{"id":3561,"date":"2025-06-11T00:31:42","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T00:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3561"},"modified":"2025-06-11T00:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T00:35:08","slug":"from-the-vaults-air-combat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3561","title":{"rendered":"From the Vaults: Air Combat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Back in April of 2025, we presented some highlights of General Chuck Yeager\u2019s exploits from his West Virginia childhood up through his historic flight that broke the sound barrier for the first time (<\/span>FTV:\u00a0 Chuck Yeager 4-23-25<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 This condensed version of his story touched on his time as a fighter pilot and at the time, I promised to come back and mine his biography for more information about that part of his life.\u00a0 In his book, (<\/span>Yeager – <\/span><\/i>Bantam Books, 1985), many of the men he served with (from enlisted to top brass) repeatedly said he was the best pilot they had ever seen PERIOD!\u00a0 It did grind on some of the other pilots that he was singled out to perform some of the most prestigious flight test programs and they were not.\u00a0 Yeager rose up through the ranks without the educational background many of them had and throughout his Army Air Corp and Air Force career, he always seemed to have a target on his back.\u00a0 Let us go back to his time in World War II when he really was a target and explore what made him such a great fighter pilot.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yeager\u2019s fighter pilot career in Europe started in promising fashion when he scored his first kill over Berlin on Saturday, March 4, 1944.\u00a0 On that mission, he described the weather as \u2018stinking\u2019 but he happened to spot a Messerschmitt Me-109 flying below him.\u00a0 He dove on it and \u2018blew him to pieces\u2019.\u00a0 If he toasted his first kill with \u2018mission whiskey\u2019 to celebrate, it may have crept into his mind that this was just the first taste of victories to come.\u00a0 Ironically, his next mission almost proved to be his last air combat mission of the war.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On March 5, 1944, Yeager took off with a squadron of eighteen P-51 Mustangs.\u00a0 Their mission that day was to escort a formation of B-24s to their target and then fly cover for them on their bombing run.\u00a0 Yeager was one of two \u2018extras\u2019 with the formation.\u00a0 When one of the P-51s experienced engine troubles over the English Channel and turned back, Yeager took his place in the \u2018tail-end charlie\u2019 slot.\u00a0 Chuck described what happened next:\u00a0 \u201cGermans attack from above and behind, and it\u2019s the last tail that gets hit first.\u00a0 I saw the three Focke-Wulf fighters diving at me, and radioed a warning to [flight leader] Captain O\u2019Brien. \u2018Cement-Green leader, three bogies at five o\u2019clock.\u00a0 Break right.\u2019\u00a0 We turned sharply to meet them head-on.\u00a0 As I turned, the first Focke-Wulf hammered me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was only Yeager\u2019s eighth mission and he was about to be \u2018missing in action\u2019.\u00a0 He described the aftermath of his encounter with the F-W 190:\u00a0 \u201cThe world exploded.\u00a0 I ducked to protect my face with my hands, and when I looked a second later, my engine was on fire and there was a gaping hole in my wingtip.\u00a0 My airplane began to spin.\u00a0 It happened so fast there was no time to panic.\u00a0 I knew I was going down.\u00a0 I was barely able to unfasten my safety belt and crawl over the seat before my burning P-51 began to snap and roll, heading for the ground.\u00a0 I just fell out of the cockpit when the plane turned upside down – my canopy was shot away.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As he slowly descended to the French countryside below, he could hear the dog fight raging above and he could see the ground \u2018was crawling with Germans\u2019.\u00a0 Working his shroud lines, he was able to land in a stand of pine trees. \u00a0 Yeager grabbed one as he passed by and it lowered him within six inches of the ground.\u00a0 Yeager\u2019s leg and head were bleeding as he gathered his parachute and moved deeper into the woods.\u00a0 He treated the shrapnel puncture wounds in his feet and hands knowing the Germans saw him come down and were searching for him.\u00a0 The silk map sewn in the lining of his flight jacket showed he was about 50 miles east of Bordeaux near the town of Angouleme – the location of a German airdrome that was bombed just before he was shot down.\u00a0 His best hope was to find members of the French underground to hide him and help him escape over the Pyrenees into Spain.\u00a0 Yeager\u2019s plan to evade capture took many weeks to play out, but this is a longer story than we need to tell here while discussing his air combat experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yeager described flying as a wingman for Col. Henry Spicer whom he described as, \u201cA daring pilot with a bristling mustache, who loved to dogfight and could care less about the personal risks.\u201d\u00a0 It was Col. Spicer\u2019s habit to drop below 12,000 feet on the way home from missions.\u00a0 At that altitude, he would unhook his oxygen mask and light his beloved briar pipe.\u00a0 After one mission, they were over Paris when the pipe ritual began as the German flak guns began to pound the sky around them.\u00a0 Yeager suggested they climb to avoid being shot down, to which\u00a0 Spicer replied from his cloud of smoke, \u201cRelax, laddie, those (expletive deleted) couldn\u2019t hit a billboard.\u201d\u00a0 On a later mission, Col. Spicer was brought down by white flak while lighting his pipe near the French coast.\u00a0 He was forced to bail out over the Channel and was picked up by the Germans.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Yeager returned from Spain in May, 1944, he was classified as an \u2018evader\u2019 – one who escaped capture by the Germans.\u00a0 This stamped his ticket home and while the idea of going home to marry his girlfriend Glennis appealed, he felt like a bug-out artist.\u00a0 He sat in his room looking at the empty mattress for his roommate, Mack McKee who had been shot down a couple of weeks after Chuck.\u00a0 He made a decision.\u00a0 Yeager bucked the \u2018evader\u2019 policy all the way up to the top, eventually meeting face to face with the Allied Supreme Commander, General Eisenhower.\u00a0 Chuck and a bomber pilot named Fred Glover were in London on June 1st to meet with a two star general the morning the first V-1 buzz bomb landed a few blocks from their hotel.\u00a0 A two star general told them, \u201cI will see what I can do,\u201d and the next morning, they were ushered in to see Ike.\u00a0 General Eisenhower told them, \u201cI just wanted to see the two guys that think they are getting a raw deal by being sent home.\u201d\u00a0 He went on to explain that the War Department would have to rule on their request but in the meantime, he told Yeager and Glover they could keep flying in England to train new recruits.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In typical Yeager style, he was training new pilots in the art of dogfighting when he managed to get a royal chewing out.\u00a0 While training over the base, he was ordered to take their four plane formation over the North Sea to provide air cover for a B-17 crew who ditched and were in a dinghy waiting to be rescued.\u00a0 They got over the site and spotted a Junkers JU-88 approaching, probably on the way to strafe the downed crew.\u00a0 The JU-88 turned to run and Yeager instinctively \u2018cobbed his engine\u2019 to chase him down.\u00a0 Dodging flak, Yeager shot the German down over the coastline of occupied Heligoland.\u00a0 His squadron commander\u00a0 yelled, \u201cYeager, can\u2019t you do anything right?\u201d\u00a0 The gun camera film was given to another pilot who was able to claim it as his fifth kill (making him an ace) and the airtime was logged for the new pilots.\u00a0 Yeager was grounded.\u00a0 Two days later, Eisenhower\u2019s office informed him his request was granted and he could return to his squadron.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Up at 5:30 a.m., the flight day began with the group leader running down the schedule followed by intelligence and a weather briefing.\u00a0 Suiting up meant layers of wool socks and undergarments beneath a flight suit that was topped off with a Mae West life jacket over a leather flight jacket.\u00a0 As glamorous as Hollywood tries to make air combat, it is anything but.\u00a0 After breakfast and a trip to the latrine (which was important when flying in the high altitudes where the temperature is well below zero – the pilot\u2019s elimination tube would usually freeze solid.\u00a0 They would take off at 8 a.m. and head to the rendezvous point.\u00a0 Heading toward 28,000 feet, they would strap on their oxygen masks and in the non-pressurized cabin, pilots fatigued easily.\u00a0 At 60 below zero, the small cabin heater kept the pilot\u2019s right foot warm while the left foot was numb.\u00a0 A typical bomber escort deep into Germany could last more than six hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yeager was flying as wingman for Capt. Charles Peters P-51D (named <\/span>Daddy Rabbit<\/span><\/i>) on bomber escort over Germany on what was to be Peters\u2019 last mission.\u00a0 One of the bombers took a flak hit and blew up in a fireball, going down with the crew still aboard.\u00a0 The squadron commander ordered the fighters to drop their wing tanks before they encountered German fighters.\u00a0 <\/span>Rabbit Daddy<\/span><\/i> dropped his tanks and immediately fell out of formation when his engine quit.\u00a0 Yeager followed him down and as they neared the ground, he and Peters talked through the problem.\u00a0 Chuck told him to hold off on bailing out:\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m gonna ride in that thing tomorrow.\u00a0 Let\u2019s figure this out.\u201d\u00a0 The P-51D was an improved version of Yeager\u2019s P-51 and Yeager had already planned on painting over <\/span>Rabbit Daddy<\/span><\/i> with Glamorous Glennis III the next day when Peters went home.\u00a0 \u201cHey, what about your fuel mixture?\u00a0 Go to emergency rich and see what happens,\u201d Chuck radioed Peters.\u00a0 The engine came alive and he headed up and homeward-bound:\u00a0 \u201cI must\u2019ve accidentally knocked back my mixture control when I pulled the wing tank release cable,\u201d he called back in a shaky voice.\u00a0 Chuck, equally shaken by how close <\/span>Rabbit Daddy <\/span><\/i>had come to plowing into the Earth on Peters\u2019 last mission, told him, \u201cDaddy, you park that thing and hand over the keys.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By the summer of 1944, the Germans fighter squadrons were few and far between which, as far as Yeager and the other fighter jocks were concerned, was frustrating.\u00a0 They much preferred mixing it up with the German fighters than alternative missions.\u00a0 As Chuck\u2019s new roommate (and the best fighter pilot Yeager had ever seen) simply pointed out, \u201cChuck, if we don\u2019t see \u2018em, they just ain\u2019t there.\u201d\u00a0 This said a lot as Bud Anderson, like Yeager, had exceptional eyesight, an asset greatly appreciated by other squadron fliers in the days before on board radar became a pilot\u2019s best friend.\u00a0 Yeager was frustrated by the lack of air combat because he still only had one certified kill, far from the five needed to gain the status of being an \u2018Ace\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The \u2018alternate missions\u2019 alluded to above sent them \u2018down on the deck\u2019 to find \u2018targets of opportunity\u2019 like trains, barges, and motor convoys.\u00a0 This was dangerous stuff:\u00a0 \u201cWe lost Ed Hiro in early September.\u00a0 He was strafing German positions in support of the airborne invasion of Arnheim, Holland when he was shot down on his last mission.\u00a0 We lost Eddie Simpson when he collided with another Mustang on the deck over France.\u201d\u00a0 After one particularly \u2018hairy strafing run\u2019, \u201cWe climbed on the wing of Col. Don Graham\u2019s (the wing commander) Mustang . . . [Graham] stopped and stared at his propeller blades.\u00a0 One of them had a bullet hole the size of a silver dollar.\u00a0 We also lost Stuffy Gambel that day and with each loss, there were now only a handful of us original guys who joined the 363rd the day it originated.\u00a0 We drew so close, it was as if we were flying in our own separate squadron.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On September 18, 1944, Yeager led two squadrons in support of airborne landings in Holland.\u00a0 Their orders were to stay at 5,000 feet but it was a helpless feeling watching the slow flying C-47s towing troop filled gliders through the heavy German flak and small arms fire.\u00a0 Many of these Waco CG-4A gliders were assembled at the Ford Motor Company plant in Kingsford, Michigan.\u00a0 Yeager remembered. \u201cTen of them were blown out of the sky in minutes, and the ground was littered with smashed gliders.\u00a0 It was a bloodbath and part of me ached to get down on the deck and strafe the hell our of those German guns;\u00a0 but our orders were to stay at 5,000 feet, well above the murderous flak, and escort the surviving C-47s out of there.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There were more than twenty aces in the 357th Fighter Group, and Yeager still wasn\u2019t one of them.\u00a0 He was shocked when group headquarters picked him to lead the entire group on a mission.\u00a0 Only a 21 year-old second lieutenant at the time, the group noticed his ability as a pilot and his keen eyesight:\u00a0 \u201cBeing out there in front, your job is to see the enemy ahead of anybody and there was nobody in the entire group who claimed they could outsee me.\u201d\u00a0 On October 12, Chuck said a quick prayer (\u201cLord, just don\u2019t let me screw up\u201d) before leading the group on a bombing escort mission over Bremen.\u00a0 Not only would he become an ace that day, he made five victories to become the first \u2018ace in a day\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yeager says he, \u201cTakes credit for being plenty lucky,\u201d that day, but flying a hundred miles ahead of the bomber group, his \u2018combat vision\u2019 gave his fighter group the edge:\u00a0 \u201cI spotted specks about fifty miles ahead.\u00a0 We were at 28,000 feet and coming at the German fighters from out of the sun and closing fast.\u00a0 I was able to count twenty-two Me-109s just sitting up there waiting for our bombers.\u201d\u00a0 The German squad leader either did not see them coming or thought they were additional Me-109s as they took no evasive action.\u00a0 \u201cI was in the lead and came in behind their tail-end charlie when he suddenly broke left and collided with his wingman.\u00a0 They both bailed out and it was almost comic, scoring two quick victories without firing a shot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0All the aircraft had now jettisoned their wing tanks and were fully engaged in a \u2018wild, wide open dogfight\u2019:\u00a0 \u201cI blew up a 109 from six hundred yards – my third victory – when I turned around and saw another angling in behind me.\u00a0 Man, I pulled back on my throttle so damned hard I nearly stalled, rolled up and over, came in behind and under him, kicking right rudder and simultaneously firing.\u00a0 I was directly underneath the guy, less than fifty feet, and I opened up that 109 as if it were a can of Spam.\u00a0 That made four.\u00a0 A moment later, I waxed a guy\u2019s fanny in a steep dive;\u00a0 I pulled up at about 1,000 feet;\u00a0 he went straight into the ground.\u201d\u00a0 The front page headline in <\/span>Stars and Stripes<\/span><\/i> summed it up in one neat package:\u00a0 FIVE KILLS VINDICATE IKE\u201dS DECISION and the group commanders recommended Yeager for the Silver Star.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the end, Chuck Yeager would make his uneventful last flight with Bud Anderson.\u00a0 They were the extras on that day and when no other Mustangs had trouble, they did a little sight-seeing by air.\u00a0 Chuck showed Anderson where he had been shot down and spent time with the French underground.\u00a0 They dropped their wing tanks and used all their ammo trying to blow them\u00a0 up (successfully (Yeager) or unsuccessfully (Anderson) depending which one you asked).\u00a0 His 11 victories included one Me-262 jet aircraft – planes that had a 150 mph speed advantage over the P-51s.\u00a0 The German pilots were terrified of having one of these captured so they usually took a quick run at the Mustangs and high tailed it away from danger.\u00a0 Yeager was returning to the Channel and spotted one Me-262 on landing approach.\u00a0 He dove at it and recorded a rare kill of this elusive prey.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Space dictates the end of this <\/span>FTV, <\/span><\/i>well short of telling all of the tales of General Chuck Yeager\u2019s outstanding career.\u00a0 By the time this goes to print, the book will be at the Ontonagon Township Library if you are interested in more fascinating tales about this great American flyer.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Iron Maiden –\u00a0Aces High\u00a0<\/em>from 1984 – Spitfires, not P40 Mustangs, but still appropriate to Chuck Yeager’s war experiences.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Back in April of 2025, we presented some highlights of General Chuck Yeager\u2019s exploits from his West Virginia childhood up through his historic flight that broke the sound barrier for the first time (FTV:\u00a0 Chuck Yeager 4-23-25).\u00a0 This condensed version of his story touched on his time as a fighter pilot and at the time, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3561"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3564,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561\/revisions\/3564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}