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 p.359 #8 · Mustang Air to Air: The Sequel | |
The following is an excerpt from diary of a kid who joined the Army Air Corps in WWII as posted at https://twitter.com/75yearsagotoday
June 22nd, 1944 (F4) Long one today ladies and gentlemen, grab a coffee. Today was to be another post invasion day, bomb something, anything, in France which aids the Nazis while the fighters try to shoot things up on the ground.
Weather was bad, shipping had been disrupted, anything to keep Nazi equipment and manpower from Western France was priority.
We were covering the bombers for their morning mission, so when they were over the channel we finished our breakfast and climbed in the birds. I was first down the runway as usual, leadership has its privileges.
I had the tail active and was advancing the throttle to full when the engine shrieked and then popped, puking oil everywhere. I hit the binders, lowered the tail, and quickly as possible brought 8 tons of [P-47] fighter and gasoline to a halt and off the runway.
Now when one has an oil fire of indeterminate size parked just in front of over six hundred gallons of gasoline, one tends to get out of the cockpit very quickly.
So quickly, that in fact, they may get smacked by the horizontal stabilizer as the plane continues to roll down the drainage slope off the side of the runway.
Lying on the grass as my squadron continued to launch for the mission while the crash crews were putting out my engine fire, I was thinking of some choice words for Misters Pratt and Whitney.
It took me a while to catch my breath after getting tackled by my eight ton bird. I finally got up, checked for damage, noting only my sandwich had been squished and my uniform and 45 had some dirt ground in it.
No matter, I was OK, I quickly hiked to our maintenance hardstand which was close, and used the phone there to ask base HQ to radio my guys & let them know I was OK, and to inform Saffron-Walden we’d be less one spotter aircraft today, as I had no operational aircraft in reserve.
While on the phone the duty officer asked if I was OK, and getting an affirmative reply asked if I could fill in on a fighter sweep, as the flight surgeon had just grounded a guy who sprung a nose bleed on the way to the flight line, and since I was all ready to go?
Why not, I'm stupid, the adrenaline’s surging, so I said yes. Most of the regular pilots were out on the shuttle mission, the acting CO wasn’t in the mood to break in a rookie today, and he was obligated to provide a certain count of escort birds, and he needed somebody right now.
No way could such a thing happen in today’s Air Force, (crashing an aircraft and immediately hopping in another for an unbriefed mission) and that is a turn for the better, safety wise.
I scribbled the mission briefing particulars quickly on the back of my hand, the Captain leading the mission pretended to chew me out for having a dirty uniform and side arm, as I finished writing down the pertinent info, and we were off.
I flew wing for a "young" 2nd Lieutenant who was three years my senior per the calendar. We were to fly as cover for bombers coming out of Mazingarbe, which was near Lens, if that tells you anything.
Lens the city in France, not Lenz my jarhead buddy is what I'm referring to. OK, here’s a question for my etymologically knowledgeable friends, did the phrase “jarhead” exist before ww-2 or not?
The human mind is a funny thing, I swear we always used the expression "jarhead" for Marines, but… Usually I have another title I address Marines with; “honored to meet you.” OK, back to the story.
The borrowed horse I was flying was a fresh out of the crate Charlie model P-51, it wasn’t prepped in time for the shuttle mission, the one day delay meant I got to baptize it. Wonder what a new out of the crate original P-51 would be worth today? ...Show more →
...to read the rest of the story go to https://twitter.com/75yearsagotoday and scroll down. Wish he'd tweet a conversation so one link would capture everything.
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Looks like I won't be joining you. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a floatplane show with the wx we're having today.
