Email from an P-51 Ace...

[o0Stream140o]

I received this from a P-51 Ace that I have been emailing back and forth with... some of you guys might find it interesting... well Ex-tails might...  I figured you guys in CT might appricate it a little more...

Dear Eric,
       I hope you will not mind me calling you by your first name.  In my case you can use whatever you are comfortable with.  Most folks address me as Art.
       Not precisely sure of what your first question pertaining to "actions I was in" means.  I flew 66 missions, 337 hours of combat time and flew missions to Greece, Bulgaria, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungry, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Germany, France, and Italy.  I will try to take a digital shot of a map showing where I flew my missions to and where I got victories.
       My initial missions were often to Ploesti where the Germans were desperately trying to preserve there last significant source of natural oil.  Of course there were many other missions to various places in all the countries listed above.  I could send you a list of the mission destinations; however, it might be very difficult to locate them on a map today as many were carried as a small city because there was a large war industry very close by.
       The majority of our missions was long range escort of the bombers, both B-17s and B-24s.  For the B-17s, our altitude was normally 28 to 30 thousand feet.  With the B-24s, it was normally from 25 to 28 thousand feet.  My average mission time was about 5 hours and 10 minutes.  I preferred escorting the B-17s as they could keep a good tight formation to 30,000 feet while the B--24 became difficult to control over 25,000 feet.  As a consequence their formations would become spread out. In one case a Group spread out over 50 miles.  It was impossible for us to adequately escort them plus they were right over an undercast.  The Germans were vectored to them, came up from the undercast,  and shot 5 down before we could even get there.  The Germans paid the price but in the mean time, 50 of our aircrews were lost.
       Flying with the 325th was a dream come true.  And especially when my squadron commander,  Herschel H. (Herky) Green was the leading ace of the theater.  Many wonder what it was like flying the P-51.  Since I have 370 hours in the P-47 and 510 hours in the P-51, I could compare them.  I have often said that flying the P-47 was like riding a spirited steed but flying the P-51, I was the spirited steed.  I wish it were possible to adequately describe the experience of flying the Mustang.  It is impossible but let me tell you a bit of my first flight in it.
       I have never seen a Dash-1 for the Mustang and our pre-checkout consisted of filling out a questionnaire by using a master one that had been previously filled out.  That is how we learned the power settings and general information.  The crew chief filled me in on the other things like how to start the engine and where and what all the dials, levers, switches, buttons, etc. in the cockpit were for.
       I then taxied down to the end of the runway and advanced the throttle.  As I gained speed, and the tail came up, it seemed the nose was going too far down, and I was afraid my prop might hit the runway. But it was normal and I got used to it later.  By the time I got halfway down the runway, I was flying, and it seemed the aircraft anticipated my every move.  The bird felt so great that I held it down and when I came to my revetment which was just to the left of the runway end, I made a steep turn at 50 feet around my revetment, waving to my ground crew.  With no other aircraft did I have that confident feeling within 30 seconds of starting my first takeoff run.
       My first "kill" turned out to be a probable that I would have to tell you the story.  It happened during an "early return" when I spotted 6 Me-109s starting to attach B-24s over Yugoslavia.  But this is already too long so will hold that one and my first two victories (happened at the same time) for the next E-mail.

Most cordially,  Art Fiedler

 

[Shane]

cool read... looks like more interesting stuff to follow. it's good people take time to listen and ask questions of these guys, now moreso than ever.

which unit did he serve with?

325th?

[o0Stream140o]

Originally posted by Shane
cool read... looks like more interesting stuff to follow. it's good people take time to listen and ask questions of these guys, now moreso than ever.

which unit did he serve with?

325th?

He flew for the 325th, 317th Pursuit Squadron.  His P-1D was called "Helen". He had 8 confirmed and 1 probable kill, and the eighth highest scoring pilot in the 325th. His decorations include the Silver Star, DFC with Oak Leaf cluster, Air Medal with 22 clusters, the Legion of Merit and a slew of other Achievement and Meritorious awards! By anyone’s standards a true American Hero!

We have contact with Mr Feidler and one other Checkertail, Dennis Parker... his site it http://www.checkertail.com.  Its an interesting read...

I will forward the next part as soon as I get it... wait till you hear about his first two kills...

[Oldman731]

Originally posted by o0Stream140o
some of you guys might find it interesting... well Ex-tails might...  I figured you guys in CT might

Great stuff, Stream, thanks very much for posting it.

- oldman

[CurtissP-6EHawk]

Stream when I was emailing him a while back he told me how he made his landing patterns, thats where mine came from

He is were I also learned runway form-ups as well as departure and RTB proceedures....basicly what you guys do now

[firbal]

Maybe you get him to come to this years Con. Would be great to hear him.

[Red Tail 444]

Yeah I heard similar accounts from Lt. Col Charles McGee from the 332nd FG Tuskegee Airmen. He said almost verbatim that you could think the plane into doing whatever you wanted to do, if you looked in a general direction, then plane would be there with you.

He flew 407 combat missions from WW2 to Vietman...

[Rafe35]

Originally posted by Red Tail 444
Yeah I heard similar accounts from Lt. Col Charles McGee from the 332nd FG Tuskegee Airmen. He said almost verbatim that you could think the plane into doing whatever you wanted to do, if you looked in a general direction, then plane would be there with you.

He flew 407 combat missions from WW2 to Vietman...

He also shot down a Me 262 Jet, right?

[o0Stream140o]

Some more for the story....

Hello Eric,

Found the story of my first two victories.  Here it is.

This is a story I sent to a cousin who wanted to know more about some of my victories.

First about air to air combat: a lad recently asked me if it was hard to shoot down an enemy plane.  I could only tell him it depended on the circumstances.  Some victories were unbelievably lucky, others were exceedingly difficult, and it was only by the grace of God that I was the victor instead of the vanquished. As in hunting, you don't aim at the animal if it is flying or running; your bullet would end up behind it.  You must aim ahead and hope your bullet will be at the same place at the same time as the animal/bird.  And so it is in aerial combat.  I had to aim well ahead of the enemy plane and hope it and my bullets would meet at the same place and time.  Duck hunting is something like that except the hunter is standing still when he is shooting.  In my case, my target was usually moving between 300 and 450 mph, and I was flying about the same speed.

This is the story of my first two victories.  It was the 28th of June 1944 and we were on a fighter sweep over Ploesti, Rumania, 534 miles from my base.  Ploesti was one of the last natural sources of oil for Germany, and was strongly defended.  A fighter sweep is when we go looking for enemy planes and are not escorting bombers as most of our missions were.

As we neared Ploesti we were flying between 24 and 25,000 feet just below an overcast.  Our other two squadrons were flying above the overcast.  Suddenly on my radio I heard: "Beau coups 109s at 30,000 feet".  This meant a lot of German fighters had been spotted above the clouds.  Our squadron leader immediately ordered, "Drop Tanks" and began climbing into the overcast.  These tanks which we carried under the wings held extra gasoline and were dropped during combat.  My left tank hung up, and I had to go through some gyrations to get rid of it; just in time to see the last P-51 disappear into the clouds.  I also began climbing and was surprised to see that the overcast was not solid but layered.  Each layer was 200 to 500 feet thick with clear areas between.

As I passed through an open space, I would quickly glance right and left to be sure I did not lose the squadron.  About 27,000 feet, I spotted two aircraft off to my left approximately 1000 yards away.  Before I could stop climbing, I was in the next layer of clouds.  Immediately I turned in the direction of the two aircraft and descended below the cloud layer into the clear area.  There they were!  By now I was close enough to see the oil coolers under each wing, and I clearly identified them; they were Me-109s, Germany's best fighter at the time.

I was closing rapidly and decided that I would blow away the leader first and then take on the wingman.  But about 200 yards behind them, the wingman suddenly went into a right skid; a clear indication that he had seen me and was trying to identify me.  My plans changed instantly; I turned toward him and opened fire from about a 30° angle off.  I was rewarded with numerous hits (flashes of light) on his bird.  He instantly snapped over inverted and went into a vertical dive earthward…with me right on his tail.  As many pilots without combat experience do, I had completely forgotten about the leader!!  This was a deadly mistake and should have gotten me killed.

The wingman and I plunged down while he twisted and turned in an attempt to prevent my bullets from hitting him.  Somewhere near 13,000 feet, he started to pull out of his dive.  Opening fire again, I saw flashes all over his aircraft, and now flames and a torrent of black smoke started streaming behind him.  This time he did not immediately snap over into a dive but slowly his left wing dropped, followed by his nose and once again we were going straight down.

I did not want to make the same mistake I had heard of other pilots making.  After wounding or killing an enemy pilot, but not being aware of it, they continued to follow the diving enemy plane so low that they were unable to safely pull out of their dive…and both died.  Since the ground level we flew over varied from sea level to several thousand feet, I began a pull out somewhere around 5,000 feet.  Dropping a wing to watch him, I saw the aircraft smash into the ground below me and a column of thick, black smoke began rising.  The week before I had set another Me-109 on fire but did not see him hit the ground so was awarded only a probable victory.  This time, I decided to take a picture of the burning wreck as proof of my victory.

Dropping down toward the burning wreckage, I switched off my guns and took pictures with my gun camera.  As I finished and started climbing, I was startled to see another 109, undoubtedly the flight leader, crossing in front of me from right to left.  Flipping the gun switch back on, I whipped into a vertical left bank and opened fire from a high angle off.  As I began pulling high g's, I saw several hits along his fuselage when abruptly all my guns stopped firing (a common problem with the B and C models).  I then found myself slipping into formation with the 109 as we were both flying at about the same speed.

As I pulled in on his left wing, no more than 40 to 45 feet away, we were both staring intently at each other.  Amazing as it may sound, I noticed nothing about his airplane but could describe his helmet and oxygen mask minutely.

Now I was faced with an unusual dilemma.  We were flying toward Russia and although I was not extremely low on fuel, if I stayed in this position very long, I could be in real trouble.  P-51s returning home might spot us on the deck, and if they identified the leader as a Me-109, they would probably not give me a second glance before they attacked.  One just does not fly on the wing of an enemy airplane!  But if I tried to turn away, it would give the 109 pilot a good shot at me before I could get out of the range of his cannons and machine guns.

I do not know how long I flew in this position -- it seemed forever -- but was probably no more than 30 seconds.  Desperately I decided that if I took out my .45 caliber automatic and started firing at the German pilot, hopefully he would turn away as no one likes to sit still while someone is shooting at him from this distance. This would then give me an opportunity to whip around in the other direction and head for home.

However, as I started to withdraw the gun from my shoulder holster, I was astounded to see him jettison his canopy and bail out.  I can only surmise that perhaps I had wounded him or he thought when I reached for my gun that I was gesturing for him to bail out. Who knows?  But I took a picture of him in his parachute to verify this victory also.

Incidentally I knew there was a real battle going on upstairs as when I started climbing again and looked around, I could see many columns of black smoke rising in the surrounding countryside from crashed aircraft.  The remainder of the flight was uneventful as I soon found another P-51, and we both returned to base.


Hope this is the kind of story you are interested in.

Cordially,  Art  Fiedler

[Crumpp]

That is excellent!

Tell the guy thanks!

Crumpp

[Rafe35]

I agree with Crumpp and tell him thanks!

[Kweassa]

Ask him in what situation and speeds he used flaps in combat!!

[Crumpp]

Yeah!!

Pump him for plane info!:p

Seriously, there is a program run by the library of congress to record the experience's of our Veterans.  It would be a shame for this guys experience, courage, and sacrifice to be lost to history.


http://www.loc.gov/folklife/vets/

Again, tell him Thanks not only for the stories but for his service.

Crumpp

[storch]

Thanks stream, please send my thanks and regards to Mr. Fiedler as well.

[TheBeeg]

"Its an interesting read..."  Damn, I'll say it's interesting.  I started and couldn't stop until I had read the entire diary.  Thanks for posting the link.

The Beeg
 

Originally posted by o0Stream140o
He flew for the 325th, 317th Pursuit Squadron.  His P-1D was called "Helen". He had 8 confirmed and 1 probable kill, and the eighth highest scoring pilot in the 325th. His decorations include the Silver Star, DFC with Oak Leaf cluster, Air Medal with 22 clusters, the Legion of Merit and a slew of other Achievement and Meritorious awards! By anyone’s standards a true American Hero!

We have contact with Mr Feidler and one other Checkertail, Dennis Parker... his site it http://www.checkertail.com.  Its an interesting read...

I will forward the next part as soon as I get it... wait till you hear about his first two kills...