DIARY OF A P-38
COMBAT PILOT

HISTORICAL REFERENCE PAGE 1

Mission #1, Sept. 2, 1943

Exerpts taken from:
ADORIMINI: A History of the 82nd Fighter Group in Workl War II
Blake, Steven, 82nd Fighter Group History, Inc., P.O. Box 5541, Boise, ID  83705, 1992

     The most costly and one of the most heroic missions flown by the 82nd Fighter Group took place on September 2, 1943. It earned for  the group Its second Distinguished Unit Citation in nine days.     This was a maximum effort, utilizing 72 B-25s of the 321st Bomb Group to attack the Cancello Marshalling Yard, near Naples. The entire strength of the 82nd was also up that day:

  74 P-38s took off from Grombalia, of which 69 went all the way to the target with the bombers. The 97th Sq. covered the Mitchells on the right at 12,000 feet and the 95th was at the same level on the left. The 96th was top cover that day, at 16,000 feet. Heavy enemy fighter opposition was expected.

     There was, however, no aerial interference -and little flak- prior to the bomb run. The B-25s hit the target effectively and then, as they turned left and dropped their noses to speed for the coast, fifteen to twenty enemy fighters came plummeting down on them. They were in twos and threes and seemed to have the bit in their teeth. The 96th Sq. turned into the attack.
     The interceptors were identified as a mixture of Me 109s and Mc 202s. They and the P-38s tore savagely at each other, gradually losing altitude as the bombers droned away from the action with the rest of the escort. Before long, many of the 96th pilots were having a hard time of it and called for help. Several rear flights from the 95th Sq. responded, going to their aid. Lt. Lee Ragland arrived just in time to see an Me 109 closing on a P-38; he drove the German off with a heavy burst that resulted in its trailing smoke. Shortly thereafter he sent another Messerschmitt down in flames.
     By the time they reached the coast the B-25s were down to 4,000 feet and well clear of the brutal dogfight in which the 96th and part of the 95th were engaged, off in the distance to their rear and a couple of thousand feet higher. Some of the Lightning pilots, realizing that the bombers were relatively safe, tried to break away from the melee.
     Fred Selle had heard the warning call ("Timber!"), then several Me 109s came down onto the rear of his 96th Sq. flight. "I got my tanks off and cockpit under control," he recalled, ". ..and was still in formation as we rolled out of the turn.  I spotted a 109 at about two o’clock going in the same direction and [at the same] altitude. He made a quick turn into us and I turned into him, firing a short burst as he rolled and split-S'd. I last saw him going straight down trailing heavy, dark smoke. As I turned to get back on course, I observed another 109 coming down on a couple of P-38s ahead of us. I pulled up and got a short burst into him. ..I observed some pieces come off his tail section, but lost sight of him when I broke away to the right [after another] warning of attack."
Lt. Selle went into a tight spiral to pick up speed and lost his wingman. Lt. Jim Padgett then tucked in on Selle's right wing, just in time to turn with him to meet an Me 109 coming head-on. Selle fired a short burst and noticed strikes on the enemy's propeller and wingroot.  The 109 then rolled to its left and collided with Padgett's Lightning. Both pilots managed to bailout. Lt. Padgett survived, thanks to his parachute, but the German's chute apparently did not open.
     A big fight developed at around 2000 feet just north of the island of Ischia. Approximately thirty Axis fighters attacked the remaining 96th Sq. pilots as they headed southwest, attempting to catch up to the bombers. Some of them came at the P-38s in line abreast; the others went into a Lufbery circle overhead, from which they peeled off singly in diving attacks.
      The 96th pilots were calling for help again as they reached the deck, realizing that they were heavily outnumbered and at a considerable disadvantage tactically. Once more, some of their comrades from the 95th -and, this time, the 97th -left the bombers to come to their aid. Fred Selle had by then turned back several times to assist other P-38 pilots, and his fuel was getting critical due to the full power he had been using for long periods. He finally headed for home, accompanied by two other Lightnings. Still just above the water, they had no choice but to bore through a mass of milling fighters and make a run for it.
     As he was making his getaway, Lt. Selle looked up and saw an Me 109 coming straight toward him at a slightly higher altitude, headed for the coast. He pulled up the nose of his P-38 and fired a burst into the Messerschmitt's engine and belly. It burst into flames, then exploded right in front of him. Selle suddenly found himself upside down and heading in the wrong direction, about twenty feet above the water! After he had regained control of his aircraft and cleared his tail, Selle got a good 15° deflection shot at another 109, which was also evidently running for home. This one spun into the water from 200 feet He then spotted yet another Messerschmitt, which was on the tail of a P-38; he fired a burst from a hundred yards, closing to twenty-five yards before he ran out of ammunition. The enemy fighter broke up and crashed in flames.
One of the many strange sights off the coast of Italy that day was that of P-38s-.and Axis fighters in great Lufbery circles, in the same area and occasionally intermingling. The fighting had come all the way down to the water, and at one point nine almost simultaneous splashes were counted. Fresh enemy fighters were constantly reinforcing the fight, these including several Fw 190s. Lt. Bill Shomaker of the 97th shot down one of the Focke Wulfs and some bomber gunners claimed another.
     Among the retreating 96th Sq. pilots was F/O Frank Hurlbut, who had a vivid recollection of this battle forty-seven years later: "We had fought our way down to the water so they couldn't hit us from below me, then pulled up and away to the right. I broke into them as they came down, only to find that I had been suckered away from my flight, which had continued to the left, just above the water.
     "Immediately thereafter, two other 109s attacked me from above. They were flying line abreast and came in to close range. I could see their guns flashing as I looked back and up through my canopy. At the same time, two more Me 109s, flying close together, were closing in from approximately 90° directly above my canopy, firing as they came.
     "I was in a maximum performance turn to the left and an extreme cross-controlled skid to the right. This was a trick I had learned and used in combat many times. When enemy fighters were trying to hit me I would bank violently while cross-controlling, standing on the inside rudder and racking the aircraft into a turn. This caused the plane to slide sidewise and fly erratically in a some- what different flight path from the direction it appeared to be going. This technique probably saved my life once again, because even though all four enemy aircraft were right on top of me and the water just below was churning from cannon and machine gun fire, they all missed me completely -thank God!
     "I learned from one of the other pilots when I got home that when I had broken to the right after the first two enemy aircraft had suckered me away from the formation, a single Me 109 had come down from above us. It was coming right up my tail when one of my fellow pilots had literally blown him up!
     "As I was getting back with the other P- 38s in the area, another single Me 109 was down at my level. It was banking around to the right and cutting directly in front of me. I straightened out my aircraft for a few seconds, led him with my guns, and started firing. He flew right through my line of fire and then simply peeled over and went into the sea. I wasn't sure whether he had gone in because of my fire or had simply forgotten in the heat of battle what his altitude was when he peeled away.
     "This was the most frustrating fight I had ever been in. Every time I started to fire at an enemy aircraft, I had to stop and break into another enemy plane that was starting to shoot at me. I was breaking left, then right continually to fend off attacks, and it was extremely difficult to make any progress in working my way toward home. It was easy to trail us, because every one or two thousand yards a plane would go down smoking and crash into the water. I had never seen so many airplanes in the water at one time."
     Hurlbut made it back to Grombalia after refueling at Termini West in Sicily. His victory that day was his ninth and last.
Lt. Tom Jones of the 95th Sq. also claimed an Me 109 that day and he had similar, clear memories of it years later: "Never before nor since have I seen so many air- craft in one area in combat. What an air battle!
     “We were using our escort formation that consisted of flights of four P-38s in trail, scissoring with four other flights of four other four-plane [flights] above and around the B-25s when they hit us.  Everwhere one looked a P-38 or an enemy fighter was in a steep dive or spiral, some smoking, to plunge into the Bay of Naples or the adjacent area.
fighter was in a steep dive or spiral, some smoking, to plunge into the Bay of Naples or the adjacent area.
     "Of course, we had to drop our two 165-gallon [auxiliary] tanks immediately, and it was 350 miles over water back to home base. Talk about gas rationing and leaning out. They followed us out to almost 100 miles from
Naples. Some of us couldn't make it home and headed for the 31st [Fighter Group] Spitfire strip on the north coast of Sicily to refuel. .."
     The fighting did, indeed, continue to at least 75 miles from the Italian coast. Some of the enemy fighters would skim in low over the water and then pull up to train their heavy cannon on the bombers above them. Fortunately, most of these shells burst well behind the B-25s. One large group of Me 109s was observed approaching the Mitchells from the southeast, but it was intercepted by some of the P-38s, which were probably trying to catch up with the bombers themselves. Some of these l09s then attacked the Lightnings head-on, while others climbed to about 1000 feet and tried to drop what were believed to be air-to-air bombs on them. An Fw 190 was seen to fire what appeared to be rocket projectiles at the bombers; whatever they were, they reportedly flashed or puffed smoke every hundred yards or so.
     Finally, the fight was over. Lt. Selle, who was later credited with three confirmed kills and two damaged in this action, was racing for home over the Mediterranean. He pulled up on the wing of an erratically flying P-38 and recognized its pilot as his old friend and flying school classmate Lt. Jerry Moore of the 95th Sq. Both of its engines were running, but spattered blood was visible on the inside of the canopy.
     Selle called over the radio, urging Moore to straighten out and fly level. The wounded pilot seemed to respond briefly, but then his left wing dropped and struck the water. The Lightning crashed into the sea. Selle circled a couple of times, but saw no sign of Lt. Moore. The irony of war was demonstrated once again, in this case by the death of one friend and the other's return to safety with multiple victories.
     Ten of the group's pilots were MIA on September 2; it was the 82nd’s worst single-day loss of the entire war. The 96th Sq. had seen the most action and lost the most pilots, a total of seven.  Besides Lt. Padgett, they included Lts. John Schlener, Louis Pape, Jim Zoeter, Jack Amberson, Frank Dennison and Bill Francke.  The latter three men were on their first mission.  In addition to Lt. Moore, the 95th lost Lt. Harold Farrell, and the 97th Sq. lost Lt. George Karam. One of the missing pilots was strafed in the water by two Mc 202s.
     Jim Padgett was picked Up unhurt by an Italian rescue boat and returned to Allied control after Italy surrendered, rejoining the group on October 8. He and Lt. Pape apparently were the only pilots missing on September 2 who survived. This was Pape's 48th mission. He was also captured, but with considerably different consequences, which he related forty-seven years later:
     "I had lost one engine and had dived for the water, trying to catch up with the bombers for cover. The only trouble was, there were three enemy fighters on my tail, and they soon got the other engine. I feel very lucky, because I must have hit the water going at least 300 mph.
     "After all was clear, the Germans came out with two flying boats. They made about a dozen landings before they found me. ...Stalag Luft II was my home for most of the rest of the war."
     This was the 50th mission for Lts. Bob Gardner and Tom Hodgson of the 95th Sq. and Henry Reager of the 97th, bringing their combat tours to a very dramatic conclusion. (Hodgson returned to the group six months later to begin a second tour.)
     The 82nd's pilots were credited with 23 enemy planes destroyed, 5 probably destroyed and 8 damaged in this battle. Amazingly, their heroic actions had helped to prevent the loss of a single bomber!
     The Luftwaffe sent up 33 Me l09s from Stab (Hdqts.)and I/JG 77 and IV/JG3 just after one o'clock to intercept the American formation southwest of Naples. They claimed to have shot down twelve P-38s while losing at least three of their Messerschmitts, two of which crash-landed with wounded pilots (the other was MIA). Also engaging the 82nd out over the sea were 109 pilots from II and III/JG 53. They were much less successful, claiming just one Lightning and losing three of their own aircraft. Surviving German quartermaster records list seven Me 109s lost that day plus another damaged. These are probably incomplete, however, and no figures for any Italian victories or losses were available.
     One of the Luftwaffe pilots lost on September 2 was ObIt. Franz Schiess of IlI/JG 53, whom the 82nd had "met" before on at least several occasions. He was reported missing in action with American fighters 20 to 30 miles southwest of Ischia Island. At the time of his death Schiess had 67 victories to his credit and had been awarded the Knight's Cross, a very prestigious medal.
These two Luftwaffe aces were among the most dangerous of the 82nd's opponents in mid-1943. Bauptmann Ban Roehrig (Left) was C.O. of 9/JG 53 and then-Oblt. Fran Schiess commanded 8/JG 53 when this photo was taken OJ May 29. Roehrig was killed by Spitfires over Sicily on July 13 by which time he was credited with 75 victories. Schiess had fought the 82nd on at least several occasions before he was KIA in the huge air battle near Naples on September 2. (Jim Crow)

     Whatever the actual losses suffered by German and Italian fighter units that day, enemy interceptions would never match the size and intensity of their effort on September 2 during the remainder of the air campaign over Southern Italy.
     There is an interesting footnote to the story of this dramatic air battle: Flying aboard the B-25s that day were two "medical observers" from the 82nd -Capt.(Dr.) Ted Papermaster of the 96th Sq. and Major Marvin Haw, the group surgeon. Needless to say, they saw quite a show!
     The 82nd Fighter Group had contributed heavily to the reduction of Axis air power in Italy during this extremely eventful nine-day period. It would continue to do so in the weeks ahead, as the Allied invasion of that country became a reality.