Spring 1944: Allied heavy bombers and their airborne “little friends” had been hammering away at Fortress Europe since early in the year. Around-the-clock strategic bombardment missions, in concert with low-level “Chattanooga Choo Choo” strafing missions by Allied fighters, helped soften up intended targets. As fliers, our objectives were railways, airfields, and German emplacements, and to knock the Luftwaffe out of the sky.
A newcomer, the North American P-51B/C Mustang, had recently joined the battle-tested P-38 Lightnings and P-47 Thunderbolts of the U.S. Army Air Corps. With its “long legs,” the Mustang could stay with the bombers all the way to the target. Once the bombers released their loads, the Mustangs were set free to roam and search out and destroy targets of opportunity.
As the fighting intensified on two fronts, Hitler’s Germany was in a stranglehold. Th is was the eve of D-Day, the greatest and mightiest invasion the world had ever known. The final knot in the hangman’s noose was about to be tightened.
May 1, 1944 1st Lt. Dan Tuchscherer 359th FG, 370th FS
“When I was assigned to the 359th Fighter Group, 370th Fighter Squadron in April of 1944, we were still operating P-47 Thunderbolts. The Jug was a tough-as-nails airplane and could take a pounding while delivering a heavy beating to the enemy. My first mission was a bomber escort to Hamm. A gaggle of Fw 190s decided to show up as our squadron tangled with them. Although we shot down several of them, I also witnessed my buddy Lt. Earl ‘Buck’ Thomas get hit during the fight and crash his P-47 near Hamm. This was my baptism of combat. Unfortunately the losses would not end there. On May 1, 1944 my flight leader, Capt. Carey Brown, was checking out a new fighter that the whole group was transitioning to, the P-51 Mustang. Although sleek and much leaner looking than the P-47, we quickly realized that one nick in the coolant lines of the Mustang would stop a prop dead in no time. Unfortunately Capt. Brown crashed and was killed during his Mustang checkout.
“I was assigned a new flight leader, a Lt. Ray ‘Smack’ Wetmore who took me under his wing. Ray was a legend in the squadron, and it was said that Ray could spot a mole on a gnat’s ear. He was a superbflight as we became an all-Mustang group in early May.