DIARY
OF A P-38
COMBAT PILOT
World War II aerial combat was a crucible that transformed young men into men of steel. Just being there in Europe, doing the job they came for, made heroes of them all. This is the story of one such hero, told by his own hand. It gives the rest of us just a glimpse of real history; not one written by historians in broad, big-picture brush strokes, but written by he who lived it every day, through each mission, never knowing if it would be his last.
By Pat Brown
Prologue and editing by Ron Fox
DIARY OF MY COMBAT MISSIONS
25 Aug 1943 I was assigned to the
12th Air Force, 82nd Fighter Group, 96th Fighter Squadron (“The Slugging
Jackrabbits”). In the following write-ups you will often come across
the word ADORIMINI. This is the title of our book ‘The History of the 82nd
Fighter Group in World War II.” ADORIMINI is Latin, and literally means
“Up and At Em’. A copy of this book is in the possession of Pat and
Lavada Brown and is referenced after most diary entries. -- Pat Brown
Combat Mission #02 (Medium
Bomber Escort)
September 6, 1943. Based
at Grombalia, North Africa. We took off with 70 P038's to escort
72 B-25's who were to bomb the Naples area again. I was assigned
to fly in the #2 position. We flew out on the deck and then climbed
up to 15,000 feet as we neared the target area. Again, the flak was
heavy and accurate. As we came off the target we were jumped by 25
enemy fighters, again ME-109's and FW-190's. We broke (turned) into
them and they immediately responded by breaking away from us and down.
As we neared the deck, we encountered more enemy fighters who had now joined
the first group. They very quickly broke off the fight and returned
inland. Somehow I got separated from my group and was all alone out
there. I soon spotted the P-38's escorting the bombers back toward
North Africa and I joined them as quickly as I could. The enemy P-38
was up in the area and gave us trouble for awhile, the Germanshad a P-38
and it would come out near the end of a mission, feather an engine, and
then call for assistance. Seeing no enemy fighters, our leaders would
send a couple of our planes back to assist one of our pilots who was experiencing
engine problems, not realizing it was an enemy P-38. as our planes
would approach the enemy P-38, it would start the dead engine and fly away;
then several enemy fighters would attack the planes we had sent back and
attempt to shoot them down. This problem became so bad that we became afraid
to go back and assist anyone who was on single-engine and lagging behind
the formation. We soon began using a code name for each mission.
Now, if you had problems, you spoke the code name on the radio and we knew
it was one of ours, and we would send back help to them. We did not
lose a single plane on this mission. The B-25 bomb run was very good,
and our fighter formation and protection for the bombers was good.
Total Flight Time 4:30.
Note - Most of the pilots and airplanes were suddenly moved temporarily to Gerbini, Sicily (Satellite Airfield #2). The U.S. Navy was beginning to enter into the Bay of Naples, and was already firing their big guns into the Western Coast area of Italy. The 5th Army was in Sicily and prepared to invade Italy just below Naples at Salerno. The invasion could start at any moment, and the 82nd Fighter Group was to provide the aerial cover for this tremendous and significant event - a turning point in the history of World War II. The 96th Squadron was assigned to fly the "dawn" patrol and the "twilight" patrol each day until the invasion forces had everything well in hand.