Innholdsfortegnelse for Annual 2021 i WWII Fighters

The aerial warriors of the Second World War were simply in a kill or be killed situation. It was one pilot and plane against another, and someone was going to die. The do-or-die nature of combat isn’t something we like to think about. We prefer to focus on the equipment, tactics and heroes who persevered. Flight Journal has written much about the flying legends and aces of that great conflict, and a precious few are still with us, but what’s alarming is that most of the fighters never came home. Even if they survived combat, many were destroyed at war’s end. Aviation archeologists and restorers continue to be motivated to find these warbirds and bring them back to their original condition, preserving their history and stories. Periodically we hear of…

Lt. Col. Paul P. Douglas Jr. was separated from his unit, having shot down at least three (possibly five) Fw 190Ds after engaging a numerically superior enemy force. Out of ammunition and coaxing his damaged P-47 Thunderbolt “Jug” home, Douglas was bounced mercilessly by a German pilot, who emptied his 20mm cannon shells into the American’s plane. The shells blew his canopy away and ripped off his helmet, wounding the pilot in the head. Douglas was now an ace, but living to tell about it was no certainty. The German raked the stricken Jug from wingtip to wingtip with his 13mm MG 131 machine guns until he was out of ammunition. Only the armor behind his head and back saved him from certain death. To his surprise, the German pilot,…

In June of 1941, at age 20, Joseph Paul Lynch entered the Naval Aviation Cadet program. He earned his wings and a Marine Corps commission in May of 1942. His first combat tour was in the Solomon Islands with VMF-112, flying F4F Wildcats and F4U Corsairs. Lieutenant Lynch was shot down once in the Solomons, but he ended his tour credited with three and a one-half Japanese aircraft. OUR ATTACK AMOUNTED TO EIGHT CORSAIRS ENGAGING WHAT WE ESTIMATED LATER TO BE ABOUT 80 JAPANESE FIGHTERS. After spending over a year in the States instructing at Jacksonville, Florida, Captain Lynch returned to the Pacific with VMF-155, which defended the Marshall Islands. He was subsequently transferred to VMF-224 as a Corsair division leader at Okinawa. “I had never seen so many Japanese…

Ubiquitous is a little-used word. Webster’s dictionary defines it simply as “everywhere, at the same time.” No other word better sums up the history of the 13,738 Curtiss P-40 Warhawks, Kittyhawks, and Tomahawks delivered in the United States and to 11 other countries from January 1940 to September 1944. Without a doubt, the P-40 was the most loved and hated fighter to serve in WW II. It was the first single-seat fighter available in such large numbers, so it was used on all fronts, and even though it was widely considered to be outmoded in comparison with the far-superior enemy fighters, its deficiencies were balanced by how easy it was for low-time pilots to transition into it and its ability to absorb terrible punishment and bring its pilots home. Its…

Early morning darkness was total as we stumbled cursing from the mess at Uden in the Netherlands. It was the sort of darkness you can feel. The truck waiting to carry us to the airfield at Volkel had a shield over its headlights, and only a minimum of the muddy rutted road was dimly lit. This carriage way was the lifeline for the army as they moved their tanks and equipment to the Rhine front, not far away. By the time we reached the airfield and entered the dispersal, there was a suggestion of light on the Eastern horizon. The fresh smell of early morning fought to survive against the all-consuming stench of the high-octane fuel and the odor of cordite from the starter cartridges lingering in the atmosphere. We…

In 1989, the forests east of Leningrad gave up a ghostly relic of the fierce fighting that scarred the Russian landscape in the latter years of World War II: a Focke-Wulf 190 A5/U3 was found that had been force landed in 1943, amongst once-tiny saplings that grew to hide the airframe from view. Aside from its bent propeller, Fw 190 Werk Nummer 1227 remained remarkably intact. The Balkenkreuz on the fuselage and black Swastika on its tail stood out defiantly against the march of time and surrounding greenery. The pilot’s leather flying helmet still rested on the seat, where he had carefully placed it before setting off on foot. Even the fighter’s tires still contained their wartime air. Only the decayed fabric surfaces and saplings growing through the wing confirmed…

Looking like a recruitment poster for Marine Aviation, this tranquil scene, photographed in the Green Islands in May 1944, gives little indication of the massive struggle that went into retaking the Solomon Islands chain from Japan in 1942 to 1944. The Greens—just a sliver of real estate northwest of Bougainville—were occupied in mid-February 1944. Numerous Marine units were rotated in during 1944 to help tighten the noose around Japan’s Army and Navy forces that were concentrated around their bastion of power at Rabaul in New Britain as well as adjacent New Ireland. Marine Air Group 14 (MAG-14) was relocated from Vella Lavella within two weeks of Green’s occupation, and nine squadrons and 28 flight echelons operated here before being transferred to the Philippines campaign in December 1944. Pictured here is…

Historians have treated the P-40 and the Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat as second-class fighting machines. But when the United States entered the War on December 7, 1941, those two fighters and the Bell P-39 Airacobra were the only fighters that U.S. manufacturers had been producing in sufficient quantities. The P-40 started its life after Curtiss was awarded a U.S. Army Air Corps modification contract on April 26, 1938; this changed the Curtiss radial engine P-36 to an in-line Allison V-1710-powered fighter. Test pilot Ed Elliot first flew the XP-40 on October 14, 1938. On April 26, 1939, the new Air Force Expansion act allocated funds for 524 P-40 pursuit ships at $22,990 each. On this same day, a production contract was awarded to the Bell Aircraft Co. for 13 YP-39s. President…

It was sitting there on the tarmac as I walked out. I stood still for a moment and just looked. This aircraft was belligerence personified. From the elegant rudder to the four short 20mm cannon, the destructive power was obvious. Designed only to kill, it was ready and eager to carry a young pilot into combat. It seemed immense with that enormous 2,000-plus-horsepower motor taking up so much of its total. I walked closer, my parachute over my shoulder. One of the ground crew stood on the wing with the canopy open, ready for me. I handed the parachute up to him, and he placed it in the cockpit. “First solo on Hawker’s new effort?” he said and grinned at me. I grinned back. My left foot went into the…

If you want to start a discussion that features all the chaos and passion of a coyote in the henhouse, ask a group of aviation buffs, “What do you think is the most important single-engine airplane of WW II?” Then, stand back. Far back! What begins as a logical discussion will quickly degenerate into a “WHAAAT! You’re nuts…!” type of heated debate. At Flight Journal, however, we think that, regardless of what airplane, especially what fighter, is picked, it will likely be wrong. At least by our definitions. We define “most important” as “That single-engine airplane without which, victory in WW II would have been much more difficult.” In our view, the airplane that best fits that description began as the lowly North American NA-16/26 that became much better known…

Manufactured in April 1943, this Fw 190 was the 415th A5 variant constructed from batch 0150812 at the Bremen factory of Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH. Given the Werk Nummer 0151227, the airframe was modified in the factory to carry an ETC501 bomb rack in place of the usual wing-mounted 20mm cannons, making its final designation A5/U3 (the U signifying a conversion kit, or Umrüst-Bausatz). The aircraft was delivered to the Eastern front airbase of Siwerskaya (Siversky) to join the ranks of I. and II Gruppen of Jagdeschwader 54 Grünherz (Greenhearts). On July 19, 1943, 24-year-old Feldwebel Paul Rätz of 4./JG54 took off from the airfield with a 550-pound bomb strapped underneath his aircraft. Wk Nr 1227 now carried the unusual marking ‘White A.’ Colored numbers usually identified Luftwaffe Squadrons. Research suggests…

Author’s Note: My family, through the Old Flying Machine Company, has been the honored custodians of Spitfire IXb LF MH434—an outstanding example of living history—for many decades now. We have always been aware of the contributions of Henry “Pat” Lardner-Burke, the exemplary South African pilot who flew it in World War II. However, until researching this article, we never fully understood the nature of his skill and bravery, the admiration of those who served with him, and just why he died at the early age of 53. The key to much of it is the time he marked at the bitter siege of Malta. An Ace at the beginning Henry “Pat” Lardner-Burke was born into a comfortably wealthy family in South Africa in 1916. The oldest child of three, in…

When Douglas was assigned to command the 396th FS, little did he know that with excellent commanders, the 368th would become one of the most productive fighter groups of WW II. Comprised of the 395th FS “Panzer Dusters,” the 396th “Thunder Bums” (a nickname coined by Douglas) and the 397th “Jabo Angels,” the 368th distinguished itself during six campaigns in Europe, receiving the Presidential Unit Citation. Before the D-Day invasion, it earned a stellar reputation operating fighter sweeps and attacks on marshalling yards, locomotives and rolling stock, road and rail bridges, key roads, submarine pens and rocket sites. After the invasion, it gained theater-wide respect and notoriety providing armored column cover for First and Third Army sweeps across France, Belgium, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Germany. Befitting its coat of arms, the…

A 1938 design that started production in January 1939, the Morane Saulnier 406 was France’s most numerically important fighter at the outbreak of WW II. By March 1940, 1,000 machines had been produced with a final total of 1,176. Basically a good low-wing monoplane design of plywood construction, the type’s weakness was lack of power—the 870hp Hispano Suiza HS 12Y-31 allowed a top speed of only 304mph/490kmh—and its 20mm Hispano-Suiza HS-9 and two 7.5mm MAC-1934 machine guns were ineffective. The German Bf 109E, which the 34.84-foot-span 406 encountered in the battle-raged skies over France during the “Phony War,” was a far superior fighter. Thrown into the breach as the best that France’s Armée de l’Air could offer, casualties were high: 400 machines were lost, compared with the 175 victories attained…

Branded from the outset to be merely a Curtiss P-40 substitute to aid the British and French air forces in their gathering conflict with Germany, North American’s NA-73 design was destined for better pastures. When North American was officially approached by the British Purchasing Committee to build P-40s in January 1940, company president “Dutch” Kindelberger countered with an offer to build a new indigenous design to better the performance of the Curtiss. They further agreed that they could deliver the first airframe in the same time span required to tool up for a P-40, just 120 days, and not exceeding $50,000 per item. Considering North American’s previous performance in delivering AT-6 Harvards, the British made a leap of faith in an untested design and promptly ordered 320 examples on May…

Don Beerbower and his crew chief, Staff Sgt. Leon Panter, had two P-51Bs assigned to them. Both were manufactured at the North American Aviation plant in Inglewood, California, at a cost to the government of $38,893. The first Mustang no.43-12457 was received by the USAAF on August 24, 1943, shipped via Newark, New Jersey, to Britain, and then on to the Ninth Air Force. Don named the ship “Bonnie ‘B’” after his seven-month-old daughter Bonita Lea. This Mustang served Don well until mid-January 1944, when it was replaced by no.43-12375. The new ship had been retrofitted with an 85-gallon internal auxiliary fuselage tank thereby extending its range. “Bonnie ‘B’ II” had been accepted by the USAAF on August 6, 1943, but then sent through Newark on loan to the British.…