Chapter 13
SALERNO
September, 1943                               Historical reference to Mission #2

This P- 38, "Little Willie, "was "inherited" by Lt. Al Schneider. Of the 97th, who renamed it "Dark Eyed
Susie." At the time this photo was taken it had flown 19 dive-bombing missions (bomb symbols) and
had one aerial victory to its credit (swastika under bomb symbols). Schneider
 
 
 

Even as the 82nd licked its wounds after the heavy losses on September 2, missions continued against Italy in preparation
for the coming invasion.  Two more of its pilots were KIA on the 4th, when the group flew a strafing mission to Grazzanise
Airdrome. Lt. John Winney's 95th Sq. P-38 was hit by flak, which knocked out its left engine. There was also a large hole
where the left wing joined the fuselage, and part of the canopy had been shot away. Winney was being escorted home by
Capt. Muse's flight about 75 miles from Sicily when his plane suddenly tilted up and he bailed out. It was presumed that his
right engine had run out of fuel. Tragically, although his pilot chute opened, his main parachute did not. The latter was seen
to stream behind him until Lt. Winney hit the water. Lt. Ernest Westine (96th) had been killed near the target when he crashed
into a flak tower.

The next day, Lt. Lee Ragland of the 95th  Sq. was killed in action during a B-25 escort to Grazzanise. The mission was
opposed by both AA fire and enemy fighters, and Lt. Bob Muir, another 95th pilot, shot down an Mc 202. On the way
home, several miles off the coast of Italy at 14,000 feet, Lt. Ragland's P-38 suddenly went into a steep diving left turn,
with its left engine on fire. He was evidently trying to put out the flames by sideslipping.  However, Ragland's plane continued
in the dive until it crashed into the sea. It was assumed it had been hit by flak. For F /0 Stahl of the 97th, this was mission #50;
he would be going home soon.

One of Lt. Ragland's best friends in the 82nd was T /Sgt. Dick Lingenfelter of the 96th Sq., who had been a fellow student
at the University of Idaho. Neither knew that the other was in the group until they ran into each other one day at Souk-el-Arba.
Ragland had been assigned to the 95th Sq. in June and Lingenfelter had transferred in from the 32lst Bomb Group (whose B-25s
the 82nd escorted on many occasions) the following month. His friend's loss was a terrific blow to Sgt. Lingenfelter. Many years
later he remembered that Lee had really been looking forward to a rest leave which was scheduled to begin several days after
he was killed.

That same day, September 5, the air echelons of all three squadrons began moving temporarily to Maddelina (Gerbini Satellite
Airfield #2) in Sicily. The 97th's pilots landed there after flying a B-25 escort to Capua, Italy on the 6th. This move, which was
completed by the evening of the 7th, would greatly increase the pilots' linger time as the 82nd covered the American landings
at Salerno (Operation AVALANCHE), on the coast of Italy less than twenty miles southeast of Naples. The first full scale
Allied invasion of the European mainland had finally begun!

The pilots were joined at Gerbini by skeleton ground echelons consisting of their crew chiefs and other vital support personnel.
Fred Selle was one of the 96th Sq. pilots who arrived at Maddelina on September 7. He described it as "a short dirt strip with
no lights or facilities at the southern base of Mt. Etna. [Our] planes were refueled with five-gallon cans or out of 55-gallon drums."

The first Allied landings in Italy had actually taken place on the 3rd, when the British 8th Army put troops ashore at Reggio di
Calabria, on the "toe" of the Italian "boot." On the 9th - the same day as the Salerno landings - British troops were to go ashore
on the "heel" (their objective the port city of Taranto) and at Paestum, which was about twenty miles south of Salerno.

When the Italian government capitulated on September 8, German forces virtually took over the country, and stiff resistance
was expected from both the Wermacht and the Luftwaffe. It was on the 8th that the group began covering the invasion fleet,
flying twelve missions.

By the evening of September 11 thirty more missions had been flown over the fleet and the target beaches.

82nd F.G. personnel pose with a wrecked German
He 111 bomber. To the left is 95th pilot Tom Jones,
and the gentleman on the right is that squadron's
intelligence officer, Bob Fisher. The man in the
middle is unidentified. (Jones)

That afternoon the 97th Sq. became involved in a significant air combat when ten of its P-38s encountered an
estimated two dozen Me 109s over the beachhead.

Thirty-three Me 109s of IV/JG 3 and I, II and III/JG 53 were on a "freie jagd" (fighter sweep) over Salerno
on the afternoon of the 11th. The Germans spotted some Lightnings - the 97th Sq. - and attacked. At least two
Luftwaffe pilots, both from JG 53, were subsequently listed as MIA and five Me 109s reported as lost. One
P-38 was claimed shot down in return.

Press releases aren't always the best sources of accurate information, but the following account by 82nd Group
public relations officer Captain Don Sheehan is both interesting and informative:

"Patrolling the beach in the Salerno area, the Lightnings received a hurried call to intercept bandits who were proceeding
inland. Losing no time, they encountered 14 of the enemy coming from the south. Hardly were they set for these when
10 more came in on the Lightnings' tails from the northeast.

"Overwhelmed by superior numbers, there was only one thing for these members of the 'Timber Wolf Squadron of
Lt. Col. George M. MacNicol's stellar group to do - go into a tight 'Lufbery,' a protective circling maneuver in which
the pilots almost held hands.

"For the next ten minutes the Messerschmitts attacked from the side and above seeking to break the formation. There
and then, in the words of 1st Lt. Gerald L. Rounds, a Fenton, Michigan boy flying his 72nd mission, 'we worked 'em
over.' Rounds is the chap who, upon completion of his tour of duty two months ago with his fiftieth mission, asked to
be allowed to continue. Apparently he improves with each assignment, for today he accounted for one of the destroyed
109s. It wasn't all give with him today, though; he took a couple of vital blows - one of which knocked out his hydraulic
system, causing him to crash-land on his Sicilian base. Circling the field on his return, he informed the central tower that,
while he 'hated to do it,' he felt that he must make a belly landing.
So, with the same finesse which has marked his many landings with uninjured ships, he set her down."
Some of the other 97th Sq. pilots who participated in this fight also made comments about it afterward. Lt. C. O. Seltz
was exuberant: "We pounced on 'em like a cat on a rat and shot 'em up!" He was glad of the opportunity to "slug it out
with them, toe to toe. We usually are escorting bombers and have to wage a running fight." Lt. Bill Clark, who later received
a DFC for this mission, was more sober: "I think we're damn lucky to be sitting here talking about it." Lt. Sammy McGuffin
affirmed the opinion of many German fighter pilots when he gave credit to the P-38's superior firepower. McGuffin declared
that luck and maneuverability had less to do with the squadron's impressive victory than had the deadlier gun arrangement on
the Lightning. (Clark, McGuffin and Seltz were each credited with a confirmed 109, as was F/O Verle Tilley.)
In addition to the damage to Lt. Rounds' P-38, both McGuffin and Lt. Bert Lutz lost an engine. The former made it back to
Maddelina, while the latter landed at an emergency strip inside the beachhead.
The 109 Gerry Rounds got that day was his fifth confirmed victory, making him the group's newest ace. He,

The 97th Squadron's operations officer, Lt. Gerry Rounds,
who became an ace on September 11. (Rounds)

later described the action in more detail:
"The controller vectored us toward what they called 'eight bogies' ... Upon arriving at the spot where the controller said
the bogeys were, we saw twelve planes in a typical P-40 formation – flights of four with all planes in a line abreast.
We met them slightly staggered, as they were little off to our right. Just before reaching the abreast point, they turned
into us. At the same time, twelve more came down from the left rear, making it a coordinated attack, one of the very
few I've ever seen. With our eight planes against their twenty-four, the situation looked a little one-sided, with us on the
losing end.  After the initial attack, we formed a 'Lufbery' in two sections. That is, we were meeting planes of our own
outfit head-on, in vertical banks. We had to stay and fight but we weren't worrying about it because we had full gas - more
than they had. Our belly tanks, used while on patrol, were dropped the minute we started to attack. The 109s would dive
down at us in pairs, but as soon they got within range there was always a 38 meeting them head-on. No matter how they
came in, someone was always in position to level out, fire a burst and get back in the circle. They dropped off, one by
one, and after about ten minutes, when they had lost five, they decided they had had enough and started for home."

By the time Lt. Rounds finally returned to the States at ;:;.e end of the month, he had flown 82 missions, an 82nd group
record that was matched by just one pilot, more
than a year later. For his accomplishments as a combat pilot he was awarded the Silver Star, two DFCs and sixteen
Air Medals. Rounds was one of the group's original Staff sergeant pilots.
Whatever the reasons for their success that day, the 97th pilots certainly impressed the men on the invasion fleet who
witnessed this combat. As the P-38s were withdrawing a message was relayed to them by the controller from the
commander of the ships below: "Well -done!"
Less than two hours later, another 97th Sq. formation, led by Capt. Harry Smith, chalked up one more first for the
82nd Fighter Group: Its Lightnings became the first allied fighters to land on and then operate from the Axis European
mainland. The controller had ordered these twelve P-38s to land on the previously mentioned emergency airstrip that
had been carved out of the Salerno beachhead, after completing a patrol and dive bombing mission just before noon.
They were to constitute a reserve air defense force.

After spending several hours there, under fire, during which time their aircraft were refueled, eight of the pilots took
off for another patrol mission around five o'clock, returning to Gerbini upon its completion. One of these men, Ed Tinker,
retained detailed memories of these two missions more than forty years later:

" ... I was on the patrol which had to land ... at Salerno ... They had scraped out a makeshift runway ... and had a supply
of aviation gas. We hand-fueled our planes from five-gallon jerry cans. We stood on the wing and the men on the ground
chopped a hole in the top of each can with an axe, then handed it up to us to pour into the tanks. Needless to say, we
spilled as much as we utilized, so it was some time getting a few hundred gallons into each plane."
 
 
 

Their stay there, though brief, was anything but uneventful. The emergency strip was described in the mission report as
"narrow, dusty and bumpy" and "not particularly recommended for landing." When he landed, after coming in down
wind and without flaps, Lt. Otis Thornton overshot the runway and hit a water truck, killing two enlisted men. Thornton,
who sustained only minor injuries, got out of his crashed P-38 just before it exploded in flames. He was subsequently
relieved from flying and returned to the States.

The airstrip had been strafed by some Me 109s earlier that day, and the AA gunners were very jittery. Thus, when a
squadron of British Spitfires approached, the gunners opened fire, shooting down two of them; one of these was flown
by the squadron leader, who was killed. The other RAP pilot crash-landed, then reportedly hopped out of his cockpit
and exclaimed cheerfully, "Bloody good shooting!" After the remaining Spits had landed and been refueled, it was
decided that Lt. Collis would take off ahead of them and lead them out of the area. It was assumed - or at least hoped -
that Allied gunners, seeing the familiar shape of a P-38, would not open fire by mistake on its British companions.

Of the remaining ten P-38s, two did not take off on the second mission that day. Lt. Bob Williams couldn't take off, as
he did not have a crank with which to start his engines. His wingman, Lt. Paul Jorgensen, stuck around a while but finally
took off and returned to base without him. Williams had to spend an uncomfortable night in the beachhead; his squadronmates
dropped a crank to him the next day and he finally made it back home .

Gerry Rounds and his P-38G, "Chicken Dit," after their crash-landing at Gerbini following the big air battle on September
11. This plane had earlier been named "Cadiz Eagle. "

These eventful missions were numbers 50 and 51 for Lt. Bob Congdon, who was one of the three flight leaders. According to the
mission report, another of the pilots involved, Lt. Al Schneider, "brought back for PRO [public relations officer] first pictures and
movies of invasion."

Another important mission was flown on the morning of the 12th by 96th Sq. CO. Major Buddy Strozier (he had received his
promotion just four days earlier) and Lt. Schoenberg from Group Headquarters. This was a daring low-level reconnaissance
through the heart of the enemy's defenses in Southern Italy.

Strozier and Schoenberg flew at a height of 500 feet or less from Salerno east to Foggia, then south to Potenza, then west
back to Sicily. Their task was to observe road traffic and enemy ground activities; they also strafed targets of opportunity.
For this feat both men were subsequently awarded the DFC.

Other than the big fight on September 11, enemy aircraft weren't often seen - and even less often engaged by 82nd Group
pilots during the Salerno operation. Another exception took place on the early evening of the 12th, when 97th Sq. pilots
encountered more than a dozen Me 109s and Fw 190s. Lt. McGuffin probably destroyed one of the 190s and another
"Timber Wolf," whose name was not recorded for posterity, claimed a 109 probable. This was Lt. Garret Fuller's 50th
mission.

The only other aerial claim resulted from a divebombing mission on the 14th, when Lt. Watson Holley (96th) damaged a
Macchi fighter in German markings. (Interestingly - and not coincidentally - the Luftwaffe's I1/JG 77 had confiscated some
Italian Mc 205s after the armistice and was flying them operationally at this time.)

The Salerno invasion was viewed with something less than awe by many of the pilots, the prevailing view being that it was
a poorly conceived and executed affair. An incident which took place on the evening of September 13 was considered by
some of them to be an example of the botched nature of the operation.

The 97th Sq. was flying its final patrol mission of the day, first in the "Pears" area, then over "Peaches." (All three of the
group's patrol areas were named after fruits: "Pears" was over Pisciotta, "Peaches" over Agropoli and "Apples" over
Salerno itself.). Around 7 o'clock, the controller informed the P- 38 pilots of the presence of some "bogies" (unidentified
aircraft) - possibly "bandits" (enemy aircraft) - on the deck, and he provided them with the map grids.

They dove from 11,000 feet down to less than 3,000 feet and opened fire on the four "bandits." The squadron leader,
Capt. Smith, immediately stopped, however, and
 

One of the Macchi 205s taken over by the Luftwaffe's JG 77 after the armistice. Lt. Holley of the 96th damaged one
of them near Salerno on September 14. (Spartaco Petrignani via the D'Amico/Valentini archives)

ordered the others to do the same. The "bandits" were actually a flight of American A-36s (dive-bomber version of the
Allison-engined P-51A Mustang). FIO Verle Tilley had already hit one squarely, however, and it burst into flames. Fortunately,
its pilot managed to bailout and was rescued by American soldiers. The A-36s, which were attacking German positions, had
been misidentified by the controller as Me 109s supposedly strafing American troops!
Life was difficult for all the men at the Sicilian airstrip, but especially so for the undermanned ground crews. One of the crew
chiefs, Sgt. Tom Abberger of the 97th Sq., described what it was like there in his diary entry for September 14:
"Our planes are up on one sortie after another, and as many as four missions a day. As they return, the men refuel from
five-gallon cans and the pilots again put up to strafe and dive-bomb in support of the ground forces ... Flying from dawn
until after dark, all personnel work hard to get the planes back into the air on their constant sorties. Some return late without
use of landing lights ... Our crews fend for themselves, more or less. The men sleep in empty belly tank crates and try to fight
off the mosquitoes."
The ground crewmen reportedly averaged about three hours sleep a night during their first four days in Sicily. Al Raimondo,
a 96th Sq. armorer, recalled many years later that "we armorers and mechanics did our work in pitch dark much of the time.
We had learned to strip the guns blindfolded and get them rearmed. A good [enemy] pilot could see a lit match at three miles."
The night landings to which Sgt. Abberger referred resulted in eleven crashes. Miraculously, they did not cause any serious injuries.
Fred Selle remembered well flying from Maddelina, and most especially the night landings there:
"I flew 17 patrol and dive-bombing missions [in] ten days, over the beachhead and in ground support on designated targets. The
96th's missions were at dawn and dusk, with the air control being co-ordinated by the British from one of their aircraft carriers.
We made [several] intercepts and prevented the enemy aircraft from getting through to the ships or beachhead. Over all.

96th armorer Cpl. Al Raimondo (right) and an unidentified assistant work on guns of one of the squadron's
P-38's.

enemy aircraft activity was limited, probably due to our re-invasion missions ....

"The dusk patrol was the most difficult one. We would patrol until last light, dive-bomb a German strongpoint, then return
to base. On these missions we carried one 165-gallon belly tank and one 500-pound bomb. As navigation lights were
forbidden, we flew our return stacked up to the right in echelon, flying the formation looking at the glow of the superchargers
on top of the booms. We used the molten lava in the dome of Mt. Etna

"s our homing beacon, and then made a night landing with only one light at each end of the strip. One could get lost on a
go-around."

Selle's CO., Buddy Strozier, also retained strong memories of these missions: "One feature that has played itself back to
me as if it were on a video tape is the anachronistic beauty that was presented to us during the evening patrols of the Salerno
beachhead. Looking to the west, a disappearing red-orange sun in a glass-smooth Mediterranean. To the north, Vesuvius,
with wispy, lace,., e clouds floating from her as though she was approaching. Down below, fireworks from the mortars and
artillery. And after our patrolling ended, the flight back to Sicily, with the red glows of  Stromboli and Mt. Etna, natural
navigational aids for us."

During the eleven days that the 82nd Fighter Group operated from its temporary base in Sicily it flew 96 mis- sions, for a total
of 999 individual sorties.