Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Widewing on September 09, 2007, 01:11:41 PM
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Arthur Heiden flew combat missions with the 20th Fighter Group of the 8th AF in 1944. Art contributed to Bodie's excellent P-38 book and to Caiden's not to excellent P-38 book. He has also contributed to some of my magazine articles. Art and P-38J were depicted on a US Postage stamp, the first living American to appear on a stamp (Chuck Yeager claimed that he was first, but his Bell X-1 stamp was issued months after Heiden's).
Art lives in Memphis (Skyrock, if you're interested, I can give you his address and phone#). Art had a mild stroke about two years ago, and I haven't chatted with him in over a year... However, I'll rectify that shortly.
Over the years, I have accumulated many e-mails from Art on his war-time experiences, and in particular, his combat experiences.
I have knitted together portions of his e-mails. Here they are:
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Fighter Formations: Take-off and landing formations were damned
tight, especially when you only had wing-tip visibility, you can imagine, same on climbouts and descents. The later two, were an unbelievable challenge, and required great skill. Flights of four would pick up a heading to cloud top where the Group was formed up with those flights in sight of one-another. Low cloud tops were prayed for -- from 5K' to 10K'. A mortar-flare was fired through the cloud to form on, hopefully!
Formed-up and free of cloud, the Finger-four Combat formation was used.
Meaning, a flight spread out, like a quarter mile, so each could look around and guard each others tail. Flight integrity tactics were to be maintained at all
cost. Each element of two, within the flight positioned so they could turn onto
the tail of the other and cross-over in a break when they were attacked, going the opposite direction. Same within the element of two.
RE: Low Level FLAK, strafing and bombing airfields, marshaling yards,
shipping, trains and other transport, general military targets around battle front.
First, the Ruhr Valley complex was, the most heavily defended area on the face of the earth. Industry and many German Fighter units were concentrated here. The times we accidentally stumbled across it every one took hits. I don't
remember ever being dispatched there. Our Fighter Bombers had to take it on after December 44' with horrendous losses. German claims were that they lost more of their own aircraft there from their own flak that to any other causes.
My experience in general was as follows: Airfields in general were heavily
defended with Flak-Towers all around and lighter 20 and 40mm guns stuck wherever a place could be found, also, any amount of machine-guns around the perimeter. I have strafed airfields where not a gun shot was seen, but usually the longer you stayed the heavier it became. Remember on airfield where the flak was so intense that I was so busy dodging it that I never fired a gun. All four of our flight took heavy hits and the Squadron Commander and his wing man from another Squadron were both killed. Here a black cloud blanket of flak bursts were laid down interlaced with the white and red golf balls of lighter stuff. This blanket would follow you up, down and around, and believe me, I was doing some control stuffing. Thinking I would have escaped if I could clear some perimeter trees and get down in the weeds, wrong again for the place was surrounded by what appeared to be machine gun emplacements.
Trains were an exciting target, with that great cloud of steam which we
thought we were causing. After the war we learned that the Engineers had
deliberately released the steam to save their engines. These trains could be carrying hundreds of troops, munitions, or anything else. They often were flak trap decoys, and generally pulled their own flak-car defenses so we tried to look for that first thing. That was usually some sort of boxcar with sides that could be lowered to expose an 88mm or two. Jack Ilfrey got clobbered by the beautiful scene of a locomotive beside a station house letting off steam. Problem was, that it was in the center of a hayfield covered with haystacks which opened up to expose a dozen or so 88mm's.
During daylight, munition trains would try to hide in marshaling yards or even in some town. Touching those off could be thrilling and might blow you or the town to pieces. All the above generally had some sort of flak defenses, even troop trains. Germans were tricky, troop trains would often have a car or two of French Civilians which they would prod off when we came in sight. While we thought about this, their GI's would make for the ditches and intermingle with the French. To reduce the rickisheys flying around, we would drop our partially filled belly tanks on the train, and strafe the fumes -- forerunner of napalm.
Intelligence always assured us that 88mm's couldn't cut fuses below 8K' and
20 and 40mm's were ineffective above that altitude. All false! Those 88mm' were an amazing weapon, mounted on every conceivable location and their gunners were capable of hitting any target, ground or air. Their gunners were often 15 yr old boys or 60 yr old men. So I guess, a tanker never dared to miss.
BTW, for your info, In a previous Email I mentioned that April 29, 44'
debacle. A German Staffel Commander Heinz Knoke, in his book, "I Flew for The Fuhrer" mentions that battle from his viewpoint.
RE: Mission issues:
You can't take a simple analysis. You have to take the situation in that instance. The mission, the plane you're flying, your altitude, and what the
opposition is doing a that instant, for just a few. Wouldn't be any fun if it
was simple, would it? Now go back to my last letter. I'm in a P-38 unit
before July 44', if I were in a Mustang or Jug unit the situation would be very
different. Say it's an escort mission, at 30K', to extrema endurance, you have
only three squadrons of 16-planes ea., spread out and separated over 20-miles, seldom in visual contact, responsible for a Combat Division of three or four Combat Wings (boxes), you have several Combat Divisions in a single bomber stream of over 1000-bombers and 700- fighters who have all taken off from this tiny island called England, wing-tip visibility on TO, climb out and assembly on instruments, Cloud tops maybe 20K', any extra circling to get formations together will delay that particular formation by at least 5-minutes, there will be several of these delays which strings out the Combat Wings with separations of as much a 20-minutes, now, just visualize that for a bit, the German Radar already has and are looking for these weaknesses and deciding how many planes to hit it with and where. If a clear day, with perfect formations, which seldom happens, the Germans will go back to bed and not bother anyone.
Believe me, weather was the biggest thing to worry about and sapped your
energy. Would you be able to see your check points and even find the target or would you become further separated and become lunch for the Luftwaffe?
A fighter pilot feels a deep compassion and responsibility for those bomber
crews. He has seen them drive through clouds of flak, seem them explode and unable to get out, seen them crippled and pounced on by German fighters, he knows many of them, through school years, home town, roomed with them in flying school, he can't see the flak before it hits. However, most fighter pilots made a secret pact with himself that he would do everything possible to get between any German fighter and any of the bombers. He would not leave them undefended and chase off for glory. Most wanted to be a Jim Howard!
At briefing, you got all the pertinent info: mission type, penetration, target or withdrawal; order-of-battle; all the numbers, location and time of rendezvous, time of escort relief, safe-course-home headings and time of start engines and TO; of course the Chaplain had the last word for those feeling the need. The weather was always the sweat, it was squeezing your mind and in your
bones, the wing men had their prayer, "Please don't let me fall out of formation on climb-out, Commanders had their's too, "Please, make it a good rendezvous with all the bombers in good formation. That's all God, my boys will do the rest."
Remember now, here we talk of the P-38 situation before the flood of
P-51's and crews arrived in the 8th AAF and when Zemke's brilliant idea spread and we didn't have those "B" and "C" groups. Just imagine what could have been done with just one more squadron in each unit. Hell, our field at King's Cliff was so small that one squadron operated from another airfield over 10-miles away.
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My regards,
Widewing
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In a close P-38 escort, under heavy attack, it was a little like a basketball game with the bombers the basket to be guarded. We were trying to put pressure on the attacking force. Threaten them and deflect their drive. Do not leave the basket exposed. There was no time or assets to follow.
Remember the attack had been made at the weak spot, disorganized Combat Wings and one fighter squadron of 16-plains. It would take time to pull in other defending squadrons, upon which time the attack force withdraw. The defense had to expect another attack from another quarter. In the mean time, there was decoying and yo-yoing going on to intentionally draw off elements of the defense. Furthermore, a P-38 without dive brakes was very cautious about any diving from 30K.
The April 29th, 44' mission is an example of how screwed up things can get
due to weather. 750 bombers and 1000 fighters are dispatched to Berlin, cloud tops to over 20K', assembly all FU'ed. Sixty-three bombers and 13-fighters lost. Our fighters claim 21 destroyed, 7-probables and 16-damaged of the 300 attacking force. Our 20th Fg was led by Maj. R. C. Franklin, me his #3, Don Reihmer led the 77thFS, Ernie Fiebelkorn his #2, and Chris Pannel the 55thFS.
We were assigned withdrawal for the led Division, we never got to them as
the following division was under attack and calling for help, having somehow
missed their rendezvous. Pulling abreast of this division we were bounced by
Me-109's above Reihmer's high squadron at 30k'. Our led flight was among the first bounced and as we did the break I could see the bounce on Reihmer's flight, with his #2 being hit, smoke roll, and his hard break, but old Fieb survived. Franklin sent me to Bomber channel to see what was going on. That was complete hysterics, as one Combat Wing was 30-miles south of the main force and in deep trouble. Franklin notified, we reversed course and headed for them as decoy 109s approached from front left quarter and dove under our noses to draw us away. It took all my effort to refuse this offering as they were close enough to look in their cockpits. The lead 109 was that light desert paint job the rest the usual greenish blue. The attackers left the lost formation as we approached, so we tried to locate our original assignment, but learned that the led box was 15-minutes early and past the target.
Another bomber division was 25 minutes late and mixed up with another division. Other fighter units had converged on the action and the Luftwaffe had went for lunch. Those 20 hectic minutes left us low on fuel so we fanned out towards home looking for stragglers.
Re: Ground Attack
The bombing and strafing became a big thing beginning in the spring of 44'.
At first, after leaving the bombers after escort, everyone started hitting the
deck and strafing on the way home. A lot of targets were found. someone came up with the jackpot idea where each unit was assigned an area and told to shoot anything that moved. Ours was the Saltzweddel area about 80-miles from Berlin. We had hit that city nearly every day in March, then on Easter Sunday, April 8th we went to the Saltzwedel area to strafe with good results. Forty out of 42-pilots fired their guns and expended about 26,000 rounds of ammo, destroying numerous A/C in air and on the ground, hundreds of German GI's on the parade ground, and numerous other targets, with the loss of two of our pilots. Germany had pulled back their A/C for home defense so it was a most target rich
place that could be, so all our fighters were having fantastic luck -- industry,
transport, shipping, and all the Luftwaffe. On April 10, the 20thFG pioneered
a new technique, high level bombing with a bombardier in the nose of a P-38 Droop Snoot, with 28 others with one-1000# bomb and one belly tank, from an altitude of 20K. Now, we were seeing some of he flak that our bomber friends had and especially when one or two squadron hit the target strafing just after the bombs exploded.
With the approach of D-Day, more and more skip and dive bombing targets were assigned -- bridges, marshaling yards, and other transport, rail was always a priority target, troop, munitions, and all equipment. Imagine, blowing a munition train sitting in a small town -- talk about leveling something! Tanks with self propelled flak tanks were a tough target as one of Reihmer's flights found out. all four were shot down. Horse drawn carts were easier and blew up, too. A fighter pilot could live a long while on escort duty, but his life span took a drastic reduction while strafing ground targets.
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My regards,
Widewing
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RE: Me 109 Performance, air to air combat, etc.
Note: that I've CC this to a bunch of old hands that have a pile of experience in this. Some even chased Migs up Mig Ally in F-86's. All of us have different experiences and opinions.
I'd say, that a Me-109 was a light A/c with a big engine, so would maintain energy very well. To compare it's turning ability with 38, 51, 47, and 40's many other things have to be considered. First is the guy at the stick, and even the individual A/C. Put two guys and two 109's or P-51'S IN THE AIR with the same brand, you aren't going to get a draw, though guns may not be brought to bear. Energy, and the use of it is most important. Altitude is another problem, with it's loss of energy and at 30K; no one has any and everyone is operating just above a stall and an abrupt control deflection gets you an accelerated stall, and a steep bank loses altitude -- so power available/used/energy is in control.
The old P-38 had that plus a high lift wing. A Me 109G-6 had a big engine with
injection and was light and slick, also it had leading edge slats. Problem was, they had gaggles of 200hr pilots but few old hands capable of using his advantages. Those that did lock horns with one of these old hands knew he had been somewhere. To tangle with one of these guys, especially in a P-51 with fuselage tank full, would have turned your hair gray. It took talent to use 109's slats and engine to its advantage.
A P-51 wasn't the best at hanging on the prop in War Emergency Power, and under control in a stall -- there wasn't enough rudder control. Remember the P-51 TAKEOFF AND AN EMERGENCY Go-Around?. Talk about hair raising...
Many a war story has been built around the Luftwaffe Stomp -- hanging a 109 on the prop, at full power, and keeping the slats out, and controlling it in a stalled turn. A P-40 with it's great wing was a good choice to practice with. Too bad, it never got a two-stage blower and a canopy that wouldn't cave in at 400mph. Another advantage that a good 109 pilot had was his injected engine. It ran fine inverted and he could instantly escape by rolling inverted and going straight down.
No American pilot ever admitted to not relishing an opportunity to mix it up with any German A/C. But, it wasn't comfortable finding yourself, suddenly in the middle of a gaggle of 60 of them and this was too common.
My time was about equal in the P-38, 51 and 40, with a couple of flights in the wonderful P-47. The later, a pure joy to fly. Remember, we were 20yr old kids, just out of HS, with 2000hp under the hood, we were in paradise!
The worst problem with the 109s was their short range. It lost them the Battle of Britain and the defense of Germany. About an hour was their duration -- hardly more than enough to TO, climb to altitude and get back to base. Their tactics varied, from time to time. Assembly was a major problem for them and for us. Weather a major element. They, like us, had to assemble a large bunch of A/c and it could be a disaster.
Fall of 43'/winter of 44' was a major tactics development period. Starting with the unescorted bombing of Aug - Oct, 43', anything that could fly went, for the Germans and for us, our loses were horrendous. Desperately, the US, got larger tanks for the P-47s, two P-38 groups operational and robbed the Brits of enough Mustang III's to get the Pioneer Mustang Group (354thFG) operational.
The P-38 and P-51s had almost fatal teething problems in tactics, maintenance and lack of replacement planes and pilots. March 3, 44', was the
first attempt to penetrate to Berlin. The Bombers were recalled due to weather, but P-38's OF THE 55TH AND 20TH fgs WENT ANYWAY. Same thing on the 4th of March. The third attempt on the 5th was successful. The 4thFg was transitioning from P-47s to P-51s literally on the way to the target. The 357thFg, the 2nd Mustang group had become operational in Feb 44' and a flood of P-51s and pilots were being sent to the 8th AAF by now.
Big Week, the last week in Feb 44', should be inserted here when discussing tactics -- Doolittle's order to loosen up close bomber escort and destroy the Luftwaffe -- a major tactic change with the bombers feeling naked again. The two P-38 gps with two later groups were generally left with responsibility for close escort. This sequence of events turned on a light bulb in Hub Zemke's head (56thFG).
Plenty of P-47's in England now with everyone transitioning to P-51s, "I'll take 'em all". So the picture is; German Radar picking up the bombers as they approach the German Frontier and launching their fighter swarms, these formations assembling in the vicinity of Hamburg, Drummer Lake and Hanover.
Old Hub says, "They're mine!" So he fans out his "A", "B", and "C" Groups (the Zemke Fan) in front of the bomber formations and has a turkey shoot. What an idea, and everyone wants in on the Act. This new flood of Mustangs soon allow it. Sure blew the Hell out of any T.O.E in the 8thAAF.
Remarkably, German A/C production increased in the last year of the war. However, pilots and their training deteriorated, as did fuel and transport. Their tactics had to be continually adjusted. With all the above said, beginning in March 44', German Radar started looking for weak spots in the bomber stream. Weather on assembly out of England could cause havoc in the formations of the bombers -- a few minutes late for Combat Division could cause defensive and escort problems. German Radar looked for this weakness to set their fighters on. Their tactic was to send the 109's to top cover for formations of armored FW-190s diving head-on into the bombers. There were still some Me-110 and JU-88s lobbing rockets into the bombers, too. The hard pressed P-38s, trying to cover the disorganized bombers and get at the shooters, were then set upon by the 109s with a combination of attacking and decoying. In effect, one P-38 group was desperately trying to protect one or two Combat Wings while another was being shot to pieces and screaming for help. Not a satisfying day with the German fighters disengaging if they were at a disadvantage. To leave the Bombers to chase was not acceptable.
With D-day approaching, we in P-38's were more and more busy with bombing and strafing seeing less fighter contact. On May 29th, 44' was target support for the bombers over Berlin. On rendezvous, we were confronted by 50 or 60 German fighters attacking our assigned bombers. We dove into them and they disappeared. Escorting these same bombers on withdrawal, we unexpectantly ran head-on into 60 more German fighters (109's), a big furball ensued, until a flight of 357thFg P-51s showed up chasing some FW-190s overhead. Our 60 Me-109s, as one rolled over and went home. Our Squadron had only time to get 3 or 4 and sore necks.
June and the first half of July was bombing and strafing in support of the beachhead with one exemption. We were vectored to intercept a gaggle of German Fighters forming up in the vicinity of Paris. I was he group commanders number 3, he separated out a 109 which rolled over and did the usual vertical departure. To his surprise, Col. Wilson was flying our first P-38J-25, having the new Dive Brakes and Aileron Boost, Trying to keep up, saw an explosion, which was from the 109 being clobbered going straight down.
August 7, 1944, now in P-51's, my last mission, as such my old Flight Commander and I had decided we would do it in the same flight. Penetration to Berlin, we were confronted with a gaggle of 60 which my squadron and another engaged, while another stayed as top cover. Shortly, another 60 showed up and was engaged by the top squadron, while Jim Bradshaw's and my flight were detailed to stay high and keep an eye on the South side of the bomber Combat Wing. So there we were, one flight of four, two wingmen with rough engines, and sure enough, another 60 show up threatening the South side. The two wingmen were pleading now, and Brad and I couldn't believe our fortune. Brad and I wanted to bounce 'em really badly, but old cool head, reluctantly, gave the feeble order, "We better leave them alone, for we may break them up and get them into the Bombers". Anyway, we got down low over them, made a turn or two and scared them enough that they dove away for home. With the introduction of P-51's our group grew enough to have "A" and "B" groups. Within one month it had destroyed 70 enemy A/C, the same amount it had taken 8-months to get.
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My regards,
Widewing
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Interesting read, very nice! :aok :aok
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Thanks, WW.
3 gaggles of 60 enemy? Oh, my.
What a great story. Thanks for preserving it.
HONK!
Gooss
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Good info! :aok
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Who was Jim Howard?
ack-ack
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Originally posted by Ack-Ack
Who was Jim Howard?
ack-ack
http://www.afa.org/magazine/valor/1183valor.asp
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Originally posted by Lusche
http://www.afa.org/magazine/valor/1183valor.asp
You can view a 3 minute video (black and white film, no sound) of Jim Howard's
P-51B, Ding Hao! here. (http://www.homestead.com/354thfightergroup/VIDEOHOME.html)
Howard's Mustang is seen early in the film, with a great shot of the nose art as he taxis past the camera.
My regards,
Widewing
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Originally posted by Ack-Ack
Who was Jim Howard?
ack-ack
Who is Jim Howard? Where did I go wrong? :)
Lots of us old timers grew up building the Monogram P51B kit of "Ding Hao!" Howard's Mustang. of course he was a Navy guy, turned Flying Tiger, turned USAAF Mustang driver with the 354th FG before he won his MOH.
I think I knew Jim Howard's name when I was 7 years old or so :)
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Widewing, thanks for posting.
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Widewing, Saying "Thanks" for sharing this doesn't come close to expressing my gratitude.
Give Art Heiden our best, and a hearty handshake for what he has done for us and the free world.
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widewing, your information and knowledge of WW2 aircraft and the stories are beyond amazing, a must read IMO :aok WTG widewing
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Outstanding contribution. I read every word. I used to fish with a guy who flew Jugs during the war. I used to love hearing his stories. And yes, he could talk for hours about blowing up trains.
Really, its amazing Germany fought as hard as it did for so long with the juggernauts arrayed against it.
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One of the most enjoyable posts I've read in the forums. Thanks for posting them Widewing.
Mr. Heiden
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Really excellent stuff. Thanks very much, Widewing.
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Great read! I will likely take a quote for DSG scenario when we start discussing some items in the Allied forum.
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I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. I made no effort to correct spelling and grammar, leaving it as he wrote it.
Here's Art with his P-38J-15 Lucky Lady and ground crew. Art flew over 300 combat hours in this fighter without a single abort or engine failure. His crew chief was decorated for his efforts, the only P-38 in the 8th AF to complete 300 hours without at least one engine change. Lucky Lady is in the game...
(http://home.att.net/~ww2aviation/Luckylady.JPG)
Here's the US Postage stamp depicting Art and Lucky Lady. Art says that they got the anti-glare paint color wrong... It was olive drab, not black.
(http://home.att.net/~islandphoto/HeidenStamp.jpg)
My regards,
Widewing
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Great read widewing, thanks, and send a hearfelt
to Art for me.
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Good good stuff, thanks
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Very Very Nice Thanks
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That was all just plain terrific Widewing! I can't thank you enough for giving me a window into what happened in that war.
Mark
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Never thanked you for posting this Widewing. Great stuff :)
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Part 2 Part 2!!!
:D