I finally found another one of my old posts from Prodigy. It doesn't make all that sense cause it must have been edited like they loved to do.

I don't compare myself to my friends who are
HEROs and survived the Bataan Death March, either. Like
most of the men who do great things including fight the
wars, extraordinary opportunities open to some to express
their bravery and ability, but the rest of us merely did
our jobs.

However, I will share one more little tidbit. My experiences
aren't that uncommon or varied, and I did some unusually
stupid and careless acts and still survived. But I flew
more than my share of hours and stayed in the Pacific
after the war longer than most. So watch my next post
under P-38...

Also, in the future, I may start a topic named the P-61
in which I will just chat about my experiences in the
Black Widow night fighter. Considering that I was selected
from the P-38's to fly the Black Widow because they were both
twin engined aircraft, they sure were different! I flew
that aircraft the last months of the war and through 1946
into early 1949 off Naha Army Air Base on Okinawa. You'll
love it! Yeah, right......

After the invasion of Okinawa on April 1, 1945, a number
of Fighter Groups, including the one I was assigned to;
were assigned to Ie Shima and later to several repaired to
useable runways on Okinawa itself; such as Yontan and Naha.
Some Groups were to support the ground forces and provide
Combat Air Cover and a few began bomber escort on flights
to Japan. We were "remembering Pearl Harbor" and taking
the War to the Japanese people, giving them a view of
American power and resolve! As the Infantry was making
headway on the Island under air superiority, the Japanese
were unleashing kamikaze aircraft against our navy. Our
Navy was supporting our Army and Marines on the Island
in fine style. These Kamikaze's had also shown up in
the Philippines. The Air Corps was occasionally given
the opportunity to help stave off the attacks, when not
supporting ground personnel, or ridding the air of any
Japanese combat aircraft. The Navy took prime
responsibility for protecting their ships, but sometimes
there is work for everyone!

We were flying an early morning flight. I hated those
early flights because I didn't rise early very well.
Later, they solved that by assigning me to night fighters.
Nothing like a P-61 to make you miss the P-38!
Still, I flew my share of flights and for others who were
just worn out, so to speak. Rotation home was in full
swing and new, fresh, and some smart-assed, hot shot pilots
like me were coming in. Those earlier men had fought when
they were outnumbered and under-equipped and still gave an
account of themselves at ratios of better than five to one
in loses. The older pilots had been in combat for years
and needed someone to take over for them. They had knocked
out so many enemy airplanes they almost had won the war
already. We just came in to sweep up for them!

We were informed that probable enemy aircraft were on a
heading toward the fleet, and clearly not the Island. The
Navy was preparing to launch, but they needed us to help
until they got there. I was flying a P-38 that I had named
"Wyatt Earp" after the somewhat noted gunfighter. (The humor
and relationship about this will strike you later). I had
loaded primarily incendiary and tracer ammunition as this
type of ammo starts fires and disrupts activities in the
caves and emplacements we often hit. We thought we would
be supporting ground troops by helping root out the
Japanese troops in those caves and emplacements.
The theory in attempting to stave off attacking kamikazes
was to hit the explosive charge and blow the aircraft up,
or kill the pilot so he can't guide his aircraft into any
target. Sounds a bit cold-blooded and I suppose it is,
but War is War! We weren't throwing wet sponges at each
other over there! Every dead pilot was one you would
never meet again in the clouds!

Incendiary helps set off the fuel and explosives and
anything works when you hit the cockpit! The Japanese
were not very protective of their pilots. They kept their
airplanes light by not installing armor plate to protect
the pilot as we did, and had not given their fuel tanks
any self-sealing ability. A hit in the right place and
the least you got was a fire and usually an explosion.
Up to this time, much of our work was patrol, air
coverage, bomber escort and ground support. I had shot up
tons of vehicles and my share of Japanese troops, but I
had not had the opportunity to fire on an enemy aircraft.
However, I had followed my wingman when he shot up a
couple. I spotted a small group of six enemy aircraft,
I think they were old "Hamps," strung out pretty far apart
at about 3,000 feet and we were about 11,000 feet. They were
flying a heading that would take them to the fleet in a
few minutes, and first light was just now hitting the
ships with no Navy aircraft about, yet.

The Japanese had shown themselves as excellent navigators
who could fly across lots of water and end up where they
wanted to be! We probably have no idea how many of theirs
got wet and never found their target, but we knew about
lots of ours! These young rookie pilots were no exception
for they would certainly be close to target in a few
minutes. Our flight commander gave the order, and we headed
after the first three aircraft with our three pairs. My
wingman told me I had earned a chance, so he dropped behind
me and gave me the honor - or so I thought. Darned if my
hands didn't get sweaty again and my nerves giving me a fit, to
the extent I was sure I'd wet my britches! The air at
that altitude was around 45 degrees and I shouldn't be
sweating! Although I had flown a number of sorties, I was
getting the "fever" again with this opportunity to prepare
for an apparent easy kill and follow through.
We came at the enemy, from "eight o'clock high" which had
us darting out of the clouds. (Seems as if there were
always clouds in the Pacific areas)! It was apparent
these poor guys were not experienced pilots, or at least
they weren't alert, and I am certain they had little or no
defensive armament with which to defend themselves.
Every one was shot down and not a one seemed to take
evasive action or try simple aerobatic maneuvers to keep
from being hit. Unfortunately, more were on the way and a
couple got near the fleet before the Navy shot them down.
Anyway, I had increased my speed to about 425 or so and
was concentrating on getting the enemy aircraft in my
sights and giving the proper lead, etc. (I had always
scored pretty well in shooting, especially at ground
targets). This was almost like hitting a ground target
and I was filling up my sight picture awfully fast!

Just as I got exactly where I wanted to be, my wingman
told me to break left and he'd finish the guy off! I
broke left, then dropped a few hundred feet, backed off
the throttle, broke right and recovered my speed and got
on his right wing at the rear. Finish him off!? I hadn't
done anything yet! Or had I? It seems the whole time I
was getting the "perfect" sighting and set up, I had
unwittingly - make that carelessly - been firing my guns
until they were out of ammunition - nearly two thousand
rounds of tracer/incendiary and I hadn't seen anything
because of target fixation!

My wingman did shoot down the enemy aircraft I had
possibly frightened to near death. I got some hits
because his airplane broke apart between tail and cockpit
after my wingman just squirted him a little. I couldn't
find a deep enough hole to hide in when we returned to the
runway to re-arm and refuel. That night and the next week,
until I finally shot down an aircraft, were the most
miserable and embarrassing days of my life! Everyone tried
to kid me and encourage me; one nice soul suggested I had
singlehandedly shown the Japanese we had lots more
ammunition than they, only no one would know since there
were no survivors of those six aircraft, unless the pilot
of that bird had a radio!

When I finally got an enemy aircraft, he went down with
less than 100 expended shells and I came home with nearly
full belts. Another story for another time, perhaps.

If you have a story, write it up and enter it like some of
the rest of us have... Soon there will be no one left to
tell the truth about the "War to end all wars!" Wotta are
ya waiting for??

I've bared my soul for you, what are you going to do for
us? Sounds like the ME generation, don't I? Sorry..

Thanks for sharing that with us FP! I can well imagine that a person could easily "blow off" his entire ammo supply without even realizing it. I'll bey you did get your share of ribbing over that first encounter.

__________________
Happy Trails,
Clint.

I'll take the committment of a "Wyatt Earp" like you anyday. Good story!

__________________
Best Regards,
JW

another great first person account FP, thank you very much

may I ask what NFS you were from during the last months or so of the war in the Pacific flying the Widow ? I was a former friend of the US NFS before they dissolved in October years ago, and made some special friends with several pilots of both the ETO and PTO

thanks again and looking forward to more from you.

v/r

Erich ~ and lastly was Wyatt Earp painted on the nose of your P-38 ?

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Rip it up !

No pix, just the name Wyatt Earp in medium black letters. I had hoped Earp was as good a shot as I had proven in the AAF.

i jus realized that my post wasn't totally shown on the screen. I was in an overloaded 418th NFS at almost group strength. Sorry bout that?

For lack of a better word, did you feel "confident" in your training the first time you flew into an area where combat was likely?

Confident, by that I mean where compared to your adversary? Did you feel as prepared as possible to winning a fight with the Japanese pilots?

Do you remember roughly how many hours you had when you went to your operational squadron?

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Best Regards,
JW

Yes, I felt confident, but that doesn't mean you aren't fearful or over alert. During flight training, we were told we would go up against pilots that may have flown since the start of the war but found out most of them were dead or disabled and their replacements were less well trained than us.
I had about 550 hours when I got my wings in December of 44. Then nearly a hundred hours transition into the P-38 for more than six hundred hours. I was flying against kids with a hundred hours before combat and that gave us confidence with a capital C!

Although not a WWII Vet, I cut my teeth in a pt-17. My first time to taxi out and take off at the controls I was a "little" nervous, this pt-17 had a 320 hp engine and was used for aerobatics. Well, as I pushed the throttle in, I hadn't input any rudder, and I had released the brakes. Needless to say the torque generated by the uprated engine really got my attention. About 3/4 of the way around I caught the ground loop and thought for sure I was about to receive a thump on the back of the head from my instructor. When the thump never came I turned around and he had his hands in the air like someone had the drop on him with a .45. He grinned and said he wanted the guys in the hangar to know it wasn't him driving.
Well, I lined back up took off, and flew a great flight. When I came in to land, also the first time at the controls for landing, I hit a perfect three point landing. The guys in the hangar had awarded me an appropriate doughnut with 1/4 taken out. I figured the ribbing would have been worse, but my instructor said since I hit the landing so well they cut me some slack. I never made another landing like that one though. I also didn't have to live with the guys there so it was soon forgotten, almost!
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
John

They are really very cool, very wonderful.

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