Flak: German Anti-Aircraft Defenses 1914–1945 (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2005), 128–29.

  13.Army Air Forces 28th Statistical Control Unit, The Statistical Story of the Fifteenth Air Force (n.p., 1945).

  14.Horst Boog et al., Germany and the Second World War, Volume VII: The Strategic Air War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 321.

  15.“In Their Own Words,” forum.1cpublishing.eu, http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=13591&page=33.

  16.“The Curious Case of Martin James Monti,” Strategy Page, http://www.strategypage.com/cic/docs/cic304b.asp.

  17.“461st Bomb Group History,” 461st.org, http://www.461st.org/History/461st%20History/PDFs/oct44.pdf.

  18.Army Air Forces Statistical Digest (December 1945): 264. Dr. Frank Olynyk’s September to December figures, which are specific, show 142 MTO fighter victories, twelve by the Twelfth Air Force.

  19.Undated, hand-written account from Lieutenant Lee K. Carr, author’s collection.

  20.Ibid. The Mustang remained Coulson’s only victory.

  21.Steve Birdsall, Log of the Liberators (New York: Doubleday, 1973), 248–49.

  22.Ibid., 249.

  23.Steve Blake, Adorimini: (“Up and at ’Em!”): A History of the 82nd Fighter Group in World War II (Boise: 82nd Fighter Group Association, 1992), 219.

  24.Confidential Message F 57991 from Allied Force Headquarters, Caserta, Italy, to War Department, November 25, 1944, author’s copy.

  25.Allied Force Headquarters, no. MX 37011, November 13, 1944, 2, author’s collection.

  26.Gale Mortensen, April 2011.

  27.“Pinkus P. Taback—Diary,” raf-112-squadron.
org, http://raf-112-squadron.org/82nd_fg.html.

  28.Dennis C. Kucera, In a Now Forgotten Sky: The 31st Fighter Group in World War 2 (Stratford: Flying Machines Press, 1997), 338.

  29.Ibid.

  30.“461st Bomb Group History for December 1944,” 41st.org, http://www.461st.org/History/461st%20History/PDFs/dec44.pdf.

  31.Donald Caldwell, Day Fighters in Defense of the Reich (UK: Frontline, 2011), 405.

  32.Courtesy of John Bybee, May 2012. Also see “December 17th, 1944,” homepage.ntlworld.com, http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/1944/12/17.htm.

  33.Contradictory sources state that no German SAMs became operational and that only Wasserfall was fired in combat. Since at least two American bomb groups reported encountering missiles, Wasserfall is the likely candidate. See the Luftwaffe ’46 web site (http://www.luft46.com/missile/wasserfl.html) and a discussion on Axis History Forum, http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=195252&sid=be95270092b9b520612d87de1a7af6aa&p=1756143#p1756143.

  34.Tom Rowe with James Bilder, “Flying with the Fifteenth Air Force,” WWII Quarterly (Summer 2012): 18.

  35.Stephen Ambrose, The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 111.

  36.“B-17’s That Flew the Most Missions?,” forum.armyairforces.com, http://forum.armyairforces.com/B1739s-That-Flew-the-Most-Missions-m204741-print.aspx.

  37.Vincent Fagan cited in Stephen Ambrose, The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 169.

  38.Ambrose, The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 174–75.

  39.Howard Hawks, dir., Air Force, Warner Brothers, 1943, written by Dudley Nichols.

  40.Army Air Force Statistical Digest (Washington, D.C.: December 1945).

  41.Missing Air Crew Report, 464th Bombardment Group, December 2, 1944. http://www.zplace2b.com/464th/macr/10029-464.pdf.

  42.“Combat Chronology of the U.S. Army Air Forces: December 1944,” USAAF, http://www.usaaf.net/chron/44/dec44.htm.

  43.“Merry Christmas 1944 and After,” 376th Heavy Bomb Group, http://www.376hbgva.com/memoirs/barton.html.

  44.John D. Mullins, An Escort of P-38s: The 1st Fighter Group in World War II (St. Paul: Phalanx, 1995), 145.

  45.Blake and Stanaway, Adorimini: (“Up and At ’Em!”): A History of the 82nd Fighter Group in World War II (Marcelene, MO: Walsworth, 1992), 234.

  46.Army Air Forces Statistical Digest (Washington, D.C.: December 1945).

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  1.“Climate Foggia,” TuTiempo.net, http://www.tutiempo.net/en/Climate/FOGGIA_GINO_LISA/11-1943/162603.htm.

  2.John Mullins, An Escort of P-38s: The 1st Fighter Group in World War II (St. Paul: Phalanx, 1995), 147.

  3.“The 461st Liberaider,” June 2010, http://www.461st.org/Liberaider/PDFs/June%202010.pdf. DOES NOT WORK

  4.Steve Blake, Adorimini (“Up and at ’Em!”): A History of the 82nd Fighter Group in World War II (Marcelene, MO: Walsworth, 1992), 232.

  5.Ibid., 235.

  6.Mullins, An Escort of P-38s: The 1st Fighter Group in World War II (St. Paul: Phalanx, 1995), 148.

  7.Stephen Ambrose, The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 209–10.

  8.Sedgefield D. Hill, “The Fight’n” 451st Bombardment Group (H) (Paducah, KY: Turner, 1990), 45.

  9.Trevor Constable and Raymond Toliver, Horrido!: Fighter Aces of the Luftwaffe (New York: Macmillan, 1968), 259.

  10.Robert Forsyth, Jagdgeschwader 7 “Nowotny” (Oxford: Osprey, 2008), 43.

  11.Charles Richards, The Second Was First (Bend: Maverick, 2001), 494.

  12.“Clete Roberts interview,” Ace 1945, http://www.ace1945.com/cleterobertsinterview.html.

  13.Steve Birdsall, Log of the Liberators (New York, Doubleday, 1973), 255–56.

  14.Ibid., 254.

  15.Ibid., 256.

  16.“The 2nd Bomb Group’s Longest Mission,” 2ndbombgroup.org, http://www.2ndbombgroup.org/2ndBombGroup2.htm.

  17.Donald Caldwell, Day Fighters in Defense of the Reich (Barnsley, England: Frontline, 2012), 456.

  18.Daniel Haulman, “A Tale of Two Missions: Memmingen, July 18, 1944 & Berlin, March 24, 1945,” The Free Library, http://www.thefreelibrary.com/.

  19.“The 2nd Bomb Group’s Longest Mission,” 2ndbombgroup.org, http://www.2ndbombgroup.org/2ndBombGroup2.htm.

  20.“Ariel Weekes, Lead Bombardier 15th AF,” 8th Air Force Historical Society of Minnesota, https://sites.google.com/site/8thafhsmn/pictures/ariel-weekes.

  21.Haulman, “A Tale of Two Missions: Memmingen, July 18, 1944 & Berlin, March 24, 1945,” The Free Library, http://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+tale+of+two+missions%3A+Memmingen,+July+18,1944+%26+Berlin,+March+24, . . . -a0245738610.

  22.Des Moines, Iowa, Plain Talk, May 3, 1945.

  23.“‘Big Yank’—The William S. Strapko Crew,” Warbird Resource Group, http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/URG/bigyank.html.

  24.Joe Holley, “Bomber Gunner ‘Babe’ Broyhill, 83,” Washington Post, November 28, 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Broyhill.

  25.William N. Hess, German Jets Versus the U.S. Army Air Force (North Branch, MN: Specialty Press, 1996), 111.

  26.Ibid.

  27.Many of the details of the March 24, 1945, mission are found in Haulman, “A Tale of Two Missions: Memmingen, July 18, 1944 & Berlin, March 24, 1945,” The Free Library, http://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+tale+of+two+missions%3A+Memmingen,+July+18,1944+%26+Berlin,+March+24, . . . -a0245738610; see also Colin D. Heaton, The Me 262 Stormbird (Minneapolis: Zenith, 2012).

  28.Stigler, 1983.

  29.“Combat Chronology of the US Army Air Forces: April 1945,” USAAF, http://www.usaaf.net/chron/45/apr45.htm.

  30.Duane L. Bohnstedt, “Poggiorsini,” http://www.15thaf.org/55th_BW/460th_BG/Stories/PDFs/Poggiorsini.pdf.

  31.28th Statistical Control Unit, The Statistical Story of the Fifteenth Air Force, 1945.

  32.“AAF Prisoners of the Japanese,” National Museum of the US Air Force, September 29, 2009, http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1471.

  33.Alfred Asch, et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 1943–1945 (Appleton, WI: Graphic Communications, 1991), 159.

  34.Laura Caplan, Domain of Heroes: The Medical Journal and Story of Dr. Leslie Caplan (Edina: Jerry’s Printing, 2004), ii.

  35.Author telecons with Hess, January–February 2013.

  36.Mullins, An Escort of P-38s: the 1st Fighter Group in World War 2 (St. Paul: Phalanx, 1995), 151.

  37.John Stanaway, P-38 Lightning Aces of the ETO/MTO (Oxford: Osprey,1998), 43.

  38.Whitehead is commemorated on a memorial in the Czech Republic. His remains were returned to Indiana after the war. “1/Lt Robert W. Whitehead.,” waymarking.com, http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMAAEF_1_Lt_Robert_W_Whitehead.

  39.Mullins, An Escort of P-38s: the 1st Fighter Group in World War 2 (St. Paul: Phalanx, 1995), 156.

  40.“Honor Roll 31st Fighter Group 1941–Jul 45,” raf-112-squadron.org, September 8, 2008, http://raf-112-squadron.org/31stfghonor_roll43_44.html.; “Honor Roll 52nd Fighter Group 1941–July 45,” raf-112-squadron.org, March 25, 2010, http://raf-112-squadron.org/52ndfghonor_roll42_43.html.

  41.28th Statistical Control Unit, The Statistical Story of the Fifteenth Air Force, 1945.

  42.Ambrose, The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 237–38.

  43.Alfred Asch, et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures 1943–1945. (Appleton, WI: Graphic Communications, 1991), 157.

  44.Ibid., 158.

  45.Details from Duane and Betty Bohnstedt, 460th Bomb Group historians, emails January 2013.

  46.Dennis Kucera, In a Now Forgotten Sky (Stratford: Flying Machines Press, 1997), 393.

  47.Frederick W. Gillies, The Story of a Squadron (Medford, MA: privately published, 1946), 112.<
br />
  48.Charles W. Richards, The Second Was First (Bend: Maverick, 1999), 510–11.

  49.Kucera, In a Now Forgotten Sky (Stratford: Flying Machines Press, 1997), 393–94.

  50.Monuments Men Newsletter, No. XXI, May 2010, https://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/uploads/newsletter_pdf/MMNewsXXIEng.pdf.

  51.Gillies, The Story of a Squadron (Medford, MA: privately published, 1946), 112.

  52.28th Statistical Control Unit, The Statistical Story of the Fifteenth Air Force, 1945.

  CHAPTER NINE

  1.“Honor Roll 31st Fighter Group 1941–Jul 45,” raf-112-squadron.org, September 8, 2008, http://raf-112-squadron.org/31stfghonor_roll43_44.html.

  2.Monthly average of continental U.S. losses for January to August 1945, computed from AAF Statistical Digest, December 1945.

  3.Diary of John Panas in World War II (Bronx: Beehive Press, undated), 73–74.

  4.Army Air Forces 28th Statistical Control Unit, The Statistical Story of the Fifteenth Air Force (n.p., 1945).

  5.Army Air Forces, Periodic History, 859th Bombardment Squadron (USAF Historical Research Agency, August 1945).

  6.Mortensen interview, 2011.

  7.Hess telecon, May 2012.

  8.Army Air Forces 28th Statistical Control Unit, The Statistical Story of the Fifteenth Air Force (n.p., 1945), 21–22.

  9.Ibid.

  10.U.S. Air Force fact sheets.

  11.In June 2011 a Google search showed 495,000 hits for “332nd Fighter Group” versus 486,000 for the 1st, 31st, 52nd, 82nd, and 325th combined. “Tuskegee Airmen” generated nearly one million hits. The 509th Composite Group, which dropped the atom bombs on Japan, yielded 26,500 hits.

  12.Emails with pilots of the 31st, 52nd, and 325th Fighter Groups, February 2012. Eighth Air Force bomber losses to enemy fighters dropped from 68 to 35 percent of the combat total. AAF Statistical Digest, December 1945.

  13.Eighth Air Force dropped 235,000 tons to the Fifteenth’s 149,000. Stephen Ambrose, The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 250.

  14.Randall Hansen, Fire and Fury (New York: NAL Caliber, 2009), 290.

  15.Cargill R. Hall, Case Studies in Strategic Bombardment (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History & Museums Program, 1998), 158–59.

  16.Williamson Murray and Allan Millett, Military Innovation in the Interwar Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 46; Williamson Murray, Strategy for Defeat: The Luftwaffe, 1933–1935 (Maxwell AFD: Air University, 1983), 312.