Consider the Few Men When They Made Their Success
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Capt. Curran L. 'Jack' Jones, a 5-kill ace, flew with Lynch in the 39th squadron. In Eric Bergerud's Fire in the Sky: The Air War in the South Pacific, Jones describes how Lynch balanced aggressivess and calculation. Thomas J. Lynch, born in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, was a precise pilot, a technician. One measure of his skill was the fact that he shot down three Japanese planes while flying the decidedly inferior P-39 Airacobra. Lynch achieved 3 victories in a P-39: 2 over New Guinea on May 20, and another on May 26. The squadron's combat diary include these comments on the P-39 from the pilots: "Could have done better with a truck. It's more maneuverable and will go higher." "Could have done damn good with an altitude ship." But they gave as good as they got in these two months: losing 10 Airacobras (but no pilots), while claiming 10 Zeros. "All good fighter pilots were aggressive. Some were exceptionally so. My dear friend Bob Faurot was like that. ... Tommy Lynch was our leading ace. He was cold-blooded. I think he was the best fighter pilot in the Pacific. In combat he was calculating. ... I preferred flying Tommy's wing compared to Bob's because when Faurot saw the enemy he'd say "Tally Ho! There they are, let's get 'em." He'd climb up straight underneath them and try to attack. Now that's risky against a Zero. You want to maneuver and find a good position to begin your attack before closing. Skill and cunning had to be combined with aggressiveness. Tommy Lynch never forgot he was responsible for the three guys along with himself." Lynch's fine leadership contributed greatly to the success of the 39th Fighter Squadron, which counted twelve aces among its pilots. General MacArthur presented the medal to Bong on the Tacloban airfield on December 12, 1944. He tossed away his written remarks and said, "Major Richard Ira Bong, who has ruled the air from New Guinea to the Philippines, I now induct you into the society of the bravest of the brave, the wearers of the Congressional Medal of Honor of the United States." Then he pinned the medal on Bong, they shook hands and saluted. On August 6, 1945, while half a world away the Enola Gay dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, Bong stepped into an airplane for the last time. His P-80 malfunctioned just after take-off, and while he bailed out, he never had a chance. He was just too close to the ground. After surviving two years of combat flying, Richard Ira Bong met his end while on a routine acceptance flight. Toronto Officer Says U.S. Ace 'Doesn't Know How He Does It’ A United States Fighter Base, England, April 10, 1944 (AP) — Capt. Don S. Gentile, the leading United States Air Force ace in the European war theatre, makes the job of mowing down Nazi planes sound as easy as picking birds off a fence. Asserting in an interview that he believed the Germans — apparently short of experienced fighter pilots — are sending up novices with one veteran to lead them through combat, the 23-year-old airman added: "The Germans always seem to fly in twos or fours, strung out in a line, and they keep right behind the leader no matter what happens — as if they are afraid to branch off." Gentile, who has destroyed 20 planes in the air, with claims of three more pending, in addition to seven destroyed on the ground, willingly acknowledges his debt to his wing man, Lt. Johnny Godfrey, 21, who has 16 kills himself. Godfrey flies behind him, either to the right or left. Gentile keeps tabs on him by asking every few seconds over the radio phone: "Are you still with me, Johnny? Are you still with me, Johnny?" Any German flier who understands English can hear them calmly plotting his doom. "You break to the starboard," Gentile will call out, "and 1'll hesitate and if he follows you around I'll follow him and we'll have him right between us” While Gentile was musing about his Technique, his squadron commander, Major James Goodson of Sultan St., Toronto, a fellow graduate of the R.A.F., said: "Don doesn't know how he does it. He was just born with the knack — and he does it." "Just name a hero, and I'll prove he's a bum." - Pappy's self-assessment Undoubtedly the most colorful and well known Marine Corps' ace was Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, commanding officer of VMF-214. Stories of Pappy Boyington are legion, many founded in fact, including how he led the legendary Black Sheep squadron, and how he served in China as a member of the American Volunteer Group, the famed Flying Tigers. He spent a year and a half as a Japanese POW, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, was recognized as the Marine Corps top ace (more on that below). Always hard-drinking and hard- living, Pappy's post-war life was as turbulent as his wartime experiences. In August of 1943, these 26 pilots, who would become the famous "Black Sheep" included: 8 pilots had flown with Greg in VMF-122: Stan Bailey, Hank Bourgeois, Robert Ewing, Paul "Moon" Mullen, John Begert, Sandy Sims, Bill Case, and Virgil Ray. All but Lt. Ray had already downed at least one Japanese plane. Allan McCartney - 4 kills with a couple Marine squadrons Bob McClurg - originally with VMF-124 Chris Magee, Bill Heier, Don Moore - all had flown with the RCAF John Bolt, Ed Olander, Rollie Rinabarger, George Ashmun - former 'plowback' instructors in the States 8 First Lieutenants with no Corsair experience - Bob Bragdon, Tom Emrich, Don Fisher, Denmark Groover, Walter "Red" Harris, Ed Harper, Jim Hill, and Burney Tucker 2nd Lt. Bruce Matheson "Colonel" Claire Lee Chennault had been in China since the mid-Thirties; he called himself "Colonel," though his highest rank had been Major. An outspoken advocate of "pursuit" (as fighter planes were called then), in an Army Air Force dominated by strategic bomber theorists, he alienated many of his superiors. But in China, equipped with P-40's, he developed the basic fighter tactics that American pilots would use throughout the war. The Japanese planes used over China were much more maneuverable than his Warhawks, whose advantages were: speed in a dive, superior firepower, and better ability to absorb battle damage. Chennault worked out and documented the appropriate tactics that capitalized on the relative strengths of the American fighters: intercept, make a diving pass, avoid dogfighting, and dive away when in trouble. This remained the fundamental U.S. fighter doctrine throughout the Pacific War. My appreciation of the pilot's bravery and Chennault's tactical skills, however, doesn't change my assessment of the unfortunate and perhaps distracting role they played. The Chinese politics and Chinese-American relations at the time were quite complicated. The titular leader of China, Generalissimo Chiang Kai Chek, of the Kuomintang, was engaged in an endless three-way war: his Kuomintang vs. Mao's Communists vs. Japan. And his own power within the Kuomintang was dependent on balancing various warlords, cliques, and factions. The Flying Tigers comprised three squadrons: 1st Squadron - "Adam and Eves" 2nd Squadron - "Panda Bears" 3rd Squadron - "Hell's Angels" The "Black Sheep" fought their way to fame in just 84 days, piling up a record 197 planes destroyed or damaged, troop transports and supply ships sunk, and ground installations destroyed in addition to numerous other victories. They flew their first combat mission on September 14, 1943, escorting Dauntless dive bombers to Ballale, a small island west of Bougainville where the Japanese had a heavily fortified airstrip. They encountered heavy opposition from the enemy Zeros. Two days later, in a similar raid, 'Pappy’ claimed five kills, his best single day total. In October VMF-214 moved up from their orginal base in the Russells to a more advanced location at Munda. From here they were closer to the next big objective -- the Jap bases on Bougainville. On one mission over Bougainville, according to Boyington’s autobiography, the Japanese radioed him in English, asking him to report his position and so forth. Pappy played along, but stayed 5000 feet higher than he had told them, and when the Zeros came along, the Black Sheep blew twelve of them away. (The absolute veracity of Boyington’s autobiography is not certain, but that’s how he told the story.) One night with a quarter moon, he went up to try to deal with "Washing Machine Charlie," but without results. During the period from September 1943 to early January 1944, Boyington destroyed 22 Japanese aircraft. By late December, it was clear that he was closing in on Eddie Rickenbacker’s record of 26 victories (including his questionable 6 with the AVG), and the strain was starting to tell. On Jan. 3, 1944, Boyington was shot down in a large dogfight in which he claimed three enemy aircraft, and was captured. The following is an excerpt from Boyington's Baa Baa Black Sheep describing his final combat mission. It was before dawn on January 3, 1944, on Bougainville. I was having baked beans for breakfast at the edge of the airstrip the Seabees had built, after the Marines had taken a small chunk of land on the beach. As I ate the beans, I glanced over at row after row of white crosses, too far away and too dark to read the names. But I didn't have to, I knew that each cross marked the final resting place of some Marine who had gone as far as he was able in this mortal world of ours.