The American Fighter Aces Association Oral Interviews The Museum of Flight Seattle, Washington George P. Novotny Interview Date: circa 1980s-1990s 2 Abstract: Fighter ace George P. Novotny discusses his military service with the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He describes his experiences as a fighter pilot, including his time in the Mediterranean Theater with the 325th Fighter Group. Topics discussed include his training and service history, notable missions and aerial victories, and military life in North Africa. The audio has brief moments of distortion throughout the recording. Biography: George P. Novotny was born on February 22, 1920 in Toledo, Ohio. He joined the United States Army Air Forces in 1942 and graduated from flight training the following year. After a stateside assignment with the 54th Fighter Group, Novotny was deployed to North Africa, where he joined the 317th Fighter Squadron of the 325th Fighter Group. During his combat tour, he flew missions over Italy, Bulgaria, and other areas of the Mediterranean Theater and became a member of the 325th’s “Fearsome Foursome.” He also participated in an escort mission for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s aircraft when it was en route to the Tehran Conference. After the end of his combat tour, Novotny served at Oscoda Army Air Base (Michigan) as a flight instructor, teaching Free French Air Force pilots how to fly the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. He left the military after World War II and embarked on a career with Capital Airlines and Trans World Airlines (TWA). Novotny retired in 1982 and passed away in 2018. Biographical information courtesy of: Boyce, Ward J., ed., American fighter aces album. Mesa, Ariz: American Fighter Aces Association, 1996. Restrictions: Permission to publish material from the American Fighter Aces Association Oral Interviews must be obtained from The Museum of Flight Archives. Transcript: Transcribed by Pioneer Transcription Services 3 Index: Flight training and assignment to the 54th Fighter Group .............................................................. 4 Service in the Mediterranean Theater ............................................................................................. 5 Bomber escort mission to Sicily (July 7, 1943) .............................................................................. 5 First aerial victory ........................................................................................................................... 6 Fighter sweep to Sardinia (July 30, 1943) ...................................................................................... 7 Another fighter sweep to Sardinia (August 28, 1943) .................................................................... 9 Transition from the Curtiss P-40 Warhark to the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt ............................... 9 Escort mission to the Tehran Conference ..................................................................................... 10 Military life in North Africa ......................................................................................................... 10 Service in Foggia, Italy ................................................................................................................. 12 Bomber escort mission to Northern Italy (1944) .......................................................................... 13 Other missions and aerial victories ............................................................................................... 15 Return to the United States and flight instructor assignment ....................................................... 18 Service overview and conclusion.................................................................................................. 19 4 George P. Novotny [START OF INTERVIEW] [Begin Side A] 00:00:00 [Flight training and assignment to the 54th Fighter Group] GEORGE P. NOVOTNY: This is George Novotny. I’m sorry it took so long to get this tape made and off to you, but I guess when you get kind of old, why, everything goes slow and it takes a little time to do. And I had to refresh my memory by digging back through the files that I have or information on my service. I’ll start out and say that I was a college student in 1942 when I got my draft notice, and I decided I didn’t want to be—to carry a gun. And I thought the Air Corps was something. I already had two years of college in, so I fit the requisites for joining the Air Corps. I signed up on January 5, 1942. That was about a month after Pearl Harbor. I was assigned to the Southeast Air Corps and went through preflight at Maxwell, primary training at Avon Park, Florida with the PT-17. Basic training was at Shaw Field with a BT-13, and advanced school was Spence Field, Georgia. And I graduated January 13th, 1943. I was assigned then to the 54th Fighter Group, which was stationed at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And there I got checked out in a P-40. P-40M, by the way. And I went on for about two months there, accumulating about 35 hours. And in April of ‘43, a bunch of us which were new replacement pilots with the 54th Fighter Group—about six of us were sent down to Tallahassee to prepare for overseas assignment. But it seemed like we spent two weeks at Dale Mabry there, just loafing around, and then we were sent back to Baton Rouge with the 54th Fighter Group. And they had gotten about ten or twelve P-51As. Now, that was the 51A with the cannons in the wing. These were not the A-36s. These were P-51As. Well, we got about—I think about ten hours in it. And lo and behold, they took us again and shipped us to Miami, Florida, Boca Raton. And in about the middle of May there, they started to ship us overseas. Now we were going by air—via air transport—or the Army Transport Command, I guess it was—and went via the southern route, via Puerto Rico, Belém, Natal, over to Dakar, North Africa. And then we were sent up to Casablanca. And at Casablanca—which was about May 20 of ‘43—we were put into a place called Berrechid, which is in Morocco there. And there was a small field there, and this is what became to be known as the pilot replacement center for North Africa. 00:04:21 5 [Service in the Mediterranean Theater] During my stay there, we did some flying. Some of the lucky pilots like myself got to ferry airplanes, P-40s, up to Telergma and Constantine in Algeria. This was new airplanes that were coming off of carriers into Casablanca. And they were test-hopped at Casa Airport there, and then they wanted pilots to send them up. Well, I volunteered—well, they’d asked many of us if we wanted to do it. Well, I didn’t mind it at all. It was getting time. So I remember flying two round trips up there. And of course, the ATC would run us back in C-47s back to Casablanca. Then around the 15th of June, I was assigned to the 325th Fighter Group, which was stationed at—I believe it was Souk-el-Khemis. And then we—when we got to Souk-el-Khemis, the group had already moved to Mateur. So they had to chase—we had to chase them down there. There was two pilots that were assigned to the 325th at the time, and they were in combat with P-40Fs and some Ls. Now, I mentioned back there I trained in Ms, so it was a comedown for me to fly Fs in combat. [laughs] [Bomber escort mission to Sicily (July 7, 1943)] My first mission was actually—I believe it was about July 7th. I went on an escort mission to Sicily. Of course, you have to fix the war here. We were—we already had taken North Africa, and we were—the 325th and the fighters in the Twelfth Air Force was softening up both Sicily and Sardinia, and that was like our prime targets at this time. And our missions were escort, usually, of medium bombers or dive bombing or strafing. Or we used to carry fragmentations, also—bombs. We could carry six of them, and we’d drop them in—on airdromes in Sicily and Sardinia. My first mission was the July 7th, and like I say, it was an escort mission with A-20s. Now, the—[audio distortion]—the A-20s were British or South African. I don’t remember which, but they had the British marking on them. But the mission was to—they were to bomb this airport at Trapani, which is in the western part of Sicily. The Germans had a lot of activity going on there, so they were going to try to disrupt the runways there with a couple bombs. And it took about 12 A-20s, and it was really something with a P-40 trying to escort them. The A-20s were faster than the P-40s we had. But it startled me because, it being my first mission, as we were watching these bombers, which—they went over the target—I mean they were first at 12,000 feet, and we were at about 14,000. And we were just pushing along there darn near full throttle to keep up with them. And as they got closer to Sicily, they started maneuvers or evasive action, and it seemed like they would rock the airplane from right to left. And they were like doing S turns, but not completely, just waving back and forth. These 12 A-20s was in a string formation. And the lower guy, the 6 lead, was low, and then they had the other 11 stacked up behind him. And they would watch each other, and like I say, they—they’re almost in unison the way that they made their evasive action, and as they came into the target area and—it was—the bombing level was going to be 8,000 feet, so they had to drop about 4,000 feet there. And they just like dove and [unintelligible 00:09:16] in this turning evasive action, S-ing like that. And of course, they leveled off. And when it got over the target area—the bomb area—and let loose their bombs there and then made a sharp turn off the target area and actually dove to the water. It was really something to see. And of course, like us, we were having a hell of a time staying with them.