'Lucky' Wright

[Arlo]

Lieutenant Edwin Wright of the 404th Fighter Group shows off the damage caused by flak to his P-47 Thunderbolt. USAAF airfield near Sint-Truiden, Belgium, October 1944.

'Lt "Lucky" Edwin Wright, just over 19 yrs. old, just returned from his 39th mission- over Munster. He got hit by flak but continued on his mission dropped his bombs, did a spot of strafing and returned. When he got back he found a hole 8ins. in diameter through his 11ins. diameter prop blade, caused by a direct hit from an ‘ack ack’ shell. If the shell had deviated an inch and a half either side, his blade would have severed and he would have been brought down. This is the 6th time that Wright has been hit by Flak and is now known as “Lucky Wright”. He has 5 and a half months of combat to his credit and 39 missions.’ - Roger LIFE

Edwin Wright flew a total of 88 missions in P-47 Thunderbolts over Europe during WWII. He left the Army in 1946 and was again called up for the Korean Conflict in 1950. He retired from the US Air Force as a Major. Edwin Wright passed away in 1959, from lung cancer, age 34.

(From WWII Colorized FB page)

Original: Roger Freeman Collection/American Air Museum in Europe/IWM (FRE 9553)

[Arlo]

Major James Tucker with his P-38J, 'Margie II', serial number 44-23637, named after his wife. He was 402nd Squadron Commander of 370th FG, and was lost on August 10th 1944. He was shot down and killed strafing a train.

The mission report stated:

' Major James E. Tucker took off from A-3 Cardonville (14) in his P-38 Lightning 44-23637 "Margie II" on a ground attack mission over a bridge in Chateaudun. The mission was aborted due to intense flak fire and at 11.15 hrs, his plane was hit, triggering one of his napalm bombs. While Major Tucker dropped the bomb, the fire had spread to his right engine. He was not able to bail out in time.'

His wing-man, Lt. Jimmie Jernigan recalled, “I happened to be flying on major Tucker’s wing the day he was killed. I was still a rookie pilot. Usually they put the rookies in there as a wing man on some of the more experienced people to help them get acquainted with combat. We were strafing a train and apparently, from what I could gather, on each side of this train was a big open field, and they had haystacks, or they look like haystacks, with ack-ack hidden in some of them. I still think to this day that the train was set up as a target and they wanted us to make a strafing run on it. I remember seeing a couple of these little haystacks that dissolved that had machine guns and probably a 20 or 40mm cannon in them. We were low, very low, strafing, so they had a pretty good target to shoot at. We were making a run over these fields that was broadside to the train. I think he was hit in his napalm tank. His aircraft went up in flames. It happened so fast. It was just a big burst of flames.”

Photo: Jay Jones Personal Collection.

Image Repair & Colourisation - Nathan Howland HowdiColour Image Recovery & Colour

[Arlo]

It is said that, while the fate of the Soviet Union hang in the balance, Stalin sent a telegram to the Il-2 manufacturing plant stating that “The Red Army needs the Il-2 as it needs air and bread. I urge you to produce more Ilyushins.”
And they did: The Ilyushin Il-2 ‘Shturmovik’, nicknamed by the Germans the ‘Schwarze Tod’ (Black Death) was produced in higher numbers than any other combat aircraft during WW2 with a total of 36,163 aircraft built.

It started its career as a single-seat bomber instead of the pure two-seat assault aircraft Ilyushin had initially designed with 249 Il-2 being available at the start of Operation Barbarossa. In early 1942, after bitter complains from Il-2 pilots, a special conference was held at the Kremlin from which a two-seat version of the Il-2 was born. The new aircraft, known to the West as the Il-2M, now had a rear gunner manning a Berezin UBT 12.7mm MG. The new aircraft received its baptism of fire on 30 October 1942. Despite the obvious improvements in aircraft survivability, the Il-2 rear gunner position was not as well armoured as the pilot’s, and rear gunners suffered accordingly. After a series of initial successes against enemy fighters, once the surprise effect was gone the Il-2 rear gunner’s casualty rate soar to such high numbers that by wars-end it was estimated that seven Il-2 rear gunners had lost their lives for each pilot KIA. A number of Assault Aviation Regiments had female rear gunners, such as the 804th ShAP which served on the Kalinin front in May of 1943.

Despite its increased weight due to the heavy armoured shell protecting the pilot, the Il-2 had outstanding maneuverability and in the hands of an experienced pilot it was far from being a sitting duck for fighters.

But most Soviet pilots were not experienced. Mostly due to poor pilot training and lack of proper, if any, fighter escort during the critical initial stages of the German invasion, Il-2 units suffered such heavy losses that any pilot lucky enough to complete 10 combat missions was awarded the ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ medal. Only a few were awarded. Later in the war, when tactical air superiority was achieved, an Il-2 pilot had to fly 100 missions to get the HSU.
In this photo, which is most probably a still from a 16mm film, five Il-2 Type 3 from, I believe, 6th GShaP (Guard Assault Aviation Regiment)* fly over the Baltic Front, summer 1944. The type 3 was the variant produced in greater numbers having first entered combat in early 1943 at Stalingrad.

*The unusual red star with a black/red pattern points to this particular unit. Although this kind of unofficial unit markings was not usually tolerated, the former 215th ShAP probably had a special status as it was the first unit to be awarded the title of Guard unit (and promptly renamed 6th GShAP) on 6 December 1941 for outstanding valor displayed during the defense of Moscow.

Original (probably): Tsentralniy Dom Aviatsia i Kosmonavtika, Moskow

Colour by: In Colore Veritas