404 Fighter Group Combat History - Winkton

1 LEAP OFF 404th Fighter Group Combat History Leap off, leap off, leap off! The mission's rough, the flak is tough, But we are tougher! Leap off, leap off, leap off! The guns may puff, that's not enough, We'll make them suffer. The formation's perfect with the planes all in place, The ships all in echelon are such a pretty sight; The target is spotted and the flak's in our face, As the leader takes the Group down flight by flight. Leap down, leap down, leap down! Release we must, the target's dust My tail is busted! Leap out, leap out, leap out! Now I'll be stuffed in Stalag Luft For the du-ra-tion! (Apologies to the popular song, Amor, Amor, vintage 1944) 2 FORWARD This book is designed to give those who were members of the 404th Fighter Group during the period 1943-1945 some basis of fact around which they can weave their own fairy tales of personal wartime experience.

2 It is not an "official" History in the accepted meaning of the term. But it is as true and accurate a History as your editor could compile, based on the documents, notes and verbal testimony of those who prepared the "official" histories of the 404th Group and its squadrons, plus interviews by and personal notes of the editor which do not appear in any "official" History . It also includes a vast amount of photographic material organized to an extent that was impossible at the time the "official" histories of the Group were being prepared. Scores of individuals in the Group contributed in one way or another to this book; it is the editor's regret that he knows only a few of the contributors by name, and virtually none of those who supplied the humorous anecdotes scattered through the sections devoted to the individual squadrons.

3 The squadron material was compiled by squadron personnel, under the direction of the squadron intelligence sections, while we were stationed at Stuttgart. An important part of the general Group narrative including the Battle of the Ardennes Bulge was written at Stuttgart by your editor and Al Gelders. Your editor completed the writing of the narrative, captioning of pictures and other associated editorial activities during the period September, 1945-December, 1948, while also engaged in expanding his family from one to three sons and pursuing normal peacetime employment in Buffalo, N. Y. and Detroit, Michigan. We have tried to mention by name most if not all of the members of the Group , somewhere in the book. We have included certain unflattering nicknames and anecdotes of individuals as supplied by their squadron mates because they provide the authentic flavor of the crude but good-natured humor that entertained us while we were members of the 404th.

4 We intended no embarrassment to anyone, and trust that none is occasioned by anything in this book. Use of the officers' club fund accumulated by the Group in Europe has made it possible to send complimentary copies of this book to the families of those members of the 404th lost overseas. We trust the full account of the contribution toward victory in Europe made by their loved ones may compensate these families in some measure for the old sorrows which this book unavoidably will renew. For those of us who returned safely, it is our hope that this book will prove to be a worthwhile souvenir of that period in our lives when we were bound together through the accidents of military organization for one of the most violent periods in world History . Andrew F.

5 Wilson (Ex-507th Squadron S-2, Ex- Group PRO) 3 Emblem of the 404th Fighter Group IGNE FERROQUE HOSTEM ARMATUM CONTERE Designed in January 1945, the insignia of the 404th Fighter Group is a heraldic shield, showing a cracked shield, a fallen helmet and a broken sword being struck by a thunderbolt. Background colors are blue sky, and blood-red ground. The Latin inscription, Igne ferroque hostem armatum contere, on a scroll beneath the shield, may be rendered, "With fire and steel crush the armed (or armored) foe." It is our understanding that Lt. Col. Leo C. Moon, S/Sgt. Luis M. Henderson and Sgt. Joseph H. Saling all participated in the conception, design and execution of this insignia. Both the inscription and the symbolism of the shield (the enemy's defensive armor), the sword (his weapons), the helmet (enemy personnel), and the thunderbolt (representing both attack from the air, and the type of aircraft used by the Group ), are singularly appropriate.

6 4 History of the 404th Fighter Group 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS LEAP THE TRAINING "OFF WE GO .."..10 INTO WAR OF THE BAD-WEATHER LULL BEFORE THE ARDENNES HAPPY NEW ON TO THE DEUTSCHLAND CASUALTIES THE SUMMING THE NEW YEAR'S DAY THE LUFTWAFFE -- THE FAILURE OF A AS LONG AS THERE ARE 404TH Fighter Group COMMENDATIONS, AIR Combat Group 6506TH Fighter 507TH Fighter 508TH Fighter 7 INTRODUCTION In November, 1944, when Field Marshal Model, German Army Group Commander, was trying to convince his troops that they still could make a success of things by "limited objective counter attacks" in a defensive battle, he prepared an evaluation of Allied strength and wrote: "Enemy No. 1 is the hostile air force .." In December, 1944, at a special press conference, Lieut.

7 Generals Omar Bradley and George Patton, who commanded the American armies in the Battle of France, emphasized that the tremendous sweeping advance would have been impossible without the help of the Ninth United States Army Air Force. Since the end of the war other witnesses high in rank, both on the American and the enemy side, have testified to the tremendous contribution made by tactical air power to the land-battle in Europe. From the German van Rundstedt from our own General George C. Marshall and others has come testimony which indicates that the employment of the tactical air arm was the thing that swung the tide - that provided the margin of superiority displayed by the Allied over the German armed forces. Temperate judgment at this late date, some three years after the end of the second World War, makes it clear that no single arm or service can claim without injustice to others that "we won the war;" obviously the interaction of Army, Navy and Air Force in all theaters accomplished the victory, which none could have won alone.

8 In Europe the American, British and Canadian armies did the dirty work; slogged through to seize the ground; met the enemy at his strongest face to face. Their land-drives swept the enemy back from the face of Europe, and their occupation of his soil led to the final surrender. We of the air force, whose mission was to support their mission, salute their achievement . Our story here, however, seeks to demonstrate by example of a single Fighter Group , how a weapon unique in warfare and perhaps never to be used again, the Tactical Air Arm, could provide the decisive margin in the complete conquest on an efficient powerful land-army by an approximately equal force. The Ninth Air Force in the Battle of Europe was about one-third medium bombers, and two-thirds Fighter bombers. Before the great buildup, in November and December, 1943, however, the Ninth was almost completely a medium-bomber force.

9 Someone in Washington who knew what the score was, started hustling new Fighter groups into operation with the new, tactical Ninth, so that an experienced force of ground-strafing, dive-bombing Fighter -bombers would be ready to fulfill its destiny June 6, 1944. To be adequate, the Fighter strength of the Ninth as of the first of the year had to be doubled to meet invasion plans. At the last minute it became apparent that two newly formed and urgently needed groups would be unable to reach the state of training necessary for Combat operations in time. So the Air staff picked on two established units, engaged in the monotonous work of replacement training - turning out dozens of Fighter pilots every few weeks for shipment in small batches to outfits already in Combat . One of these "replacements training units" was the 404th Group , then stationed at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where General Jimmy Doolittle's first Tokyo raiders conditioned themselves for their famous one-way flight.

10 This is the story of the 404th Fighter Group , of how it was "tailor-made" at short notice for the Battle of Europe, and of how it fulfilled its historic commitment. 8 Chapter One THE TRAINING PHASE "Take the star out of the window, mother: I'm in R. T. U." If you're ever been in a Replacement Training Unit, you'll know what I mean. An R. T. U. outfit was stagnation plus. Generally you sat in a nice soft spot at an army air field in the states, drove to work like a banker from your apartment in the neighboring town at nine o'clock in the morning, killed a couple of hours between eleven and one, and started yawning and thinking about knocking off for the day about 3:30 in the afternoon. If you were a pilot, you'd find yourself with a dozen flyable planes and 80 other pilots trying to fly them.