Chapter 6
The composition of a squadron was constantly in flux, with some pilots completing their tour of duty and returning home, while others lost their lives in combat missions or were downed and taken captive, with eager new replacement pilots stepping forward to fill the ranks. What follows is a snapshot of one part of the 49th Fighter Squadron, introducing a handful of the pilots who fought the German Luftwaffe during the summer of 1943.
Although not officially part of the squadron, the first man introduced here was the commander of the 14th Fighter Group, the man who directed all squadrons, including the 49th.
Col. Troy Keith
Commander
14th Fighter Group
Troy and his twin brother Roy were born in Arkansas in 1912. Joining the Arkansas National Guard in 1932, by 1935 he was working as an airplane mechanic in Little Rock. He was accepted into the Aviation Cadet Program, and attended flight schools from October ’35 to June ’37. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps Reserve, on June 10, 1937, his commission in the regular Army Air Corps came in August 1939, and he was promoted to first lieutenant in September 1940.
Lieutenant Keith’s reputation as a “hot pilot” had gotten off to a good start. In 1936 he was forced to bail out of a P-12B bi-plane when he blacked out due to lack of oxygen, but not before setting an unofficial speed record.
In 1939 he was christened the “Human Meteor” by newspapers around the country in recognition of an incident that could well have proven fatal. While flying at 28,000 feet, Lieutenant Keith’s aircraft went into a nearly 4-mile dive when he blacked out due to a failure of his oxygen system. Regaining consciousness at 9,000 ft., Lieutenant Keith was able to land the plane despite a buckled wing. It was unofficially estimated that he might have attained an airspeed of 670 miles per hour, a new army flight record.1
In November 1940 he finished first in the prestigious Frank Luke Memorial Trophy competition, flying a P-40 in an army event that rated a pilot’s marksmanship in aerial and fixed target firing, and on bombing.
Lt. Troy Keith.
DAVID KILHEFNER
A few months later, with the war approaching, the 14th Fighter Group was activated on January 15, 1941 and 1st Lt. Troy Keith, age 30, was named as its first provisional commander. He relinquished command to Col. Thayer Olds in April 1941, who commanded the group during its embarkation to England in July–August 1942, and during its initial operations escorting bombers to targets in France. The group fought in the North African Campaign from November 1942 to late January 1943. Then-Captain Keith flew many combat missions during these operations and is credited with two aerial victories in January. In late January, having suffered tremendous losses in combat, the 14th was withdrawn from combat operations. During the rebuilding period, Keith resumed command and was charged with reequipping and retraining the group in preparation for the Allies advance into Sicily. He was promoted to major in March.
Col. Troy Keith, Commander, 14th Fighter Group.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES
14th Fighter Group leadership, with visitor. This photograph, taken in May 1943 shortly after the 14th FG’s “combat restart” after a three-month reorganization show, from left to right, Lt. Col. Troy Keith (Group Commander), leading American World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker, Maj. Clarence L. Tinker Jr. (Group Operations Officer), and early P-38 ace Maj. Joel Owens (Deputy Group Commander/Executive Officer). Major Tinker’s father, Gen. Clarence Tinker, was killed while leading a B-24 bomber attack during the Battle of Midway in June 1942. His son, Maj. Tinker, was killed along with three other pilots on May 18th, 1943, while leading a combined formation from the 37th and 48th squadron on a bomber-escort mission to Messina.
STANAWAY
Pilot Troy Keith with his P-38 aircraft. It was Colonel Keith’s responsibility to manage the men and equipment of three fighter squadrons, including over 1,200 men.
DAVID KILHEFNER
Capt. Henry “Hugh” Trollope
Commander
49th Fighter Squadron
Also a twin, Henry Trollope was reared on a ranch in Goose Egg, Wyoming, the son of Harry and Beulah Trollope, pioneering Wyoming citizens. While he signed all official documents as “Henry,” he went by his middle name, Hugh.
The Trollope twins got their early education on the ranch. Their mother hired a teacher, providing him with room and board and a place to hold classes. When Hugh and his brother Harry were ready for high school, their mother moved with them to Casper so they could attend Natrona County High School. Nothing is known about Hugh’s academics, but he and Harry were well-known athletes, competing on both high school football and boxing teams. Both graduated in 1936, and attended the University of Wyoming, where they continued their boxing careers. In the Montana–Wyoming AAU Boxing Tournament, held on August 6, 1936, Hugh won the Class B light-heavyweight title, and Harry won the Class B middleweight title. Hugh played halfback at the University of Wyoming. Sometime during their college days, Harry injured his leg severely enough to disqualify him from military service.
While at UW, Hugh Trollope earned his private pilot’s license through the CPT program, and entered the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program in the fall of 1940. His Primary flight training was done at Mira Loma Academy, where he survived a training crash in his PT-13B in late December 1940. He completed Basic flight training at Moffett Field, his Advanced at Stockton, and was commissioned on July 12, 1941. Trollope flew with the 49th Fighter Squadron at its rebirth in North Africa in the spring of 1943, and when the commander of the 49th squadron, William G. Newman, completed his combat tours on June 10, 1943, Trollope was named its new commander. He served in this post until succeeded by B. E. Mackenzie on September 21, 1943, having commanded the squadron during the entire run-up and execution of Operation Husky.
Squadron commanders had relatively short tours at this stage in the war, because they were subject to the same fifty-mission rule as the rest of the combat pilots. As has been seen, with combat missions coming daily—sometimes twice daily—a combat tour could be completed in three months. In the period of 1941 through 1943, the squadron was led by ten different commanders. Fifty missions meant a return to stateside, a short leave, and reassignment.
During his combat tour, Trollope named his plane “Maggie,” after his wife, Margaret. She remained in Casper while Hugh was abroad, working at the Casper Air Base.2
Capt. Richard Decker
Operations Officer
49th Fighter Squadron
Capt. Richard Decker was born in Oberlin, Kansas, on October 8, 1918. He was raised and educated in Coffeyville, Kansas, and graduated from Coffeyville Junior College. He also attended the Colorado School of Mines and the University of Arizona.3
For Captain Decker, there had only ever been one future: “In junior high, we were assigned the task of writing a paper on what we wanted to do when we grew up. There was no doubt in my mind. . . Airplanes had fascinated me. I even wore a pilots helmet in the winter time. I was going to be an airplane pilot.” By his sophomore year of high school, he was accompanying a neighbor in his Curtis Robin three-seat high-wing monoplane on barnstorming trips to county rodeos and fairs, given the job of selling rides and helping passengers in and out of the aircraft.
His interest in military flying was piqued when he attended the National Air Races at Mines Field in 1936. By 1939 he had begun taking flight lessons, selling his car to pay for them. His father and his sister both became pilots about the same time, with Decker serving as his father’s entirely unauthorized flight instructor.
Flight Cadet Decker, Advanced flight training, Kelly Field.
DELANA (SCOTT) HARRISON
Decker entered the Army Air Corps in 1940 as a flying cadet, completed flight training at Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas, in 1941, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1941. In 1942, he was assigned to the 78th Fighter Group and was sent overseas to England along with other members of the group in late 1942. Shortly after arriving in England, Decker and his fellow pilots were reassigned to North Africa, part of the rebuilding effort for fighter squadrons that had suffered such high losses in the early days of combat. Upon arrival, the 78th was dismantled, with pilots, ground personnel, and aircraft becoming the new 14th Fighter Group. Initially serving with group, Decker joined the 49th Fighter Squadron as operations officer when Captain Trollope assumed command on June 10, 1943.
Capt. Richard Decker, right.
DELANA (SCOTT) HARRISON
Telergma, June 1943. Decker is shown with aircraft #36, an aircraft flown primarily by Lieutenant Neely.
DELANA (SCOTT) HARRISON
Captain Decker and Lieutenant Harper later confirmed a story about Lieutenants Gregory and Neely that occurred after Advanced flight training, while the pilots were being introduced to the P-38. Captain Decker supervised taxi training for the new pilots by riding on the wing of the P-38 with the pilot at the controls and the window open. One day, after having certified both Gregory and Neely, Decker asked Gregory to drive him out to his aircraft in the pilot’s jeep. He was astonished to hear that Lieutenant Gregory couldn’t drive. He then asked Lieutenant Neely for a lift: “Was I ever surprised when I checked . . . he couldn’t drive either. They were both from Tennessee and turned out to be exceptional pilots.”
Decker also reported a second surprising incident with Lieutenant Neely: “In late December (while in England) we received some P-38s and began flying camera gunnery passes against another plane. On one flight Lt. Neely was setting off to my side and not making passes. I called on the radio, but got not answer. Then I saw this white stuff coming from the window of his plane. As he began making passes at my plane, nothing more happened. (Later) I questioned him on the ground, and was told how he always became ill flying. He had lasted this long, and knew how to overcome the problem, so nothing was said to the others. You could certainly admire him for his determination.”
As operations officer, Decker divided the pilots into two “teams” for scheduling. He led Team One and Captain Trollope led Team Two. As Decker noted: “This way the same pilots flew together all the time and became used to how the others flew and what to expect from them. It also make it easier for me, as I only had to step out of my tent and yell ‘Team One’ or ‘Team Two’ for briefings, as all officers’ tents were nearby.”
Decker had a field phone in his tent. Calls came in from the group operations officer for mission information, and in turn he would relay the type of mission to the squadron engineering officer.4
Lt. Frederick James Bitter
49th Fighter Squadron
Frederick James “Jim” Bitter was born on February 26, 1917, in Butler, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Butler High School. He was a solid athlete, lettering in both swimming and football in high school, and playing semiprofessional football for the Butler Cubs Football Team. Lieutenant Bitter was one of the pilots who came to North Africa in early 1943 to rebuild the devastated 14th Fighter Group. He named his aircraft “Mary Jane,”5 after the girl he married in September 1942.
Jim Bitter (back row, second from left) in his football days.
RICK BITTER
Jim Bitter in North Africa, summer of 1943.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES
The P-38 pilots looked for diversion on days when they were not assigned to a mission and appreciated getting away from the airfield and its near-constant bustle and noise. Fellow pilot Harold Harper relates a story about bird hunting with Lieutenant Bitter in the mountains south of their base. “I used to shoot these nice partridge. Good eating. I’d fry them up with butter. We picked up these rifles, two nice Mauser rifles. Bitter picked up a rifle, and shot it, and said, ‘Hey, Harper, I can’t hit anything with this thing.’ I said, ‘What’s the matter?’ He said, ‘I dunno.’ So I took the bolt out, and looked down the barrel, and it was bent . . . the bullet went out, but couldn’t hit nothing.”
Lieutenant Bitter was credited with one probable and one damaged enemy aircraft during his tour of duty in North Africa.
Lt. Wallace Grady Bland
49th Fighter Squadron
Born in Hanceville, Alabama, Wallace Bland had graduated from St. Bernard College and the University of Alabama, and had practiced law briefly before enlisting in the Army Air Corps on September 26, 1941.6 Tall among his fellow cadets, at 6 feet, Wallace Bland completed all of his flight training in Texas: Primary was at Perrin Field, Basic at Corsicana, and Advanced at Moore Field in Mission, Texas. He was commissioned on April 30, 1942.
He was assigned to the 83rd Fighter Squadron, 78th Fighter Group at Hamilton Field, California, and shipped out with the 78th when it was assigned to England as part of Operation Bolero.
He found himself in North Africa in the early spring of 1943 when the 78th moved to Casablanca and was reconstituted as the 14th Fighter Group.
Lieutenant Bland had married Carolyn Smith shortly after his commissioning, and they were expecting their first child when his unit left the States for England. Their daughter Carolyn Jessica was born on March 18, shortly after Lieutenant Bland had been assigned to the 49th Fighter Squadron and while he was busy with high-altitude escort training exercises and preparing for the group’s move forward to the airfield at Telergma. By the time his daughter was six weeks old Lieutenant Bland and his fellow pilots in the 49th were in combat, facing the Luftwaffe in the waning days of the North African Campaign. His eagerness for combat could have been attributed in part to his desire to complete his combat tour and return home to meet his daughter.
Aviation Cadet Wallace Bland
Art Taphorn
Lt. Beryl Boatman
49th Fighter Squadron
Born December 28, 1921, Beryl Boatman was one of seven children born into a sharecropping family in the dusty eastern Oklahoma town of Henryetta, a town that was later to adopt the motto “a legacy of legends, cowboys and heroes.” The town was bisected by Coal Creek, a testament to the many coal mines in the area.
Beryl’s parents had schooled only to the eighth grade, but instilled in their children the importance of a solid education. Beryl graduated from Okmulgee High School in 1939, and began taking classes at the local junior college.
He enlisted in the Oklahoma National Guard (Reserve) while still in high school. Activated in the fall of 1940, he received regular promotions and by the spring of 1942 he was a staff sergeant posted to the 45th Division at Camp Barkeley in Abilene, Texas.
Early in 1942 Staff Sergeant Boatman applied for and was accepted into the Aviation Cadet Program. Completing the Advance flight school at Luke Field, he earned his wings and was commissioned on December 3, 1942.
Beryl and his brother married sisters: Beryl, to Margaret Louise Miller, and Samuel, to Nellie Virginia Miller, of West Virginia. Beryl and Margaret Louise had a son, Ronald, who was born after Beryl’s departure for England.7
Margaret Louise delivered their son Ron on June 1, 1943. Half a world away and unaware that he had just become a father, Lieutenant Boatman’s day was to be eventful in other ways: in the morning, the group was visited by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, General Doolittle, and several other British and American military leaders. After a brief address by the prime minister, Lieutenant Boatman and 23 other pilots from the 49th squadron were off on a five-hour mission escorting B-25 bombers to the Axis airfield at Terranova, Sardinia, a mission marked by intense and accurate heavy caliber flak from the German and Italian defenders. Lieutenant Boatman returned safely from this, his ninth combat mission, and would not learn of his son’s birth for another six weeks.
Aviation Cadet Beryl Boatman.
MICHELE BRANCH
Lt. Beryl Boatman with his P-38.
MICHELE BRANCH
Lt. Anthony “Tony” Evans
49th Fighter Squadron
Lt. Anthony Evans was born in 1919 and lived in Marion, Ohio. He graduated St. Mary’s High School in 1936 and briefly attended Akron University before joining the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program on January 20, 1942.
Tony Evans completed his Primary flight training at Oxnard, his Basic school at Merced, and his Advanced flight training at Victorville.8 While based at Hamilton with other members of the 78th Fighter Group, Lieutenant Evans stacked up a P-38 during training.
Harold Harper was a good friend of Tony Evans and recalled an event that occurred when the 78th Fighter Group—later to become the 14th Fighter Group—were ferrying new aircraft on the long flight from England to North Africa.
“Tony could not get his engine started when the formation took off. We were following a B-25 this time, which was providing navigation. When you take off you gotta go, and when we took off we heard Tony call, saying ‘I can’t get my engine started! Wait! Wait! Wait!’ But we kept on going, and pretty soon we were 15–20 minutes gone already, and we heard him say ‘I’m airborne—what’s your heading?’ So we gave him our heading. We could hear him call every once in a while, but he never did catch up with us.
“We got into Casablanca, and we heard a call way out there somewhere. I called in and said that I had plenty of fuel. I called Tony and asked for his altitude and heading. I made the reciprocal of the heading, and it wasn’t too long when I found him.”9
Lieutenant Evans shot down his first enemy aircraft during the mission of June 20, 1943, and would later become an “ace.”
Lt. Tony Evans, by his good friend Harold Harper upon Evans’s return from a combat mission. As evidenced by the markings on his aircraft, this photo was taken when Evans was well into his combat tour.
LT. COL. HAROLD HARPER (RET.)
Lt. Anthony Evans, upon completion of fifty combat missions, North Africa, 1943.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES
49th Fighter Squadron Lieutenants Anthony Evans, Wayne Manlove, Lloyd DeMoss, Marlow Leikness, and Carroll Knott, showing tally board in which they are credited with nineteen of the squadron’s twenty-seven victories over enemy fighters. North Africa, summer 1943.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Lt. Martin Aloysius Foster Jr.
49th Fighter Squadron
Lt. Martin Foster was born in Wilkes-Barre and lived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He attended William Penn High School and was an outstanding athlete, competing in basketball and swimming. He also participated in music and dramatics.10 In 1938 he competed in the sixteenth YMCA International/National Swimming and Diving Championship in Detroit, placing fourth in the 400-yard freestyle relay. After graduating high school, Foster found work as a claims adjuster for the State Auto Insurance Company.
He was accepted into the Aviation Cadet Program and enlisted on March 10, 1942, at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He completed his Advanced flight training at Luke Field and was commissioned on December 3, 1942. He was assigned to the 331st Fighter Squadron at San Diego for Transition training in the P-38, and was with the 78th Fighter Group when it moved to England at the end of 1942. Like other members of the 78th, he was reassigned to the 14th Fighter Group when it was “restarted” in early 1943 in North Africa.
Martin and his wife Faye Stewart were married just before he was sent abroad in late 1942. At the time he was posted abroad, his father, Martin Sr., wrote a poem that was published by the Harrisburg Telegraph on May 14, 1943, “eloquently setting forth a dad’s pride in his son,” part of which read:
The “Blue Star” in the window,
Was taken down to-day
And a “Silver One” replaced it
When our Pilot went away.
Don’t know where they’re going to send him,
But I’m warning “Hun” and “Jap”
Don’t tangle with this pilot,
Or they never will come back.
Lt. William James “Greg” Gregory
49th Fighter Squadron
Known to all as “Greg,” Lt. William James Gregory was born in a rural area outside of Hartsville, Tennessee, in 1920, graduating from Trousdale County High School in 1938. His family was rich in character, but materially poor. He had done well in high school, and hoped to continue to college, but the expense made it impossible. Then his high school principal intervened and secured Gregory a job at Middle Tennessee State College. Gregory worked his way through college, and in the spring of 1941 joined the CPT program.11 Greg recalls: “At MTS we had two Piper Cubs and two instructors, and they could accommodate about twenty students. I got into it in the spring of 1941. This was the preliminary training program—small fifty-horsepower airplanes, two-seaters, tandem seats.” He got “really hooked” on flying.
In the fall of 1941 he had a tough choice: to continue with the Advanced program of CPT at Knoxville or to accept an admission to the AAC Aviation Cadet Program. “I was twenty-one, and the draft was on,” says Greg. “And at that time, it was not a matter of if, but when we would be at war. And so I spent a week at home, trying to decide which way to go. I finally decided to take the Aviation Cadet Program.” He enlisted in the Army Air Corps just after his twenty-first birthday.
He completed Primary flight school at Garner Field at Uvalde, Texas, on December 7, 1941. “We were going seven days a week starting at that point. There was a lot of pressure to get us finished. [Garner] was a brand-new field, and as a matter of fact, when we arrived there the barracks were not completely finished. We lived in the Kincaid Hotel for about a week. I thought, boy, this is all right. We were having steaks at night, but that didn’t last. About a week later we were in the barracks. We were lucky because we did not have an upper class until we got to Randolph (i.e., no hazing.)”
Aviation Cadet William James Gregory.
COL. WILLIAM GREGORY (RET.)
Basic flight training was at Randolph Field, and Advanced at Moore Field. Greg completed the course at Moore Field in April, with class 42-E. “There were eighty-two of us in that class, and they sent us all to fighters—P-38s. And we trained there until October, and then went to England.” Transition training was done at Hamilton Field in San Francisco.
P-38 pilot Lt. William James “Greg” Gregory.
COL. WILLIAM GREGORY (RET.)
Gregory (second from right) with his P-38 and ground crew.
COL. WILLIAM GREGORY (RET.)
49th Fighter Squadron pilots Bland, Neely, Gregory, and DeMoss.
COL. WILLIAM GREGORY (RET.)
Greg recalls: “I remember on my very first mission I saw tracers coming at me. A 109 was on my tail. I got to thinking later that I was seeing all these tracers but there were four times that many rounds that I didn’t see. I managed to get out of that situation, but there were tracers coming at me and across the wings—it was an exciting moment for sure.”12
Unmarried while abroad, his friend and fellow pilot Lloyd DeMoss once showed him a photo of a young lady. “I told him, ‘Boy, you are crazy not to go out with that girl.’ She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.”
“That girl” was Helen, who was to figure prominently in Greg’s life later on.
Lt. Harold Harper
49th Fighter Squadron
Telergma, Summer 1943. Harold Harper with crew chief Sgt. Michael Whiteford. Before a mission.
LT. COL. HAROLD HARPER (RET.)
Born in 1921 in Bakersfield, California, Lt. Harold Harper graduated from Bakersfield College in 1941. Sharing an uncertain future with the other young men in Bakersfield, Harper took a job driving a school bus on the twisty mountain roads after college, waiting for international events to help him decide on his path.
Harper recalls: “Minter Field, about fifteen miles out of Bakersfield, was a Basic flying school, and you would see these BTs and PTs flying around, and I thought, that was for me. But at that time you needed two years of college, and had to be twenty years old. I wasn’t twenty years old until December 5, so I got a job out at Bell Ridge Oil Company, making $160 to $170 a month. Pretty good money for a kid—for anybody back then. December 5 was a Friday, and I was working at nights. I came home, and turned twenty years old. December 7, the war started, so I went right down on Monday, ’cause I had the qualifications, and they took me right in.”13
Harper made his first flight in an airplane on February 26, 1942, while at Primary flight school at Sequoia Field in Visalia. He relates some words of wisdom he received from his instructor at Sequoia, Hunter Warlow: “Harper, there is one thing you wanna do: Keep your head out of the cockpit. Look around.” This proved to be solid advice when Harold reported for combat duty.
Flying both Stearman PT-17s and Ryan PT-22s, he completed Primary on April 20 and reported to Lemoore Field for Basic flight school. He completed Basic on June 12 and continued to Advanced flight training at Victorville. While there, he trained in twin-engine AT-9s and AT-17s, completed the program on August 20, and received his commission on August 27, 1942.
At that time, pilots could request what types of aircraft they preferred to fly, and at Victorville he volunteered for P-38 training. “Yeah, I didn’t want any goddamn bomber. . . . I talked to Knott and Homer, and said, ‘They want P-38 pilots, let’s sign up for it,’ and they did.” They were immediately sent to Hamilton Field for Transition training to P-38s. “Carroll Knott was just at the age where [he] could still get into flight school, twenty-six and a half. He was the old man of the whole outfit. He was older than Decker and all the rest of them. He married my niece. He knew her when we were cadets.”
Harper, Knott, Homer, and others began training in P-38s on September 8, assigned to the 83rd Fighter Squadron of the 78th Fighter Group. The first flight was from Mills Field (now San Francisco International Airport), where they slept and took their meals in a hangar. “After checking out with a few hours of flight time, we were sent back to Hamilton Field to continue training flights while standing alert with the P-38, ready to go in the event an unidentified aircraft were sighted entering the United States.” In early November of 1942, the 78th received orders for overseas duty. At that time, Harper had 92 flight hours in a P-38 and a total of 307 flying hours since starting Primary flight school.
All the men of the group were sent by train to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, for transport to England. Harper recalls: “We departed the United States in November aboard the Queen Elizabeth, carrying 20,000 troops. We crossed the Atlantic Ocean unescorted, [because] its 30-knot speed was capable of escaping German U-boats. The pilots were given a stateroom with twelve men to a room, and the crew chiefs and other enlisted men were bunked four deep below the deck. The trip took us five days, disembarking at Edinburgh, Scotland. From here the 78th Fighter Group was sent to an air base near Goxhill, England, to begin acquiring P-38 aircraft for combat. These aircraft were first sent from the United States to Lanford Lodge at Belfast, Ireland, for final assembly.”
The 78th pilots were flown to Lanford Lodge in Belfast to ferry the P-38s to Goxhill, and then return by C-47 to Belfast to ferry more P-38s. Harold’s brother, Weston, was also a pilot, assigned to transport duties with a C-47. One day, loading onto a C-47 for the return flight to Ireland, Harold was surprised to see his brother in the pilot’s seat. “Neither of us knew that we were both overseas at the same time,” says Harper.
In early 1943 the 78th began the move to North Africa. On February 16, 1943, the group departed from Land’s End, England, for the five-and-a-half-hour flight to Cazes, Casablanca, Morocco. Harper later returned to Ireland to fly an F-4 P-38 reconnaissance plane back to Casablanca. On March 28, the pilots flew from Cazes to Mediouna, where they did various types of training flights: squadron formation, ground gunnery, bomber altitude flying, squadron formation, altitude flying, and formation flying.
“Newly arrived pilots were sent to Marrakesh to re-form the 14th Fighter Group,” says Harper, “whose pilots were being sent back to the States after enduring terrific combat duty. I was assigned to the 49th Fighter Squadron, and with a few days’ training flights, we were sent to a combat airfield at Telergma, south of Constantine, Algeria.” The pilots left Mediouna on May 5 and flew to their new base at Telergma. The 49th’s first combat assignment was the next day, and it proved to be a brutal introduction to combat. Harper was assigned to this antishipping mission to Egadi Island, Sicily. Flying back, and without being briefed prior to the mission, the formation made a strafing run over Bizerte, where Lieutenant Moore was lost to ground fire. Harper had his right tire shot out by ground fire.
Quoting Harper: “The B-25s dropped their bombs on some fishing boats, I think. We flew around in a circle and we could see bombs dropping. They never hit anything, and they took off back to their base. The leader never did tell us, because I thought we were going to follow the bombers back. But no, we flew up the coast several miles, one hundred miles or so, and came in right over an airfield. I didn’t even have my gun sight on or nothing. We weren’t ready for strafing, and that’s when Moore got shot down, on his first mission. I looked over my left wing and here is a ball of fire. He either got shot down or ran into something. He should not have taken us up there without telling us ahead of time that after we lead the B-25s, we are going to go in and do some strafing. That’s when I got my tire shot out.”
Harper remembers: “In old movies the gallant fighter pilots were rationed to a two-ounce glass of spirits, either brandy or whiskey, after returning from a mission. But in our times in combat, never was this ration awaiting us. A cup of coffee and a doughnut was sometimes provided us at interrogations after the missions. It seems that the cold beer and whiskey for us was short-stopped in Oran or Algeria.”
Harper recounts an experience with Colonel Keith: “While at Telergma an Arab chieftain came riding into our compound on a white horse, demanding payment for our use of the landing strip. If payment wasn’t received he would graze his sheep and camels on the field. Our CO, Col. Troy Keith, replied that he would send up a P-38 and strafe any animal on the airstrip. He then sent an airplane up to make a few passes over the runway. The Arab thought better than to put his animals on the airstrip.”
Harper’s never missed a chance to get away from the airfield on days he was not flying, and his adventures off the field sometimes took a strange turn: “As I say, we used to get a jeep and we’d go out all over. One time I took a prisoner of war with me—an Italian guy. We fired machine guns. Oh yeah, we had a helluva time. Threw hand grenades. Oh shit, we were crazy.”
Harper had some special commendations for the ground crews: “Nothing much has been said about the men who kept the planes flying and cared for the pilots. The crew chiefs and their assistants—the armorer, fueling personnel, and other enlisted men—were ever on the job, preparing the P-38s for their next mission. My crew chief, Michael Whiteford, was such a dedicated person that he built his sleeping quarters next to his aircraft. I say this because he let me fly his aircraft, and never once did I have to abort a mission because of mechanical problems.”
Through the end of 1943, Harper, Knott, and Homer were seemingly inseparable. Flight schools, transport to England, transit to North Africa, tentmates, combat flying together, rest camp together. Harper recounts: “All three of us went to flight school together—all three flight schools, all through training, and all through combat. I made good friends in the squadron. Carroll Knott and I went to rest camp together. Oh, we had a helluva time there. We always did, no matter what we did.
“He would always follow me too. We had rest camp in the Atlas Mountains. There was a beautiful stream coming down. He was a fisherman, and I was a fisherman. Trout fishermen. So we checked out two trout rods, tackle and all that stuff, and we went out. Clear water—beautiful creek. The trout were wary. I said, ‘Hey, I did this when I was a kid and had a .22.’ They had some Springfield rifles at the rest camp, because they had wild pigs there. We went back and checked out two rifles and ammunition. And we’d sneak up and shoot at the fish. We just stunned them. We picked up forty or fifty—enough to feed the guys.”
While in North Africa, Harper shared a five-man tent with his friends Homer and Knott, plus Lts. Wayne Manlove and Tony Evans.
Still a bachelor during his combat tour, Harper had a sweetheart at home. He had known Miss Elinor Pyles since his freshman year of high school, and the two exchanged letters and V-mail while Harper was abroad. Due to censorship, there was little that Harold could tell Elinor about where he was or what he was doing, but he told her what he could about camp life. Harper used to write Elinor (who later became his wife): “‘Well, we are in our tent cooking eggs, and I killed some partridge today,’ and she said, ‘That is all you ever said in your letters—that you were cooking something.’ ”
Lt. John M. Harris
49th Fighter Squadron
John Harris was born in 1918 to a ranching family in Toppenish, Washington. He graduated from Yakima High School and had one year of college at the University of Washington before joining the Army Air Corps. He started pilot training on his birthday, April 27, 1942, completed his training, and was commissioned on October 30, 1942.
Among his many missions, on June 22, 1943 he was assigned to escort the king of England on a flight back to the UK from Tripoli.14
Lt. John M. Harris upon completion of Advance Flight Training, Luke Field.
TIM HARRIS
Lt. John Harris, North Africa, 1943.
TIM HARRIS
Harris would later have nose art added to his aircraft—a picture of Hitler in mid-jump with a lightning bolt striking him in the posterior. Speaking about the early days of his assignment in North Africa, Harris would later report: “The lack of something to do gets me down more than anything. Sometimes I sit on the ground for three or four days in a row and ‘sweat out’ the return of the gang sent up. Once in a while the squadron gets together over a keg of beer which helps to break the monotony. A lot of us play chess and some ‘eager beaver’ is always starting a volleyball game. But in spite of all this a day on the ground is a long day.”
Lt. Arthur S. Lovera
49th Fighter Squadron
Art Lovera was born June 8, 1919, in Montana, attended high school in Butte, and enrolled at Montana State University. He played football in both high school and college.15
Art enlisted in the Army Air Corps on January 29, 1942, after two years at MSU. He completed Primary flight school at King City, California, and Basic flight school at Chico Army Flying School, class 42-H. Lovera had many close calls while in combat, and a few that occurred while on noncombat missions. On January 23, 1943, he crashed on takeoff while with the 78th Fighter Group in Scotland. Apparently a jinxed airplane, the same ship was totaled in a noncombat crash later in the year, in North Africa.
Art Lovera at Montana State University.
“The Montanan,” yearbook of Montana State University, 1939.
Harold Harper also recalls: “Oh, Lou! He crash-landed there in North Africa. We were on a practice mission over the desert, and the damn leader was leading them around too long, and Lou ran out of fuel. They almost run me out of fuel too, keeping me up too damn long.”
Lt. Charles W. Richard
49th Fighter Squadron
Lt. Charles W. Richard was born on February 19, 1922, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Like his future squadron mate, William Gregory, he grew up in simple surroundings.16 His home in Lake Charles had no indoor bathroom, only an outhouse. The family maintained a garden, had chickens, pigs, a milk cow, and later, a horse. He had a bicycle, and when the street was finally paved, he graduated to roller skates. His father bought a Model T for hunting and fishing, and Lieutenant Richard learned to drive it at age twelve.
Charles Richard at McNeese Junior College.
“THE LOG,” YEARBOOK OF MCNEESE COLLEGE, 1940
Richard graduated from Landry Memorial High School and had one year at John McNeese Junior College. He was an avid hunter and fisherman, and enjoyed a good cigar. He joined the Army Air Corps on September 28, 1940, and was first sent to Barksdale Field in Shreveport, and from there to Scott Field. After Basic training, Richard was tabbed to be an enlisted radio operator. He completed a radio course at Scott Field in Illinois, and was then transferred to Kelly Field at San Antonio, where he worked in the control tower. After a few months at Kelly, he was transferred to Albuquerque to open a control tower there.
He applied for, and was accepted into, the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program. After Primary school at Hemet, California, and Basic at Bakersfield, he completed Advanced flight school at Luke Field.
Charles W. Richard.
RICHARD FAMILY COLLECTION
P-38 pilots during Transition training. Charles Richard is top row, fifth from left.
KOCOUR
Assigned to the 78th Fighter Group, he completed his Transition training and shipped out for England in November of 1942. Like many of his fellow pilots, he was reassigned to the 14th Fighter Group and was part of the cadre that “restarted” the 14th in the spring of 1943.
Unlike his fellow pilots, Charles Richard was not a commissioned officer. His rank was that of flight officer. In early 1942, the U.S. Army Air Corps had reduced the entrance qualifications for pilot applicants. Where two years of college had formerly been required, by May the regulations stipulated that completion of high school was sufficient to qualify for admission to the Aviation Cadet Program. In July, President Roosevelt acted to create a new rank—akin to a navy warrant officer. The flight officers actually received a higher pay than their commissioned counterparts, and they were not required to perform other functions on base that fell to commissioned officers, such as mail censoring.
Seasoned combat pilots of the 49th. Rear, from left: Frederick Bitter, Carroll S. Knott, Anthony Evans, Harold T. Harper, and Wayne M. Manlove. Front, from left: Marlow J. Leikness, Richard E. Decker, William J. Gregory, and Lloyd K. DeMoss.
COL. HAROLD T. HARPER (RET.)