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CONTENTS
FLIGHT JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 2017

ON THE COVER: Photographer David Leininger captures

the essence of an airplane when that essence includes
the ability to dive nearly straight down to deliver bombs
on a target. The dive brakes, the bombs, the subtle
look of efficiency—it’s all there. Dan Friedkin owns this
ultra-rare forerunner of the Mustang. (Photo by David
Leininger)
THIS PAGE: Although there were many changes
between the original A-36/P-51A airframes and her
later, Merlin-powered offspring, its basic lines remained
undisturbed beginning to end. There is something
about its countenance that have made it a favorite for
more than three-quarters of a century. (Photo by David
Leininger)
 FEATURES COLUMNS

12 ‹ WW II Diary: Early 1942 6 ‹ Contributors

The war becomes very real
by Barrett Tillman 8 ‹ Editorial
26 ‹ High Diver 10 ‹ Airdrop
Combat drama in the A-36 Apache 54 ‹ Gallery
by Maj. Charles “Charlie” E. Waddell, USAF, Retired, 27th Fighter
Curtiss-Wright CW-1 Junior: At the dawn of light aircraft
Bomber Group, Twelfth Air Force by Giles Auliard

34 ‹ Invasion: The Philippines 60 ‹ Aviation Insider

A losing battle against a well-equipped foe Igor’s Watch: The Czar recognizes a young designer’s talents
by Eric Hammel by Sergei I. Sikorsky

44 ‹ Drones: Yesterday, Today, 62 ‹ One of a Kind

and Tomorrow The Consolidated XP2Y-1: The PBY’s granddad
by Joe Gertler
Technology changes the face of combat
by Steve Llanso
64 ‹ Review Runway
66 ‹ Tailview
Snapshot: A Moment Frozen in Time
by Budd Davisson

FLIGHT JOURNAL (USPS 015-447; ISSN 1095-1075) is published bimonthly by Air Age Inc., 88 Danbury Rd., Wilton, CT 06897 USA. © Copyright 2016, all rights reserved. Periodicals postage permit paid at Wilton, CT, and additional offices. Canadian
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ADVERTISING: Send advertising materials to Advertising Dept., Flight Journal, 88 Danbury Rd., Wilton, CT 06897 USA; (203) 431-9000; fax (203) 529-3010. Email: advertising@airage.com. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: To ensure that you don’t miss any issues,
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FlightJournal.com, and click on the customer service link. POSTMASTER: Please send Form 3579 to Flight Journal, P.O. Box 420134, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235 USA.

February 2016 5
 CONTRIBUTORS

Barrett Tillman
WW II Diary: Early 1942 FEBRUARY 2017 | VOLUME 23, NO. 1
It’s hard to believe today, but in living
memory, millions of Americans and EDITORIAL
Allied citizens wondered how World Editor-in-Chief Budd Davisson
War II was going to turn out. Victory Executive Editor Debra Cleghorn
was not assumed. In the three months Editor Gerry Yarrish
after Pearl Harbor, the Axis Powers— Copy Editor Suzanne Noel
especially the Japanese—seemed CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
invincible. Hitler owned most of Europe, almost reaching Moscow, and Rommel was knocking on Walter Boyne, James P. Busha, Ted Carlson,
Egypt’s door. How the world situation was reversed is a subject that appealed to me when Flight Robert S. DeGroat, John Dibbs, Robert F. Dorr,
Jim Farmer, Paul Gillcrist, Phil Haun, Randy
Journal began this series. Jolly, Frederick Johnsen, Geoffrey P. Jones, Ron
Kaplan, Peter Lert, Rick Llinares, John Lowery,
George Marrett, Peter Mersky, Dan Patterson,
Jim Busha Steve Pace, Stan Piet, Alfred Price, Warren
Thompson, Barrett Tillman, David Truby,
High Diver: Combat Drama in the
Barnaby Wainfan
A-36 Apache
The Mustang has always been one of ART
my favorite fighters. With its trademark Creative Director Betty K. Nero
Art Director Kevin Monahan
belly scoop and “killer looks,” many
agree that it helped change the tide of DIGITAL MEDIA
the war. But before the Merlin-powered Web Producer Holly Hansen
Mustangs entered the war, the Allison- ADVERTISING
powered versions were slugging it out down low. I was honored to interview one of these “Apache” Director of Advertising and Marketing
drivers—Charles Waddell—and the stories he told me were like none I had ever heard from a David J. Glaski | 203.529.4637
Strategic Account Manager
Mustang pilot. They had to be shared.
Mitch Brian | 203.529.4609
Interactive Account Executive
Joe Corrado | 203.529.4636
Eric Hammel CONSUMER MARKETING
Invasion: The Philippines—Another The Media Source, a division of TEN,
Surprise Attack! The Enthusiast Network
Jack Donalson was one of a number of MARKETING & EVENTS
previously reticent aces who came to Marketing Assistant Erica Driver
me after the release of my collections, Event Manager Emil DeFrancesco
Aces against Germany and Aces against PUBLISHING
Japan. I was especially happy to hear Group Publishers Louis DeFrancesco Jr.,
from an early-war ace who had flown Yvonne M. DeFrancesco
in the Philippines—a rare bird, indeed. Jack was the kind of explainer who brings a lot of extras to a
story, is a stickler for interesting detail and insight, and is a good, calm storyteller.
FOLLOW US
On Facebook: facebook.com/FlightJournal
Steve Llanso On Twitter: @FlightJournal
On Instagram: @Flight_Journal
Drones: Yesterday, Today, and
Visit us online: flightjournal.com
Tomorrow Comments may be sent to: flight@airage.com
I’ve been writing about aircraft for
decades, but they always had pilots in
them. When drones suddenly roared
over the horizon, however, I found
myself in unfamiliar territory. In the
process of trying to catch up with the
EDITORIAL OFFICES
drones’ potential for ubiquity and utility, I found myself hip-deep in new and sometimes surprising MAIL 88 Danbury Road, Wilton, CT 06897 USA
information. So I decided to share what I had learned with others. This piece offered me the most PHONE (203) 529-4635
writing fun I’ve had in quite a while. EMAIL flight@airage.com
INTERNET FlightJournal.com

Sergei Sikorsky
Igor’s Watch
The Association Printed in the U.S.A. The Network for
I would often hear my father telling of Magazine Media Global Media
stories of being a young designer/
engineer/builder in Czarist Russia. It
was obvious that, although he would SUBSCRIPTION
later design and build dozens of aircraft, SERVICES
the 1913 “Grand” and Ilya Muromets To subscribe, go to FlightJournal.com/cs.
were special to him. The watch, with its
For a change of address, write to
attached pendants and coin, would sometimes appear in his hands, and I’d know what images were
in his always-active mind. In writing this piece, I thought I’d share some memories of him.
Flight Journal, P.O. Box 420134, Palm Coast, FL
32142-0235.

6 FlightJournal.com
Join the fastest-growing aviation
community on Facebook where
we share stories, videos and
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 EDITORIAL

Of Dive-Bombers, Surprises,
and Pocket Watches BY Budd davisson

T
his year is the 75th anniversary of
just about everything having to do
with World War II in America. If we
were publishing a magazine that was
an inch thick, we could memorialize it all,
but as is always the case, there’s too much
information and not enough pages. So we’re
doing the next best thing: introducing a fea­
ture called “WW II Diary,” which will appear
in every issue of Flight Journal in 2017.
In “WW II Diary,” Barrett Tillman will be
chronicling what happened during the
months that fall within the 75th anniver­
sary umbrella of a given issue. We’ll cover the
most critical first year of the war in that man­
ner. For this issue, we will cover the months
January through March 1942. During that
period of time, the country was only sure
about one thing: Even though the Japanese
war machine appeared invincible, the United
States, despite massive losses at Pearl Harbor,
had to fight back. And the country had to pre­
pare for a long fight with no guarantee that it
would win. At the same time, however, war
had already been well underway in Europe
and North Africa, so Barrett puts in context
both hemispheres and their combat theaters.
This is where we’d love to have about another in the early months of WW ii,
200 pages! americans depended primarily on two
front-line fighters. The navy had its
Part and parcel of the 75th anniversary of new F4F Wildcat and the army the
Pearl Harbor is The Other Big Surprise Attack. P-40B/C. Today, the “long-nose” B/C
Although Guam and Wake, among other model P-40s are among the rarest
warbirds in the air. (Photo by John
sites, were attacked the same week as Pearl,
dibbs/planepicture.com)
the Philippines were attacked within hours.
In “Invasion: The Philippines—Another
Surprise Attack,” Eric Hammel gives us an
up­close and personal look at the opening days of the war dad, the A­36 Apache. We tend to think of Mustangs grouped
through the words of P­40 pilot 2nd Lt. I. B. “Jack” Donalson, above high­flying bomber formations and then mixing it up
who had arrived there only 18 days before the attacks began. with Messerschmitts and FWs so high that they’re all leaving
He clearly portrays the amazement and frustration at finding contrails. We forget that its Allison­powered predecessor, the
that they couldn’t even get high enough to fire at the suppos­ A­36, spent most of its time diving down to treetop level while
edly “inferior” enemy, much less engage their bombers. It’s a delivering bombs and strafing. In “High Diver,” Busha adds yet
gripping read. another facet to the Mustang legend.
In keeping with Flight Journal’s goal of keeping our subject And then, as if we aren’t being diverse enough, we asked
mix diversified, we decided we’d cover a subject that is very Sergei Sikorsky to tell us about what has to be one of history’s
much in the news today: drones. We tend to think of the con­ most interesting and exotic watches. It was given to Sergei’s
cept of the drone as a New Millennium invention. As we were father, the great Igor Sikorsky, by Czar Nicholas II. It was pre­
to discover, we weren’t even close. In fact, drones are nearly sented to Igor when, at 24 years old in 1913 and still living/
as old as the airplane itself. In “Drones: Yesterday, Today, and working in Russia, he designed and built the world’s first
Tomorrow,” Steve Llanso takes us back to the very beginning multiengine airplane, the “Grand.” But it wasn’t just a multi­
of drones and brings us up to today, with numerous stops engine airplane—it was four­engine! In 1913! The story is told
along the way. We guarantee that you’ll read facts and see pho­ in Tailview as only Sergei Sikorsky can tell it.
tos you don’t expect. This is an interesting issue with a variety of stories accompa­
Jim Busha adds more diversity when he chronicles a subject nied by FJ’s usual high­quality photography. It will keep you
seldom considered: dive­bombing with the Mustang’s grand­ busy for a while. Enjoy! 

8 FlightJournal.com
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 My Mistake: It’s Hickam, not Wheeler
As soon as we received hard copies of the Decem-
ber issue (Pearl Harbor was the theme) and I
leafed through it, my heart dropped when I saw
the opening photo of the first article. A mar-
velously sharp image, it clearly shows the Pearl
Harbor area and the local airfields involved in
the attack. I wrote the caption myself and some-
how managed to have a major brain glitch,
when I identified the airfield on the left as
Wheeler Field, even though I knew better. That’s
obviously Hickam. Wheeler is mid-island. So,
We welcome your
comments and mea culpa, mea culpa (boy, do I feel dumb!).
suggestions. Letters Budd Davisson, Editor-in-Chief
may be edited for
brevity and clarity.
They Liked the Pearl Harbor Issue
Congratulations to all associated with producing
EMAIL the outstanding Pearl Harbor commemorative issue
flight@airage.com (December 2016). Quite frankly, it is the very
best short survey of what happened that I have
ever seen. I know I speak for many when I say I
learned a lot—the FJ team and authors did one
FACEBOOK
facebook.com/FlightJournal helluva job digging out some very obscure and
fascinating information. Well done, indeed!
Richard P Hallion, Florida Polytechnic
University, Lakeland, FL
MAIL
Flight Journal Ah, Barrett Tillman, you have taken me back to
Air Age Media
88 Danbury Road Pearl in ’41 with a new perspective and voice.
Wilton, CT 06897 Your Tailview (“Don’t Worry About It!”) is way
10 FlightJournal.com
above the horizon of an editorial opinion or
view. In my humble opinion, your article is a
grand piece of Renaissance humanistic literature!
In the vein of Capt. Charles B. McVay III and the
USS Indianapolis, you’ve erased 75 years of mis-
conceptions and redeemed Col. Tyler’s life and
career. I’ll bet Col. Tyler is smiling down on you
from above. Thanks for the read.
John Bybee
Thanks, guys. This was one of the more satisfying
issues we’ve had the pleasure to do.—BD
Another Wrong Airport…Sort of
I truly enjoyed the Pearl Harbor 75th-anniversary
issue, December 2016. The article “Out for a Sun-
day Ride” (page 57) states, “Then came flight
training at John Rodgers Field (now Honolulu
International Airport).” I believe this statement
may be an error. Originally John Rodgers Field,
it was later known as Naval Air Station Barbers
Point. I believe this to be true, having served
as an air-traffic controller at NAS Barbers Point
(John Rodgers Field) from 1974 to 1979 and
familiar with the air station’s history.
L. K. Lohse, USN, Retired, Oak Harbor,
Washington
From Wikipedia: “Kalaeloa Airport, also called
John Rodgers Field and formerly Naval Air Station
Pearl Harbor in the middle, with
Battleship Row down its left side,
was the focus of the attack, with
Hickam Field, on the left, being hit
equally as hard. The many fuel farms
visible were untouched. (Photo
courtesy of Stan Piet)
Barbers Point, is a joint civil-
military regional airport of the
State of Hawaii.” It’s a reliever
field for Hawaii International
Airport.—BD

It’s a “C,” not an “A”

Regarding the Pearl Harbor is-
sue, it seems that the described
P-36A is, in fact, a P-36C. Great
magazine!
Wayne, via e-mail

Sharp eyes, Wayne! Thanks.—BD

What?! No Lancasters?
On reading your article in the
October 2016 issue entitled
“British Bombers: The Heav-
ies Came Later,” I was disap-
pointed in how little (only half
a sentence) was devoted to the
Avro Lancaster—not a picture,
even though more than 7,000 were built. As you
are aware, this aircraft proved to be one of the
very best in its class at the time, capable of lifting
a 22,000-pound bomb load (up to five times more
than a B-17) a total range of some 2,500 miles—
in most cases, carried accurately to their targets.
These included the “Grand Slam,” “Tall Boy,”
and (of course) the “Bouncing Bombs” used to
destroy the dams. Their mission successes are too
many to mention here, and I suggest running an
article in Flight Journal on the subject. I’m the first
to appreciate the good job done by the B-17, but
to be fair, the Lancaster and its crews achieved a
lot and are hard to beat. The P-36 Mohawk was as
David Manser, Kent, England much involved in the defense
of Pearl Harbor as the P-40
Warhawks, but the Warhawks
We don’t disagree with a single word of your letter. were more successful, so they
The focus of that issue, however, was the 1938–1940 got all the glory. (Photo by
John Dibbs/planepicture.com)
time frame and the buildup to war, and we tried to
stick to that (although we stepped over the line in
some areas). The B-17 flew in ’35 and went into
service in ’38. The Lanc first flew in ’41 and went
into service a year later. So it didn’t exactly fit the
period we were writing about in most of that article.
We need to devote an entire article to the Lancaster
and the important role that it played.—BD

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interesting content. And subscribe to our
newsletter. There’s no way of telling what you’ll
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A Close Look at Emil

A digital image at the right price…free!
The vast majority of photos that have survived from the Axis side of WW II are, to say the least, “soft.” By the time we see them—
three-quarters of a century after they were shot—we’re usually looking at copies, of copies, of copies, with each generation losing
sharpness. However, the Bf 109E-4 that is the digital giveaway in On the Web this month is as sharp as they come. You will see detail
you didn’t even know was there. It’s a terrific screensaver or print for hanging. We’re glad we can share this with you.

February 2017 11
WW II DIARY: EARLY 1942
Considered by many the best
all-around bombing platform
developed during the war, the
Avro Lancaster was partly
an afterthought following
the failure of its Manchester
predecessor to achieve its
design potential, primarily
from its faulty Vulture engine.
Fitted with the proven
Merlin engine, Lancs served
from 1942 until well into the
1950s. Capable of hauling
a 22,000-pound Tallboy, it
was the ultimate bomb truck
until the advent of the B-36.
(Photo courtesy of Stan Piet)
14 FlightJournal.com
The Home Front
Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ameri-
ca’s pro-British, transparent neutrality had been
cast as “the arsenal of democracy.” In the fall of
1941, amid a bitter public debate about America’s
role in the world war, he had dispatched Ameri-
can warships to protect British convoys against
German submarines in the Atlantic, and he
authorized a clandestine fighter group to shoot
Japanese aircraft from China skies.
Then six Japanese carriers launched aircraft
against Hawaii on December 7 and all argu-
ment ceased. But in the wake of that debacle,
the United States scrambled to play catch-up,
following the bleakest Christmas season in living
memory.
Despite the fervor of “Remember Pearl Har-
bor” and with lines outside military recruiting
offices, most young Americans (originally to age
45) waited for the letter bearing “Greetings from
the President.” Eventually more than 15 million
Americans entered the armed forces.
FDR also ordered men between 45 and 64 to
register for nonmilitary duty.
Meanwhile, it seemed the war came to Ameri-
can shores on the night of February 24–25 with
“The Battle of Los Angeles.” As the Los Angeles
Times reported, “Roaring out of a brilliant moon-
lit western sky, foreign aircraft flying both in
large formations and single, flew over Southern
California. At 1 a.m., the police reported that an
airplane had been shot down near 185th Street.”
 “The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish
delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else,
and nobody was going to bomb them.”
There were no “foreign aircraft” and no enemy
bombs, though casualties did occur. Three Ange-
linos died in traffic accidents, and an air-raid
warden succumbed to a heart attack. Antiaircraft
guns boomed into the night, raining shell splin-
ters on the population. One woman was yanked
from her bed and hauled off by police for violat-
ing the blackout.
In Washington, the inevitable “Battle of the
Potomac” involved the Secretary of War, who
said, “As many as 15 planes may have been
involved” while the Navy Secretary wrote off the
panic to “a false alarm.”
Naturally enough, the Western Defense Com-
mand sided with the Army by “confirming” that
hostile planes had flown over the City of Angels.
Two postwar investigations attributed the
panic to an errant weather balloon. The “battle”
returned in seriocomic form, however, with the
1979 movie 1941, alluding to an enemy squad-
ron operating from a cornfield near Fresno.
Despite such diversions, almost overnight,
U.S. automobile factories began converting to
wartime production. Ration books were printed
for distribution that spring. Scrap drives—1940s
recycling—became common.
War production accelerated in the new year.
Whereas the United States built 18,500 aircraft
in 1941 (a fivefold increase over 1940), the figure Shark-tailed B-17Ds arrived
approached 47,000 in 1942. Heavy bomber pro- in Hawaii in May 1941. Of the
initial 21 deployed, nine were
duction started low but increased steadily, from sent on to the Philippines
282 B-17s and B-24s in 1941 to 2,513 in 1942— to complement several
an increase of nearly one order of magnitude. B-17Cs already in service.
Another dozen were en route
More was yet to come. Far, far more.
to Wheeler Field in Hawaii
and were caught up in the
Europe: Bomber Command Ascendant Japanese attack. Survivors
After the fall of 1940, Great Britain was no longer of the first days of the war
also saw service on Java until
in danger of invasion, whether real or perceived. forced back to Australia in
Through 1941, the Royal Air Force (RAF) was mid-1942. (Photo courtesy
able to devote increasing strength to its offensive of Stan Piet)
arm, leading to larger operations in the new year.
Therefore, March 1942 was a milestone month
for Bomber Command. The much-anticipated
Avro Lancaster went operational, and Bomber
Command launched major attacks on Lübeck,
Germany.
Just as significant was the February arrival of
Air Vice Marshal Arthur Harris. The former Sop-
with pilot became CinC Bomber Command,
bringing a fervent determination to destroy Ger-
man cities. During 1940–41, only about 30 per-
cent of RAF crews put their bombs within five
miles of the briefed target. “Bomber” Harris set
about correcting that situation, stating, “The
Nazis entered this war under the rather childish
delusion that they were going to bomb everyone
February 2017 15
WW II DIARY: EARLY 1942
else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At
Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred
other places, they put their rather naive theory
into operation. They sowed the wind, and now
they are going to reap the whirlwind.”
His solution was called “area bombing.” The
RAF had long since abandoned daylight bombing
as unsustainable, accepting the reduced accuracy
of nocturnal bombing. Therefore, city centers
became priority targets, inflicting widespread
havoc upon residential, commercial, and indus-
trial areas alike. The RAF’s offensive took time to
reach fruition, but it was spawned in the opening
months of 1942, and the Lancaster led the charge.
First flown in January 1941, the Lancaster went
operational with No. 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron in
early March. It was a huge change from the previ-
ous Handley-Page Hampdens. An empty “Lanc”
weighed seven tons more than a loaded Hampden
and carried a far bigger load 50 percent farther.
An early Lancaster pilot was Rod Rodley of
No. 97 Squadron, which closely followed No. 44
“on ops.” He recalled, “The squadron only had
Lancasters for a couple of months, and bomb
loads and fuel loads were worked out somewhere
above my level in the hierarchy, so when a low-
level attack on Essen was cancelled one morning
because of dwindling cloud, I was very happy.
Group, however, thought we should do some
training, and we were tanked up for a long cross-
country, despite the fact that a front was giving a
cloud base of 300–400 feet and visibility of half a
mile in rain. We lost three or four Lancs that day,
landing around the countryside.”
Meanwhile, older aircraft launched one of the
RAF’s largest bombing missions to date. During
the night of March 28, more than 230 Vickers
Wellingtons and Short Stirlings attacked the port
city of Lübeck, mostly from only 10,000 feet,
dropping 400 tons of explosives and incendiar-
ies. A dozen bombers were lost while inflicting
1,000 or more casualties and dehousing 15,000
people. With more than 60 percent of the build-
ings destroyed or damaged, Harris’s whirlwind
had been launched.
Success, such as that in Lübeck, came at an
increasing cost. The Luftwaffe had established a
continental air defense network in 1940, orga-
nized by Oberst (later Gen.) Josef Kammhuber.
The Kammhuber Line integrated radar, search-
lights, and night fighters under radio control
by sectors deployed from Denmark to central
France, often arrayed in belts three deep. During
1942, Kammhuber’s increasingly sophisticated
organization featured regional “battle opera
houses” controlling wide areas of Occupied
Europe’s night skies.
Among the Nachtjager stars emerging in 1942
were Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer (121 career vic-
tories), Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein (83),
and Manfred Meurer (65).
Yanks in the RAF were best known for the
16 FlightJournal.com
“American Eagle Squadrons,” which proved of
greater practical use to their host country than the
much-acclaimed Lafayette Escadrille two decades
before. The three Eagle units—Nos. 71, 121, and
133 Squadrons—went operational between April
and September 1941. They flew the same mis-
sions as other Fighter Command units, including
sweeps, escorts, and convoy patrols.
Though formed with Hurricanes, the Eagles con-
verted to Spitfires and entered 1942 with Mk Vs.
By then, however, the Focke-Wulf 190 had estab-
lished itself as the premier fighter on the Channel
front, and Eagles tried to live with the reality.
Like most of their Flying Tiger counterparts,
the Eagles were seldom motivated by patriotism
or political philosophy. Richard L. “Dixie” Alex-
ander of 133 Squadron recalled, “These were
young people, most of them lacking a great sense
of responsibility. They were soldiers of fortune.
They were there for many reasons, but the pri-
mary ones had to be love of flying, adventure,
and glamour.
“Unlike the Europeans who flew with the RAF,
few Americans had a deep feeling of hatred for
the Germans. There had been no physical con-
tact; for many, it was a continuation of WW I and
a sense of natural adversaries. We were the good
guys; they were the bad. We were all fatalistic to
some degree, and this can be a substitute for reli-
gion in itself.”
Until the Eagle Squadrons were absorbed into
the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) in late 1942, 75
of the 240 American volunteers died as Eagles.
Nearly 30 others perished in the war, and at least
11 were captured.
Asia
The American Volunteer Group had logged
its first combat while defending Rangoon on
December 20. In that combat, former USAAF
pilot Charles R. Bond was credited with a prob-
able. On January 29, he was one of eight Flying
Tigers who scrambled to intercept inbound Japa-
nese. The P-40s and 20 Nakajima Ki.27s (“Nates”)
became embroiled in a bedlam of combat. Bond
recalled, “No formation—just a swarming mass
of a few P-4-0s and a hell of a lot of Japs twisting,
turning, diving, and maneuvering.”
Attacking one Nate from behind, Bond closed
in and fired with both .50 calibers and four .30s.
“He made no effort to turn; it was probably too
late. My tracers tore into his cockpit and engine.
Suddenly, I was right on him. I had to raise my
left wing to get over him as I zoomed past. His
cockpit was flaming. I squealed in delight, laugh-
ing aloud. ‘Got one!’”
Chasing another Nate at full throttle, Bond
attacked from above, but the agile Japanese
pulled up in an Immelmann, forcing a head-on
encounter. “I squeezed the trigger. Damn! Only
my .30s fired. As we passed each other, I saw
smoke trailing from one of the fighters, and he
A slight inconvenience in the
life of Spitfire VB EN-364:
First flown in January 1943,
it was immediately upgraded
to a Merlin 63 engine and
delivered to Gibraltar for
service, initially in the western
desert and later to the Middle
East. It survived its combat
career and was scrapped in
January 1946. (Photo courtesy
of Stan Piet)

Life-vested OFW Albert

Espenlaub of 1/JG 27 (seen
here at Catania, Sicily, in April
1941 with his BF-109E-7/
Trop) chalked up 14 desert kills
during the African Campaign
of 1941. In December, he
ran up against a seasoned
Hurricane pilot who forced
him down in British-occupied
territory, where he was taken
prisoner, then later shot
attempting escape. (Photo
courtesy of Stan Piet)

February 2017 17
WW II DIARY: EARLY 1942
Ground crewman of the 16th
Fighter Squadron (with the
help of Chinese laborers)
load a 75-gallon drop tank on
1st Lt. Bob Mooney’s P-40E
Warhawk “Rose Marie” at
Peishihwa, China, on October
22, 1942. Mooney was shot
down and killed flying “Rose
Marie” on December 26, 1942,
after downing three Japanese
aircraft. (Photo courtesy of
Jack Cook)
18 FlightJournal.com
disappeared in a dive into some clouds. I was sat-
isfied that he could never return home.”
After another encounter, Bond turned for base.
He gleefully recorded, “I did a slow roll across the
runway as the first victory roll in my life.”
The Tigers claimed 12 kills without loss while
the British added two more. Known Japanese
losses were actually only four Nates, but it was
still an Allied victory.
The victory was short-lived, however. Japa-
nese forces closed on Rangoon in early March,
encircling the capital. Among other things, the
retreating British destroyed bridges, docks, an
oil refinery—and the Johnny Walker warehouse.
Some Tigers considered the latter the saddest sight
of the war. The Third Squadron’s Ken Jernstedt
recalled, “People were pushing carts and baby
carriages full of whiskey.”
Meanwhile, U.S. aviation had all but evapo-
rated in the Philippines. The last surviving B-17s
flew to Australia after Christmas, and the Navy’s
few PBY Catalinas headed south for the Dutch
East Indies.
War in the Desert
Fighting had been almost constant in North
Africa since September 1940, leading to Britain’s
defeat of an Italian force in January 1941. Erwin
Rommel soon arrived and reversed the cam-
paign, forcing a stalemate until late that year. The
Libyan impasse ended in January, when Rommel
drove eastward, reaching the port of Tobruk in
just two weeks.
Meanwhile, air combat was constant. The new
year dawned in the desert, with Hurricanes and
Kittyhawks tangling with Bf 109s and Italian Stu-
kas over northeastern Libya. The two combats
were resolved, with the RAF downing one Ju 87
among five claims while the Axis fliers claimed
two victories but actually got three. The com-
mander of No. 3 South African Squadron sur-
vived his shootdown, the first loss of a P-40E, as
the RAF began to transition from Tomahawks to
Kittyhawks.
Later that month, two North Americans had a
memorable experience. Pilot Officer Lance Wade
from Texas led four No. 33 Squadron Hurricanes
on a strafing mission when his Canadian wing-
man, Donald Eddy, was shot down. He bellied in,
climbed out and saw Wade circling, preparing to
land for a pickup—not unknown in the expanse
of the desert. But enemy AA forced the Yank to
break off.
Noting an armored car approaching, Eddy
pondered his fate “if caught by the people we
were strafing.”
As a German aimed a submachine gun, Eddy
accepted his fate. Then the Germans alit, laugh-
ing and joking, “highly pleased with themselves
for having shot my plane down.” Almost from a
movie script, “a very young fellow came up with
a pistol in his hand and said, ‘You are my pris-
oner. If you try to escape, you will be shot. For
you, the war is over.’
“I doubt if there is a lonelier feeling in the world
than when one is first taken prisoner of war.”
Malta: The Struggles of Another
Allied Island
While war raged all around it, the Mediterranean
Theater included events far offshore, focusing
on Malta.
The British-occupied island was a vital asset,
allowing aircraft to interdict Axis sea and air com-
munications between Africa and Italy. Malta had
been under frequent air attack since 1940. Carrier-
launched reinforcements began with Hawker
Hurricanes, expanding to Spitfires in early 1942.
Early that year, Malta’s air garrison included
11 fighter squadrons—mostly Hurricanes but
four units wholly or partially with Spitfires, and a
“A very young fellow came up with a pistol in his hand
and said, ‘You are my prisoner. If you try to escape, you
will be shot. For you, the war is over.’ ”
Beaufighter unit. A variety of RAF and Royal Navy
bomber units operated Wellingtons, Swordfish,
and Albacore. The island’s dedicated photo-recon
unit, No. 69 Squadron, flew Martin Marylands
and Baltimores, eventually obtaining Spitfires.
In the same period, the Luftwaffe deployed
five bomber Gruppen, a Stuka wing, and six
fighter Gruppen, including Bf 110s and Ju 88
night fighters.
German attacks on Malta intensified in March,
targeting airfields and dockyards. On some days,
Luftwaffe planners scheduled surges of 200 air-
craft over the island in a short period, saturating
the defenses.
From late March to late April, the Luftwaffe
launched 5,800 Malta sorties by bombers;
5,600 by fighters; and 350 recon flights to drop
7,000 tons of bombs. Early that month, HMS
Eagle launched the first Spitfire Mk Vs, but
No. 249 Squadron seldom operated more than
six at a time. Targeting RAF airdromes, the Axis
destroyed several Wellingtons and 29 other air- Here’s a Junkers Ju 87D Stuka
craft on the ground. dive-bomber #S7+EP of
Late in March, Eagle returned with more Spitfires Sturzkampfgeschwader 3
parceled out to 126 and 249 Squadrons. Carrier (StG 3) after being captured
by British troops at El Aouina,
deliveries continued but were limited in number, Tunisia, in 1942. (Photo
partly augmented by Hurricanes from Africa. courtesy of Jack Cook)
February 2017 19
WW II DIARY: EARLY 1942
W/C Peter Prosser Hanks
DSO DFC, a 13-kill ace and
commander of the Luqa
Wing, sits in the cockpit of
his Spitfire Mk Vc BR-598
PP+H at Luqa Airfield, Malta,
in October 1942. (Photo
courtesy of Jack Cook)
20 FlightJournal.com
Often lost in the perceived glamour of fighter
operations was the larger purpose of Mediterra-
nean airpower. British strike aircraft made life dif-
ficult for Axis shipping, as in late January, when
Blenheims, Wellingtons, and Fortresses from
Libya and Egypt attacked a large convoy bound
for Tripoli. The bombers missed, but three Beau-
fighters launched torpedoes from 1,500 yards
range, scoring a hit on the 13,000-ton liner Vic-
toria. That night, Wellingtons and Royal Navy
Albacores returned to the convoy, with the
“Applecores” adding another torpedo hit. That
did the job: Victoria sank at the expense of a navy
crew captured. Months passed before another
ship was lost to aerial torpedoes, but British Com-
monwealth aircrews remained a persistent threat
to Rommel’s strained supply line.
Russian Rebound
The Red Air Force had nearly been hunted to
extinction in 1941. It lost some 20,000 aircraft
destroyed or damaged in the second half of 1941,
half to enemy action.
But the Soviet air arm renewed and began reor-
ganizing itself in the new year. Though flight
training was appalling by Western standards, the
Soviet Union’s massive industry provided thou-
sands of aircraft that needed pilots and crews.
Though Luftwaffe Experten fattened their scores
and Panzerfliegern in newly arrived Henschel Hs
129s decimated battalions of Russian tanks, the
red tide could not be stemmed.
German aces proliferated in the six months
after Barbarossa. Oberstleutnant Werner Molders
had scored 33 kills in June and July. He ended
his two-war string at 115 when he was promoted
after Gen. Ernst Udet’s suicide in November
1941. By year’s end, Hauptmann Gordon Gollob
of Jagdgeschwader 3 ran his score to 85.
At the same time, Hans-Ulrich Rudel had
logged 400 Stuka missions, credited with sinking
or severely damaging three Soviet warships and
beginning his toll of armored vehicles. He took
leave early in ’42, then assumed command of a
replacement unit before returning to combat that
summer.
But Russian industry shrugged off massive
losses. The most prolific aircraft of WW II (and
probably of all time—more than 36,000 were
produced) was Ilyushin’s Il-2. Originally a single-
seat ground-attack aircraft, it later gained a rear
gunner. About 250 Sturmoviks had been delivered
at the time of Barbarossa, not all in unit service.
Four factories were devoted to Il-2 production,
which Stalin likened to “the bread of the army.”
A Sturmovik pilot recalled, “I always admired
the German Junkers 87. You should have seen
them diving! They swooped down one by one
and shot exactly to the point. Il-2 could do noth-
ing like that. Its best performance was to fly at an
angle of 30 degrees, and it was shaking like mad!
The aircraft was heavy, and you could not make
it fly faster no matter how hard you tried.”
In contrast, the Germans admired their enemy.
Luftwaffe historian Walter Schwabedissen
described Soviet fliers as “aggressive, courageous,
and stubborn. Their attacks were amazingly cool-
headed. An average Sturmovik pilot was a fearless
rival. The weak sides of the Russian character
showed up in Sturmovik pilots to a lesser degree
than in the fighter pilots.”
Germany finally stabilized the Eastern Front
in January 1942. A Soviet counteroffensive, how-
ever, caught 100,000 German and Axis troops
in the Demyansk pocket south of Leningrad.
The only option was supply by air, but heavy
losses among Junkers 52 transports in the spring
1941 Crete attack were not offset by new pro-
duction, leaving the Luftwaffe hard-pressed to
meet the demand. Oberst Fritz Morzik, oversee-
ing the effort, explained to Luftflotte I that, with
220 transports, merely 30 percent were opera-
tional at a time. “To ferry a daily quota of 300 tons
to Demyansk, I need a standing force of at least
150 serviceable machines, and we have only half
that number. To double, it you will have to draw
on other fronts and drain the homeland of all
available machines.”
Morzik added that in winter, operating from
the single runway available, the airlift demanded
more support personnel and maintenance
equipment. He specified mobile workshops,
warm-up covers for engines, and auxiliary start-
ers, among others.
Against the odds, the Luftwaffe succeeded,
enabling the Axis forces to force a narrow strip to
the west in mid-May.
Among the most successful German fighter
pilots was then Oberleutnant Gerhard Barkhorn
of JG.52. A prewar pilot, he benefited from thor-
ough training and began scoring during Bar-
barossa, ending 1941 with 10 victories. He added
90 during 1942, en route to 301 total. Discussing
his opponents, Barkhorn reflected, “Some Rus- Ground personnel prepare
sian pilots flew without looking to either side of to load 250-pound bombs
them or back behind their tails. I shot down a aboard a Vickers Wellington
Mk II of 148 Squadron at Luqa
lot of them like this who didn’t even know I was Airfield, Malta, in 1942. (Photo
there. A few of them were good, like other Euro- courtesy of Jack Cook)
February 2017 21
WW II DIARY: EARLY 1942
The scourge of Allied pilots in
the early days of the Pacific
war, the A6M-2 carrier
fighter possessed unmatched
range and maneuverability.
Counter tactics were quickly
developed, but aerial parity
would have to wait for Hellcats
and Corsairs to arrive in
theater. (Photo courtesy of
Stan Piet)
22 FlightJournal.com
pean pilots, but most were not flexible in their
response to aerial fighting.”
Pacific Payback
Tokyo’s armed forces demonstrated exceptional
competence and versatility in the wake of Pearl
Harbor. Little recalled today, the Japanese had
benefited from German airborne instructors,
with extensive training at home and in China.
On January 11, a naval airborne battalion jumped
from converted Mitsubishi G3M bombers to seize
a landing zone on Celebes Island, Dutch East
Indies (now Indonesia).
Then in mid-February, Imperial Japanese
Army paratroopers flown from Malaya in Naka-
jima Ki.34s dropped on Sumatra. Some 350 men
flown from Malaya descended on a major airfield
and the route to a major refinery. Advancing
ground forces reached the troopers the following
night. Meanwhile, amphibious troops landed on
nearby Java.
Additionally, Army parachutists secured areas
on Timor ahead of a major seaborne invasion.
Few other Japanese airborne operations were con-
ducted thereafter, but the 1942 missions served a
strategic goal: securing the petroleum lifeblood
of an industrial power that Japan lacked at home.
It was the main reason for going to war in the
first place.
About the same time, Japanese naval aircraft
bombed Darwin, the northernmost port in
Australia.
With its battleships sunk or sidelined, the U.S.
Pacific Fleet relied on its three precious aircraft
carriers to strike back in February and March.
The hit-and-run raids were far-flung, inflicting
little serious damage, but they clearly showed the
enemy American resolve.
The first effort was a February 1 double header
in the Gilbert and Marshall Island groups. In the
Gilberts, USS Enterprise (CV-6) launched against
Roi and Kwajalein Atolls, achieving surprise but
losing six SBDs to weather and Japanese fighters.
While withdrawing, the task force was attacked
by Mitsubishi G3M “Nells.” Defending F4F
Wildcats diverted some, but one pressed ahead,
streaming flames. Machinist’s Mate Bruno Gaido
leapt into a parked Dauntless, adding the single
.30 caliber to the ship’s antiaircraft guns. The
G3M swiped the ship, one wing severing the
SBD’s tail, mere feet from where Gaido stood.
Meanwhile, USS Yorktown’s (CV-5) strike
against Jaluit in the Marshalls was spoiled by
weather, with seven planes lost.
Three weeks later, USS Lexington (CV-2) closed
in on Japan’s South Pacific bastion: Rabaul on
New Britain. Patrol planes saw the Americans
500 miles out, prompting a major response. Sev-
enteen Mitsubishi G4M “Bettys” split for a dual-
axis attack, sorely testing “Lex’s” 18 Wildcats.
Led by Lt. Cmdr. John S. Thach, Fighting Three
accepted the challenge. His pilots splashed five
of the first nine bombers, which missed the car-
rier with their bombs, although two Wildcats
 BEGINNING TO END:
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WW II DIARY: EARLY 1942
The classic Grumman-style
landing gear was a regular
problem for pilot training.
This F4F-3A sheared its gear
coming into the USS Charger
in April 1942. Charger was
converted from a passenger/
cargo liner launched in March
1941 and assigned as an
anti-sub-operations training
carrier, assigned to the
Chesapeake Bay. Note the
small practice bomb dispenser
on the outboard wing. (Photo
courtesy of Stan Piet)
24 FlightJournal.com
went down. None of the first wave that survived
returned to base.
Meanwhile, the second wave was left to a pair of
F4Fs led by Lt. (j.g.) Edward H. O’Hare, one of the
navy’s finest aerial marksmen. With his wingman’s
guns inoperative, O’Hare coolly made repeated
passes at the nine bombers, dropping three and
damaging two, with one splashing near base. Only
three of the 17 Mitsubishis survived, and O’Hare
was feted as the first Navy ace of the war.
Subsequent carrier operations kept the Japa-
nese alert. On February 24, Enterprise attacked
Wake Island, where the Big E had delivered
Marine fighters just before Pearl Harbor. Then, on
March 4, she hit Marcus Island, only 1,000 miles
from Japan.
On March 10, Lexington and Yorktown squad-
rons flew over the Owen Stanley Mountains of
New Guinea to attack Japanese shipping at Lae,
Salamaua, and Rabaul. Subsequently, the U.S.
and Australian air forces began hitting Rabaul
from bases in New Guinea and the Solomons.
After initial clashes, Allied airmen were forced
to reassess the prewar stereotype of Japanese
fliers. A 1942 issue of Flying Magazine quoted a
naval aviator describing his enemy: “We had no
idea of the type of plane or pilot we were going
to run into. We knew only this: that the Japanese
were well disciplined in the air, flew a beautiful
formation, and would never give up an attack
once they started to—even to the last plane. We
knew that we would have to knock them down
or else they would come on in.”
Similar sentiment came from a prewar British
officer with experience in Japan: “The Japanese,
as pilots, I consider very good. They are steady
and reliable, and I think the average is high. They
produced very few star turns, but they also have
very few failures.”
As Maj. Gen. George C. Kenney of the 5th Air
Force later said, “You take on Notre Dame every
time you play.”
Meanwhile, payback for Pearl was underway.
On the last day of March at Alameda Naval
Air Station, 16 B-25s were craned aboard the
aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8)—destination:
westbound.
And the war continued its relentless assault
on history, writing new chapters on an almost
daily basis. 
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HIGH DIVER
At Harding Field, Louisiana, training in the Apache proved to be some of the most hazardous in AAF as fledgling pilots transitioned to the
new world of dive-bombing. At one point, the cast-aluminum dive brakes were ordered to be wired shut and the diving angles reduced
to 70 degrees. Better techniques and hydraulic improvements corrected the difficulties, and full dive-bombing tactics were used with
great effect in the Sicily and Italy campaigns. (Photo courtesy of Stan Piet)
Charles Waddell, left, is seen
with a fellow cadet during
training. (Photo courtesy of
Jim Busha)
28 FlightJournal.com
The very first time I was up in a P-40, the fully, I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.
whole electrical system went out. I had no elec- Heck, going from an AT-6 into a Mustang was
tric pitch trim, and I couldn’t lower my landing like jumping out of your father’s truck into a
gear, so I had to pump it down by hand. For an souped-up hot-rod! The P-51A models had Alli-
“old guy,” it became quite exhausting! The flaps son engines. Down low, the planes were great,
had to be lowered by pumping them as well. It but above 12,000 feet, they got really tired in
wasn’t until after I landed that I was reminded of a hurry and had their tongues hanging out. By
a bypass switch that would have solved all these way of comparison, I got a chance to fly P-51B
problems, and helped me avoid using the “Arm- Mustangs while in tactical flying school. They
strong” method! There was so much to learn were real beauties—powerful and yet graceful.
as a green fighter pilot when checking out in a Although their Rolls-Royce Merlin engines liked
new airplane. But thankfully, the next one I was to buck and bang on startup, they really made up
assigned to I absolutely fell in love with. for it as they zoomed well past 12,000 and kept
I first laid eyes on the P-51A at Hillsborough on going. But going up high was not the reason I
Field, near Tampa, Florida. The Mustang was was in Florida. I was there to learn the tricks and
a hot fighter at the traits of the A-36 Apache dive-bomber.
time—in my opinion,
the very best we had. Dive-Bomber School
We got to fly them for Checking out in the early Mustangs meant only
three months before one thing: dive-bombing. Most of the early Air
we were shipped out Corps dive-bombers had been A-24 variants of
for combat, and they the Navy’s venerable Dauntless SBD (“slow but
were a true delight— deadly”), with a behemoth known as the Vultee
except for one small A-31 Vengeance. The SBD was a well-proven air-
item: The cockpit plane in the Pacific, but it was slow. We needed
cooling system didn’t something that could get in and out quickly. The
work at all. We were A-36 Apache, a variant of the Mustang P-51A, was
soaking wet in that specifically designed for swift, in-and-out dive-
hot Florida sun when bombing. North American Aviation redesigned
we came down from and strengthened the laminar flow wings, added
flying, and that was racks to carry a 500-pound bomb under each
just during the morn- wing, loaded it up with six .50-caliber machine
ing flight! But truth- guns, including two in each wing and two more
in the nose. Down low, it was fast, and it cruised
at about 260mph; wide open, it could hit 365.
But the greatest attribute of the Apache, by far,
was its dive brakes.
Embedded in the wings, the dive brakes were
aluminum-grated slats that popped out 90 degrees
like clamshells on the top surface and the bot-
tom. They were activated by a small control knob
located on the pilot’s left. When deployed in a
dive, they allowed us to hold our dive steady and
keep the gunsight’s “pipper” on the target. In
fact, as A-36 dive-bomber pilots, we would often
brag that we could put a 500-pound bomb in a
pickle barrel from 2,000 feet! Of course, there
would be nothing left of the barrel to prove our
accuracy, but I think you get the point.
In training, and later in combat, we would nor-
mally operate in flights of eight, 12, and sometimes
16 A-36s. We climbed to 10,000 to 12,000 feet
and waited for the leader’s signal to dive. When
The men traveled in style via
he “fishtailed” his Apache, he wanted all of us Joining the Fight WW I–era boxcars, with 40
to fall in behind him, as close to the tail of the I took a long, slow boat ride across the Atlan- men per car. (Photo courtesy
A-36 in front as possible, so it was as if we were tic Ocean and arrived in Casablanca, French of Jim Busha)
on an invisible string. It must have looked like a Morocco, on Christmas Day 1943. From there,
Broadway show from the ground, as we waited we were loaded in World War I–era boxcars called
for the leader to roll over on his back and dive “40 in 8” because each one could hold up to
almost vertically for the target below. Before 40 men or eight horses—thankfully, not at the
pushing over, though, we deployed the dive same time. Five days later, I arrived in Libya, where
brakes to ensure that we’d be able to control our I was shoved into the nose of a B-17 Flying Fortress
vertical speeds. We were told that this was an and took off for Italy. The B-17 pilot must have
“incline” dive and that no other Air Force fighter been a frustrated fighter pilot because he never got
could really do what we were doing—basically, much higher than the wave tops as we zipped over
dive straight down without tearing our wings off. the water, across the war-torn countryside of Sic-
During those steep dives, the brakes allowed us to ily, and on to our base near Naples, Italy.
hold our airspeed steady down to about 220mph. I was part of the 27th Fighter Bomber Group
Ground crewmen of the
We would release our dummy bombs at 2,000 to (FBG) and joined them at an old commercial air- 86th FBG pose with A-36A,
2,500 feet, close the dive brakes, and then zoom field called Pomigliano d’Arco. We shared our turf “#067,” after its crew chief
away as fast as we could. The training was con- with our sister Apache group, the 86th, plus some Staff Sgt. Meredith J. Sutton
painted the 150th bomb
tinuous and at times strenuous, but I had a lot of bomber outfits. We were only 30 miles from the
mission marker on his charge.
fun. About the only thing missing was the flak front lines, and to add to the excitement of war, The plane was later lost to flak
and ground fire—something I would experience Mt. Vesuvius decided to blow its top and send over Italy on January 14, 1944.
firsthand over the skies of Italy. rocks as big as cars into the air! (Photo courtesy of Stan Piet)

February 2017 29
HIGH DIVER
My initial combat hops were more or less famil-
iarization flights with “old hands” that had been
in combat for a while. My indoctrination lasted
only about two hours. In that time, I absorbed
every word the old-timers said because it was the
only way to stay alive.
Shortly after I arrived, the big January 1944
battle at Anzio had erupted. On my first combat
hop, I was assigned to fly on the squadron com-
mander’s wing. His job was twofold: to lead the
mission and to keep me out of trouble. We found
plenty of trouble that day as flak and small-arms
As A strAfing mAchine, the A-36 wAs
feArsome, but in its primAry role As A
dive-bomber, it wAs deAdly.
fire filled the sky. The Germans threw everything
they had at us. So what was it like to fly my first
combat mission? In a nutshell, it was scary as
hell! It took just 20 minutes to cross the bomb
line and then we were on a fighter sweep, look-
ing for targets of opportunity. The formation we
flew was what we called “line abreast.” It was
Below left: The dive brakes, hard for the Germans to hit us as we kept close to
above and below the wings,
one another—only 50 feet away from the other
create a monumental amount
of drag, allowing the normally A-36s. While we made our runs on the targets, we
clean airplane to dive at near constantly changed our altitude and directions,
vertical angles. (Photo by turning and jinking the stick the whole time.
David Leininger) Below right:
The two .50-caliber Brown- I will never forget my first target: a German
ings in each wing brought ambulance. It sat in a parking area with a bunch
the total to six. (Photo by of other vehicles around, so I didn’t know if any-
Frank Mormillo)
body was in it. Trouble was, there were a bunch
30 FlightJournal.com
of Germans standing near it and they were, of
course, firing back at us. And they were very,
very good at it, getting great accuracy with their
20mm and 88mm guns. They knew how use
them, and they filled our planes with holes.
My Apache took three hits in the tail, but it kept
on going as if it had only had its paint scratched.
It would have been a lot different had the hits
swapped ends and I took them in the engine or
the coolant system. Had that happened, I am
sure I would have had to bail out and became
a guest of the Germans for the remainder of the
war. Thankfully, the A-36 kept on ticking, and I
made it out alive. Our missions increased during
that time, and sometimes we flew multiple times
each day. We rarely encountered German fight-
ers, though, and most times had top cover from
British or American Spitfire fighter squadrons.
Some of the A-36s in our squadron were armed
with two 20mm cannon in the wings instead of
machine guns. The cannon packed a punch, fir-
ing straight ahead; but they didn’t converge into
a cone of fire like our machine guns did. As a
strafing machine, the A-36 was fearsome, but in
its primary role as a dive-bomber, it was deadly.
Most of our missions began with the squad-
ron commander standing before us in the brief-
ing room, where he’d pull back the curtain back
to reveal a large wall map of Italy. We would be
given our targets and routes and, on some occa-
sions, photographs of our targets. All of our A-36s
were painted in the same flat, olive drab scheme
with just a number or letter signifying individual
planes. We wrote all the numbers on the back
of our hands so that we knew who was next to
The air inlet above the nose, rather than below it, is a
major difference between the Allison-equipped Apaches
and the Merlin-equipped Mustangs. The Apache could carry
1,000 pounds of bombs. Note the belly scoop, which is much
slimmer than the later Mustangs. Owner Dan Fiedkin has
restored his airplane to appear mission-ready, complete
with bombs. (Photo by David Leininger)

February 2017 31
HIGH DIVER

Above: The basic cockpit layout didn’t change in any of the mod-
els. The gear handle is down by the left foot, trim wheel and knobs
are under the left arm, fuel selectors are between the legs, and so
on. (Photo by Frank Mormillo) Left: The “birdcage” canopy of the
Allison airplanes didn’t change when the Merlin-powered 51B/Cs
were developed, but the Malcolm Hood replaced the center part.
The 51D introduced the bubble canopy. (Photo by Frank Mormillo)

us, what A-36 they were in, and who was who in
what position. As we strapped inside the A-36,
we were struck by the sight of identically colored
Apaches warming their Allison engines, dust fly-
ing as airplanes rocketed down the runway.
With our target photos strapped to our legs, we
struggled to get to 12,000 feet with a 500-pound
bomb slung beneath each wing. Although I could
feel the prop wash from the guy in front of me,
I got used to it after a while. We kept our eyes
peeled for German fighters and hoped the Spit-
fires would latch onto them before they spot-
ted us. Our targets were command posts, dams,
bridges, airfields, and troop concentrations. We
usually avoided bombing the German airfields
because they were heavily defended by anti-
aircraft guns—but we sure strafed the hell out
of them when we came zooming in at treetop
level, all of us line abreast with our machine guns
shooting up the whole damn place!

32 FlightJournal.com
 Left and below: Waddell
traded his beloved A-36
Apache for the P-40 War-
hawk (left) and later the
P-47 “Jug” (below) before
rotating back to the States.
He reported that neither
aircraft could approach the
Apache in terms of accuracy
as a dive-bomber. (Photos
courtesy of Jim Busha)

Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

But just as soon as I got comfortable in the A-36
and felt like it was an extension of my body, the
planes were ripped away from us. North Ameri-
can Aviation built only about 500 of them. Some
stayed back in the states, and others went to the
Far East Theater of Operations. In Italy, there was
nothing else around that could do what we were
doing. But our numbers were dwindling because
of operational losses. The AAF could no longer
keep two A-36 groups going and had to decide
between us and the 86th. We did it the old-
fashioned way and flipped a coin. Unfortunately
for me, the 86th got to keep flying the Apache.
Our 27th FBG was promised the new P-51 Mus-
tang, but like everything else in the army, noth-
ing ever goes as planned. Instead of Mustangs, we
ended up with war-weary P-40F Warhawks that
had been cast off by the Royal Air Force. As far as
we were concerned, we were stepping backward, I think our dive-bombing accuracy dropped in
but orders were orders and we made do with the P-47. One big reason was that you couldn’t
what we had. The A-36 was designed perfectly for see over the Jug’s nose. As a consequence, we
its dive-bombing role; why the AAF gave them up had to glide-bomb. There was no way we could
is a mystery to me! direct a bomb into a pickle barrel (the fabled
The P-40F could do only about 240mph on the claim of radar-guided-bombing enthusiasts)—or
deck, compared to the 300+mph in the A-36. We even close!
should have learned that gambling only gets you How did I keep going as a fighter pilot and
further in debt! The bottom line is that the A-36 avoid stewing about whether today was my day
was designed for one very important and par- to cash in? Truthfully, I never gave it a thought.
ticular task: dive-bombing. When the AAF tried I was scared to death every day, but I always
to replace it with a new airplane, they fell short. thought it was going to be the other guys that
We later got P-47 Thunderbolt “Jugs” as replace- would get hit—never me. There was one big rea-
ments for the P-40 dogs. But diving in a P-47 was son I felt this way: I knew that I had an excellent
a tough deal. You couldn’t come diving straight airplane strapped to me. The A-36 Apache was
down because that behemoth picked up speed so my good luck charm!
rapidly that you had to think 10,000 feet ahead
of it to pull out safely. We developed a glide- Charlie Waddell wound up flying 120 combat mis-
bombing technique. That helped, and it must sions in the A-36, P-40, and P-47. Of the 26 men he
be said that the P-47 had one advantage over went into combat with as part of the 27th FBG, only
the Apache: It could carry twice the load—two nine returned home. J
1,000-pound bombs. I think that that capacity
was the deciding factor for the powers that be.

February 2017 33
INVASION: THE PHILIPPINES
Above: 1st Lt. Boyd “Buzz”
Wagner commanded the
17th Pursuit Squadron during
the defense of the Philip-
pines. Wagner became the
first ace of the Army Air
Forces and was awarded the
Distinguished Service Cross
for heroism on December 17,
1942. (Photo courtesy of Jack
Cook) Below: Many of the
available American fighters in
the Philippines were obsolete
Seversky P-35s. The P-40Es
had arrived only a few days
before the attacks began.
(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia
Commons)
36 FlightJournal.com
The 21st Pursuit Squadron was under the We arrived in Manila on November 20 and
command of a gent who we knew would turn were assigned to Nichols Field, approximately six
out to be one of the great air commanders in miles south, while the 34th was assigned to Del
the Pacific. He was 1st Lt. William “Ed” Dyess, Carmen, 14 miles south of Clark Field. The 3rd
a 6-foot, blond Texan who commanded respect Pursuit Squadron was already at Iba Field, well
by his outstanding leadership and flying abil- north of Subic Bay on the Zambales coast. The
ity, a man who would never ask anybody to do 24th Squadron headquarters, under 1st Lt. Walter
anything that he wouldn’t do himself. Ed was a Putnam, another of the great ones, and the 20th
natural pilot. He had first flown at the age of four Pursuit Squadron, under 1st Lt. Joe Moore, for-
with his father, also an aviation enthusiast, and tunately of the same caliber, were also based at
from that time on, he wanted to be an aviator. Clark. Headquarters, Far East Air Force (FEAF),
When Ed issued orders, it might have been in a was based at Nielson Field, south of Manila.
slow Southern drawl, but you only had to look We were ready to go as soon as we disem-
into his steel blue barked, but much to our chagrin, instead of
eyes if there was any having our Curtiss P-40s, we were given tired,
doubt they would be exhausted Seversky P-35As that had been built
carried out. Ed had for the Swedish Air Force. Equipped with Swed-
all the characteristics ish instrumentation, these airplanes came with
one expects in a pro- no English version of any technical orders for
fessional American our crewmen, and that contributed materially to
military officer. He their sad condition. The plane’s only satisfying
had married shortly quality was that it was more powerfully armed
before we sailed, than the United States model, which carried only
and I am certain it two synchronized .30-caliber machine guns. Our
was their mutual P-35s had two .50-caliber machine guns mounted
love that carried Ed on the cowl and a .30-caliber machine gun in
through his dark- each wing.
est days during the We were told that we could expect our P-40Es
Bataan Death March. in early December. I am not exaggerating when
Also aboard the I say that we were expecting war with Japan to
Coolidge was the 34th begin any day, especially after the United States
Pursuit Squadron, cut off American oil and froze Japanese credits in
under 1st Lt. Samuel the United States. The next step would have been
Marrett. We were to apparent to a high-school student.
be part of the 24th Shortly after our arrival, the 24th Pursuit Group
Pursuit Group, which status report gave the following information
included two other about its squadrons: 3rd Pursuit Squadron at Iba,
squadrons—the 3rd Pursuit Squadron, under 1st commanded by Lt. Hank Thorne, with 18 P-40Es
Lt. Henry Thorne, and the 17th, which was com- in commission; 17th Pursuit Squadron at Nich-
manded by 1st Lt. Boyd “Buzz” Wagner, another ols Field, commanded by Lt. Buzz Wagner, with
outstanding leader who was to become a legend 18 P-40Es in commission; 21st Pursuit Squadron
in the Pacific. at Nichols Field, commanded by Lt. Ed Dyess,
with eighteen P-35As in commission; 20th Pursuit
Squadron, at Clark Field, commanded by Lt. Joe
Moore, with 18 P-40Bs in commission; and 34th
Pursuit Squadron at Del Carmen, commanded
by Lt. Sam Marrett, with 18 P-35As in commis-
sion. That added up to 36 P-40Es, 18 P-40Bs,
and 36 P-35s, an official total of 90 first-line,
combat-worthy planes.

We Were Overconfident and

Not Prepared
As I mentioned, the 21st arrived in the Philip-
pines 18 days before the war. I had just graduated
from flying school and had managed to get about
13 hours in the P-40 before leaving for the Philip-
pines. Once there, we got a few hours in the P-35s
so that we could keep up what little proficiency
we had.
Even though we had tired P-35s, we began
standing alert on December 1, the day of the first
appearance of Japanese aircraft over Luzon. Our
morale was extremely high. We were told that
the Japanese airplanes were mediocre and the
pilots could be considered in the same category.
The general impression was that if war came and
we didn’t win it right away, the necessary rein-
forcements would be forthcoming.
The first of our squadron’s P-40Es arrived at
Nichols on December 4, but they were a long
P-40B Tomahawks of the
way from being operational. Their guns were in 1939 and landed in Oakland, California—a 20th Pursuit Squadron are
still in cosmoline and required extensive clean- tremendous feat for its day. But no one told us lined up at Clark Field, Luzon,
ing. Boiling that cosmoline off our guns was one about the great Zero Navy fighter, which was to Philippines in October 1941.
of the filthiest jobs I have ever undertaken. For dominate the Pacific skies. Although it had made (Photo courtesy of Jack Cook)

boresighting the guns, we were allocated only
a very few of the available .50-caliber rounds in
our ammunition lockers. Additional P-40s were
subsequently delivered in the same condition.
In fact, the last four of our 18 P-40s arrived after
dark on December 7.
On December 6, our group commander, Col.
Harold George—known as “Pursuit George”
to distinguish him from the other Col. Harold
“Bomber” George—assembled us at the base
theater at Nichols and told us that war was
imminent, possibly within hours but certainly
within days. What we couldn’t understand was
why so second-rate an air power as we were
told Japan was would dare challenge the United
States. We were led to believe that they didn’t
have any modern equipment, and that if they
were foolish enough to hit us, we would pretty
much have a picnic. It was just inconceivable
that they would hit us. Naturally, it was a rude
awakening to find out that the shoe was on the
other foot, and it was the Americans who had the
inferior equipment.
We were aware of the capability of the Imperial
Navy’s Mitsubishi G3M Nell medium bomber,
whose civilian counterpart saw wide use before
the war. One of the civilian models, named the
“Nippon,” made an around-the-world flight
its combat debut in China in August 1940, more
than a year earlier, the Zero and its superior per-
formance came as a surprise to all Americans
except Col. Claire Chennault, of the American
Volunteer Group, the Flying Tigers.
Then there was the Imperial Navy Nakajima
B5N torpedo bomber, later known as the “Kate,”
whose design reputedly was obtained from Amer-
ican companies. Kate pilots in action at Pearl Har-
bor claimed 50 percent hits with their torpedoes.
Even more impressive was the Nell’s successor,
the Imperial Navy’s Mitsubishi G4M twin-engine
“Betty,” whose endurance and altitude at the
time exceeded the B-17’s. Bettys were to devas-
tate Clark and Nichols fields, and their altitude
capability made interception and destruction
impossible with the equipment we had. It was a
deplorable and disastrous situation.
From the intelligence standpoint, it was appar-
ent that if and when Japan decided to strike, we
The first of our squadron’s P-40Es arrived
at Nichols on December 4, but they were
a long way from being operational.

February 2017 37
INVASION: THE PHILIPPINES
Betty bombers approached from the north, escorted by more Zeros,
and commenced their devastating bombing runs.
in the Philippines would be the targets. Japanese
aircraft had flown slowly over the Philippines
often, but they were definitely detected in the
dark early morning hours of December 2, 4, and
5. When spotted by our only operational radar, at
Iba, they were at an estimated 24,000 feet, flying
over Luzon and our airfields.
This was really disconcerting, and it should
have given us an inkling as to the aerial superior-
ity the Japanese had. Even if it had been daylight
and we could have seen them, we couldn’t have
gotten up to their altitude. Although the service
ceiling of the P-40 was supposed to be 26,000 feet,
we had no oxygen facilities, and flying above
15,000 feet, as we later learned, was not condu-
cive to effective aerial combat or, I might add,
longevity. It is my understanding that there was
not an operating oxygen plant in the entire Phil-
ippines. There was no Prestone coolant for the
P-40 engines, either. When we attempted to go
beyond 18,000 feet, our engines would overheat
to the danger point, forcing us to level out and
descend to pick up speed and cool the laboring
Allison engine. By the time we could get back
into the safe temperature range, the target would
be long gone. This situation prevailed after the
initial attack on the Philippines on December 8.
Much to our disgust, there were always many Jap-
anese fighters above us, which meant that they
could pick their time and place to engage. When
they did, they would just come down and swarm
all over us.
We Knew It Was Coming, but…
On the nights of December 6 and 7, we kept all
our planes down and had the antiaircraft and
searchlight batteries in position to counter the
expected intruder, but he never showed. If he
had, he probably would have been just as safe as
on previous nights.
We had been given information, from what
intelligence there was, that various Japanese air-
fields on Formosa were loaded with many types
of aircraft. Now, because the Japanese fighter and
bomber fields on Formosa were at least 500 miles
distant, we expected bombers; we were certain
that the Japanese had no fighters that would
permit either a bomber escort or strafers during
attacks on Luzon—that is, unless they used air-
craft carriers.
By December 7, due to routine maintenance
problems, we had just 88 operational first-line
aircraft, of which 54 were pursuits and 35 were
B-17s. There were also U.S. Navy PBY Catalina
flying boats, which conducted long-range recon-
naissance flights that encompassed the potential
launching areas of any carrier aircraft that might
38 FlightJournal.com
attempt to attack us.
On December 8 (we were on the other side of
the International Date Line so it was the 7th in
Hawaii), I was sitting on alert at Nichols Field when
Ed Dyess, our commanding officer, received word
about the Pearl Harbor attack. It was 0430 hours.
We were all ordered to man what planes we had,
and we even turned up those planes that were
not slated to be sent aloft. Then we shut down
and stood by our planes. It was confusing as all
get-out. Here we were, many thousands of miles
closer to Japan than Pearl Harbor, and we hadn’t
been touched.
It wasn’t long in coming. Japanese aircraft
bombed Baguio, about 150 miles north of Manila,
from an altitude of 22,000 feet at 0930 hours. At
the time, a couple of the 20th Pursuit Squadron
P-40s that had taken off for a combat air patrol at
0800 hours were 17,000 feet over Rosales, 50 miles
north of Clark Field. The P-40s managed to
struggle up in an attempt to exchange shots with
the bombers, but at that altitude they only man-
aged to pick up a few rounds fired by Japanese
gunners.
Buzz Wagner’s 17th Pursuit was scrambled, but
we were left standing by with piles of sandwiches
and cold Cokes, wondering when our time would
come. We just couldn’t imagine the Japanese
would bypass the Philippines and hit Pearl.
We were finally scrambled at about 1145 hours
and assigned a combat air patrol over Manila Bay
between Corregidor and the Cavite Navy base. It
was strange to look down after being at war for
hours and see the rows of B-17s lined up and not
airborne. An old Douglas B-18 medium bomber
had flown into Nichols earlier to pick up enough
photographic equipment to permit the B-17s to
carry out a photo reconnaissance mission over
Formosa, so it was difficult for me to believe that
the damn things were still lined up, wingtip to
wingtip, on the ground.
They’re Here, but They’re Fighters!
We got the biggest surprise of our lives when Jap-
anese fighters arrived over the Manila area many
minutes before the bombers. We estimated their
altitude at 22,000 feet. This was a most unbeliev-
able sight—Formosa-based Japanese fighters at
such an altitude, which meant they had to have
a range of more than 1,000 miles.
We maintained our combat-air-patrol altitude
of 15,000 feet. The actual operational ceiling of
our aircraft at that time was between 18,000 and
19,000 feet. Shortly, about 27 twin-engine high-
altitude Betty bombers approached from the
north, escorted by more Zeros, and commenced
their devastating bombing runs. The only chance
The fighter pilots in the Philippines were amazed to see
Zeros overhead. The attacking fighters had flown more
than 500 miles from Formosa and still had enough fuel
to combat the defending American fighters, repeatedly
strafe their fields, and return to Formosa. At that time, no
other fighter in the world had that kind of range. (Photo by
John Dibbs/planepicture.com)

February 2017 39
INVASION: THE PHILIPPINES
The Mitsubishi G4M bomber,
later known as “Betty” to
the Allies, was designed
specifically for combat in
the broad expanses of the
Pacific. (Photo courtesy of
Wikimedia Commons)
Although everyone knew war
was on the way, no effort to
disperse the aircraft on Clark
Field was made. The Bettys
simply laid their sticks of
bombs right down the rows,
and strafers had targets lined
up for them. (Photo courtesy
of Jack Cook)
40 FlightJournal.com
we had to evade the Zeros was to get up to an alti-
tude where we might do some good, but it was
disconcerting as hell because of the altitude limi-
tation of our fighters. The Japanese always had
an advantage.
My flight of P-40s was over Manila when the
first bombs fell on Clark Field. Their first strikes
were against Clark and Iba. They knew what they
were after at Iba—our only operational radar
installation.
Later, I learned that, on the morning of Decem-
ber 8, Iba’s radar had picked up an inbound flight
of high-altitude aircraft 75 miles off the coast,
headed in the general direction of Corregidor.
The time was a little after 0400 hours—before we
knew anything about the Pearl Harbor attack. The
3rd Pursuit Squadron had been scrambled, but of
course we had no night-interception capability,
though our orders were to shoot down anything
within 20 miles of the shore. The two plots—the
inbound flight and interception flight—merged,
but then a very strange thing happened. The
high-altitude flight made a 180-degree turn, and
3rd Squadron fighters returned to base without
seeing anything. This occurred just about the
time the actual attack on Pearl Harbor was taking
place. As it turned out, Iba’s radar did not possess
an altitude-finding capability.
While the Japanese bombers were hitting Clark
and Iba, we were on station over Nichols, as
ordered, but they failed to show there. We could
hear all the excitement over the radio, as we flew
unmolested over Nichols and Manila. All the
while this was going on, I was still amazed that
they would dare attack us; we were so confident
that we could handle anything that they would
throw at us. When they completed their attack,
the bombers headed back toward Formosa, but
about 10 minutes later, their fighters came back
and proceeded to strafe Clark Field so thoroughly
that when they had finished there was not a sin-
gle flyable aircraft left on the base.
“They’re Trying to Kill us!”
Second Lt. Sam Grashio, whose flight was a little
farther north than mine, tangled with them near
Clark. When Sam got back, he was really excited.
He said, “They really mean it. They’re trying
to kill us.” We really hadn’t believed that they
would have the nerve to come down, and if they
did, we had felt we could sweep them from the
sky. It was now apparent that
they owned the sky.
When we finally touched
down at Nichols, everything
was in a state of destruction
and confusion. Communica-
tions had been knocked out,
and there was pandemonium.
Our squadron was ordered up to
Clark Field. The runways there
had been thoroughly bombed,
so we had to use the auxiliary
landing strip, which was so
dusty that we could only land
at intervals of several minutes.
When we landed, it looked like a
disaster area—burned airplanes,
bomb craters, dead people, and
human remains were all over
the ground. There were still bod-
ies in the cockpits of the burned
aircraft.
We parked and walked toward
what we assumed was the base
operations office. Nobody was
there, except a lone soldier
who was walking around dazed
among all the dead people. We asked him where remained and that 53 P-40s and three P-35s had Flying at 24,000 feet, the
attacking Bettys and Zeroes
the operations area was, and he finally pointed been destroyed and 25 other aircraft were dam- were untouchable. The
toward the jungle. Sure enough, there was a lit- aged, some of which would never fly again. This, defending P-40s couldn’t
tle command post a couple miles from the field, against the loss of seven Japanese fighters, con- come close to reaching them.
So the enemy could bomb and
in the middle of the jungle. There we met with stituted another complete surprise victory for
strafe the airfields at will. The
some of the survivors of the 20th Pursuit Squad- the Japanese many hours after the Pearl Harbor destruction was almost com-
ron, which, as an operational unit, was consid- attack. plete, as the remains of these
ered wiped out. We had an opportunity to talk P-35s attest. (Photo courtesy
of Wikimedia Commons)
to some of the pilots who had been airborne and Desperation Sets In
were fortunate enough to get back. Their stories That night, after a meal of cold beans, cold cof-
about this new type of Japanese fighter that they fee, bread, and jam, we all slept on the floor of a
had encountered were mighty grim. dugout. Before we turned in, we formulated our
The story of the attack on Clark was put plans for the next day’s operations, which was to
together by pilots and crewmen. The damage begin with a takeoff before dawn in anticipation
commenced when the first flight of bombers of an early Japanese attack. It was agreed that this
came over in a 27-plane vee-of-vees formation would be no easy task as the field was still in a
at approximately 23,000 feet. Their bombs were shambles and pocked with craters. Just a day ear-
exploding by the time the air-raid signals lier, a night mission in a P-40-type aircraft under
sounded. A second bomber formation followed, normal conditions for pilots of our proficiency
and it was equally devastating. Only three P-40s was unheard of. In fact, it was against existing Air
of the 20th Squadron managed to get into the Corps regulations.
air. Five were blasted by the bombardment while That night at Clark is a horrible memory. As
they were taxiing, and others were destroyed by the time arrived, we prepared for our predawn
bomb impacts or strafing. The strafing Japanese takeoff. Ed Dyess was first off. Because of the
fighters raised complete hell with the remaining dust on the field, when my flight commander,
aircraft on the field. It was just unbelievable. The 2nd Lt. Robert Clark, attempted to get rolling, he
hangars, barracks, and storehouses were demol- lost directional control. Although Ed was warn-
ished by the bombers.
We learned that the 12 planes of the 3rd
Squadron at Iba were just preparing to land from
patrol over the South China Sea when the bomb-
Everything was in a state of destruction
ers struck. All but two of the 3rd Squadron’s P-40s and confusion. Communications had been
were lost. After a quick account of our airpower, knocked out, and there was pandemonium.
we found that only 17 of the original 35 B-17s

February 2017 41
INVASION: THE PHILIPPINES

The P-40B/Cs were even

more limited in altitude
performance than the few
P-40Es that were available
during the attack. The earlier
aircraft were standard equip-
ment throughout the Pacific
at the time. (Photo courtesy
of Stan Piet)

42 FlightJournal.com
We latched onto four of the fighters, whose pilots did not see us. I made
my attack from north to south, and I managed to shoot down two of the
Japanese Zero fighters as they were diving and strafing Clark Field.
ing him from above, apparently Bob wasn’t read-
ing him and crashed into a B-17, ending up in
a ball of fire. Another of our pilots taxied into
a bomb crater. It was very confusing; there were
no lights, no ground control, nothing. I just
cranked in about 10 degrees of flaps and didn’t
have the slightest idea where I would end up—
into another B-17, a bomb crater, or what. I just
firewalled it and made it aloft against some pretty
big odds. Sam Grashio lost his engine at about
7,000 feet. Fortunately, after dodging the friendly
but mighty trigger-happy antiaircraft batteries
that surrounded the field, he managed to make it
back. By the way, these were the same antiaircraft
guns that, on December 8, had not been able to
get a point of aim on the strafing Japanese air-
craft because of their antiquated mounts.
Our 200th Coast Artillery (AA) Regiment,
which consisted of a battalion each of 3-inch and
37mm weapons, was in just as frustrating a situ-
ation as we were. They had an awful time with
their ammunition, the newest of which had been
manufactured in 1932. Most of the fuses were
badly corroded, and reportedly only one out of
six rounds went off. And when they did go off,
they didn’t have the range and would explode at
least half a mile below the bombers.
We had no definite operation. Pilots who could
get in the air would join up and fly until they
ran out of fuel or ammunition. It was impossi-
ble to get information as to what was going on
where. For the most part, communications chan-
nels were completely jammed. It was more or less
every man for himself, with no overall coordi-
nation. After our first launch, we landed at one
of the many ground-support fields that we had
around the area.
Finally—Pay Back!
On our return to Clark, we had just entered into
another circling combat air patrol when about
30 bombers and fighters made an appearance and
began their attack. The weather was clear with
a slight cirrus overcast. We latched onto four of
the fighters, whose pilots did not see us. I made
my attack from north to south, and I managed to
shoot down two of the Japanese Zero fighters as
they were diving and strafing Clark Field. Luckily,
I had the altitude advantage as they completed
their runs. Both of them crashed right on or adja-
cent to the field itself.
I landed and refueled, then I was ordered back
to Nichols. As I approached the field, I could hear
action going on all around, and I could see single-
engine aircraft pulling out of their bombing or
strafing runs. I hit one—another Zero—and he
fell right on Nichols Field. The others started
to chase me all over the place. I apparently had
more fuel than they did, for they broke off the
chase. Don’t for a minute think that I wasn’t
sweating it out. They were good!
I got a total of three Japanese aircraft on the
second day of the war, and that’s the last time I
ever got a crack at them in the Philippines. That
day, five of our P-40s were shot down and three
others crash-landed on nearby beaches. Then,
the Philippines were lashed by some of the sever-
est rainstorms that I have ever seen, and that
apparently reduced a follow-up knockout punch
by the Japanese.
EPILOGUE
After the 24th Pursuit Group had flown itself out in the grossly
uneven fight for the skies over Luzon, many pilots and ground crew-
men were absorbed into ground units. Second Lt. Jack Donalson
eventually became an infantryman, the leader of 10 other Air
Corps men who fought the last-ditch battles on Bataan. Indeed,
Jack Donalson was awarded the Army’s second-highest award—
the Distinguished Service Cross—for leading a deadly infantry raid
behind Japanese lines. At the end, Donalson was ordered out of
the Philippines aboard an overcrowded B-17, and he soon ended
up in Australia.
Lt. Donalson eventually returned to combat as a P-40 pilot with
the 49th Fighter Group’s 9th Fighter Squadron. He downed a Mit-
subishi A6M Zero fighter over Darwin, Australia, on June 14, 1942,
and he achieved ace status when he downed a fifth Zero, also over
Darwin, on July 30, 1942.
Late in the war, Maj. Donalson served in the European Theater
with the 352nd Fighter Group’s 487th Fighter Squadron, a com-
bat tour he describes as “a walk in the park compared to Bataan
and Darwin.” He remained in the service after the war and spent
most of his career in fighters. He retired as a colonel in 1968 and
passed away in 2006. J
February 2017 43
Drones
BY STEVE LLANSO

EDITOR’S NOTE:
Drones are not, as is often assumed, a 21st-century develop-
ment. Far from it. Their history goes back more than 100 years,
but the rate at which they are changing our everyday life
continues to accelerate. So we thought it is worth looking back
and seeing where the concept came from, how it developed,
and where it stands today. Given the current rate of change, it’s
obvious we’re only seeing the tip of what is going to turn out to
1
be a very big technological and cultural iceberg.

44 FlightJournal.com
YESTERDAY, TODAY,
AND TOMORROW
Technology changes the face of combat
3

5 6

1. Kittering Bug, 1918. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) 2. KDN-1 Target Drone, circa 1946, developed at NAMU Johnsville. (Photo courtesy of Stan Piet) 3. General
Motors A-1 Drone, Muroc, 1941. (Photo courtesy of USAF) 4. Predator, currently active. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) 5. The early Ryan Q-2A Firebee was oper-
ated by all three services in the mid-1950s. (Photo courtesy of Stan Piet) 6. Movie star Reginald Denny built models and drones for the U.S. Army. (Photo courtesy of USAF)

December 2016 45
DRONES: YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW
The Sperry-Curtiss “Pilotless
Flying Bomb” was an attempt
at a cruise missile in 1918 with
a 40-mile range. The dive into
the target was initiated after a
given number of engine revo-
lutions. It had limited success
and was never produced but is
still considered the first pilot-
less aircraft. (Photo courtesy
of Wikimedia Commons)
46 FlightJournal.com
First-order change
Drones constitute a fundamental transforma-
tion in both military and civilian realms. In an
unmanned air system (UAS), the miniaturization
in technologies, accurate navigation, and the
separation of the pilot from the vehicle form a
combination that might be called a “first-order
change.” It is a fundamental shift in direction.
Just as jet engines wrought a similar change in
commercial and military aviation, it is the effect
of the Big Change that matters more than the
types or uses of aircraft that follow.
The drone’s usefulness is expanding exponen-
tially and runs the gamut from highly benefi-
cial support of humanitarian operations to the
frankly destructive mission of armed conflict. In
short, a new day is upon us, but it didn’t happen
overnight. It was a long time coming.
Early Days: Trial, Error, and
Indifference
The first drones were developed along two dif-
ferent paths: an autonomous vehicle and one
guided by a separate aircraft. In World War I, the
Navy tested one kind of “aerial torpedo,” the
Army another. Each involved a collection of inge-
nious and experienced inventors.
The Navy program incorporated Elmer Sperry’s
three-axis gyroscopic flight-control system that
was demonstrated in a successful flight down
the Seine a month before the Great War began.
Peter Cooper Hewitt’s $3,000 and a partnership
with Sperry in late 1916 led to the Hewitt-Sperry
Automatic Airplane. Daring tests undertaken by
Sperry’s son Lawrence led to a contract for six
Curtiss Speed Scout airframes, which were the
“first purpose-built unmanned aircraft.”
The Aerial Torpedo, fitted with the Sperry sys-
tem, enjoyed its only success on March 6, 1918,
when it guided itself over a 1,000-yard flight,
then obeyed a preset command to dive on the
target. Given that the target was the Long Island
Sound, this may seem like a small success, but it
has been noted by some that the Aerial Torpedo
was the first unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) to
be recovered and flown again.
Problems with the catapult and other systems
crashed the Speed Scouts, but a converted N-9
trainer was successfully launched on October 17,
1918, and flew as planned for eight miles. At that
point, drone aviation experienced its first uncom-
manded “fly away,” when the trainer’s flight con-
tinued until it disappeared over the horizon. The
Navy’s attention turned to an occasional interest
in target drones and the Sperry-Hewitt program
ended.
Kettering’s Bug
Meanwhile, Charles Franklin Kettering per-
suaded the Army to award a contract to the Day-
ton Wright Airplane Company for 25 Liberty
Eagle aerial torpedoes. The Kettering Bug’s design
and construction set precedents in several areas
of later drone design in its inexpensive construc-
tion. The specially designed 41hp engine pro-
pelled the aircraft at 120mph. The distinctive
dihedral of the biplane wings came from Orville
Wright, as did launch from a dolly. Sperry’s gyro
contributed controllability.
The Bug’s flight tests proved mostly unsatis-
factory, largely due to a flight-
control system that mixed
pneumatics with gears and elec-
tricity. The Bug never approached
its promised reliability, however,
primarily because of its late start:
It first flew just a month before
the armistice was signed, so the
Bug was never “debugged” due
to lack of interest. The last few
flights in 1919 enjoyed some
success, but by that time, no
one cared.
The Navy continued testing
the radio control of pilotless
aircraft, reaching a milestone
on September 15, 1924, when a
control aircraft successfully flew
a radio-controlled Curtiss F5L
flying boat from takeoff through
its flight and water landing. But
development in remotely piloted
aircraft then stalled and didn’t
resume for more than a decade.
Sideshows and Desperate Measures
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Delmar S. Fahrney revived the
aerial torpedo as an outgrowth of his develop-
ment of drones (a usage he coined) beginning
in 1936. Spurred by U.S. observers’ reports on
British target aircraft such as the Fairey “Queen
Bee,” Fahrney and RCA began development of
television-guided weapons in which the bomb’s
camera transmitted target images to a controller
in the launch aircraft.
The entry of the United States into WW II
dramatically increased demand for target drones
and spurred the search for useful offensive weap-
ons. Encouraged by tests conducted in 1942 in
which 47 of 50 flights were deemed successful,
the Navy contracted for 500 assault drones and
170 mother ships.
Interstate TDR-1 drones would be the only
WW II type to attack targets. An agreeably flyable
airframe, the midwing monoplane was powered
by two 220hp Lycoming engines, spanned 48 feet,
and weighed 5,900 pounds. With 189 TDR-1s
built, they could carry up to 2,000 pounds of
explosive payload about 425 miles. The RCA
Block-1 TV system developed by Vladimir
Zworykin used a small camera and transmitter
that weighed 97 pounds and fit in a box mea-
suring only 8 x 8 x 26 inches. An austere pilot’s
position for tests and transportation would be
faired over when the TDR-1 was sent on its pri-
mary mission.
Staging STAG-1: Drones Go to War
Special Task Air Group One (STAG-1) tested the
combination of TDRs and TBM-1C Avenger
mother ships in 1943 and early 1944. Low on
the funding food chain, the crews adopted work-
able makeshifts including the use of a rotary
phone dial to select drone altitude and weapons
release options. STAG-1 was sent to the Solomon
Islands in July 1944; the two squadrons of TDR-1s
and TBM-1Cs performed capably with 21 of the
46 attacks considered successful. The system
enjoyed little support, however, and was can-
celed. Both types of aircraft were pushed over-
board on the way home.
Officially named the Kettering
Aerial Torpedo during WW I
but generally referred to as
the “Kettering Bug,” it was
much more successful than
the Curtiss Flying Bomb.
Elmer Sperry, later known for
gyro instruments, devised the
guidance system, while the
airframe was built by Curtiss-
Wright, with Orville Wright
as a consultant. The 40hp
De Palma engine was pro-
duced by Ford. The fuselage
was made out of wood
and papier-mâché, while
the wings were originally
cardboard. It had a range of
40 miles. (Photo courtesy of
Wikimedia Commons)
February 2017 47
DRONES: YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW
The Interstate TDR-1 “Edna”
saw moderate success in
1944 under Operation Option,
where, carrying bombs,
50 were directed toward Japa-
nese targets in the Solomon
Islands utilizing an RCA TV
camera guided by a TBM-1C
drone controller. (Photo
courtesy of Stan Piet)
With wingtip-receiving anten-
nae, surplus F6F-3K Hellcat
drones served as target mate-
rial for early Sidewinder and
Sparrow I missile develop-
ment at NAS Point, Mugu,
the last in May 1961. (Photo
courtesy of Stan Piet)
48 FlightJournal.com
Desperate Measures Redux
During WW II, the Army Air Forces (AAF) and the
Navy modified war-weary bombers into massive
flying bombs. The AAF’s program was Operation
Aphrodite: Its mission was to destroy Vengeance-
weapon launch sites by crashing a B-17 (desig-
nated BQ-7) into them. Using TV imaging and a
radio control system, laden with 18,000 pounds
of Torpex explosive, the bombers required pilots
onboard during takeoff and a short cruise-flight
phase. Just before the plane reached the North
Sea, the two-man crew armed the Torpex and
bailed out. About 25 B-17Fs were converted for
that purpose.
In tests and actual attacks from August to Octo-
ber 1944, crew fatalities were surprisingly low,
but maintaining control of the aircraft proved
to be nearly impossible. In attacks against Ger-
man V-weapon sites and later against submarine
pens, only a few BQ-7s exploded upon impact in
Germany, Sweden, and England. Only one attack
caused significant damage to the enemy.
The Navy’s Project Anvil converted PB4Y Lib-
erators into drone BQ-8s beginning in July 1944.
Only two missions were flown to test the com-
plicated control system. A director located in a
PV-1 Ventura flew the pilotless BQ-8 after receiv-
ing course corrections from an accompanying
PB-1 (Navy B-17), which received the television
image from the BQ-8. In its first test flight, flown
by Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy and Lt. Wilford John
Willy, the onboard TV system apparently trans-
mitted stray voltage to one of the Torpex deto-
nators, and the plane suddenly exploded. Poor
TV quality frustrated the only actual attack on a
sub pen. After those two flights, the program was
canceled.
For almost two decades after WW II, unmanned
aircraft development in the United States focused
on target drones. Only one other attack-drone
system saw action during that time. In July 1952,
Guided Missile Unit 90 (GMU-90) deployed six
F6F-5K Hellcat drones, each carrying a 1,000-
pound bomb. Flying from USS Boxer (CV 21),
Douglas AD-4N control aircraft sent the drones
against six North Korean targets in August and
September 1952, with little success.
Eye in the Sky
The very nature of manned aerial reconnais-
sance aircraft at the time (slow and vulnerable
to ground fire) put pressure on the designers of
target drones to assign their creations’ additional
duties: The ability to see was deemed as impor- the only battlefield UAV deployed by U.S. forces Replacing the earlier F6F-3Ks,
Grumman Panthers and later
tant as the ability to destroy. for some time.
F9F-6K Cougars provided a
In 1955, the Army tested a reconnaissance variant more robust target platform
of Northrop Ventura’s RP-4 (OQ-19) target drone, A DASH for Salts: Going After for air-to-air missile testing at
named RP-71 Falconer (SD-1, later MQM-57). Submarines Point Mugu in the late 1950s.
(Photo courtesy of Stan Piet)
Falconer may have been the first U.S. drone to Beginning in the mid-1950s, the Navy saw
be designated part of a system (AN/USD-1) that the potential for operating attack drones from
included the air vehicle and control system. destroyers against the enormous Soviet subma-
Twelve feet long with a span of 12 feet and rine fleet. A DASH (Drone Anti-Submarine Heli-
weighing 430 pounds, the RP-71 zero-launched copter) extended the weapons reach of small
using small rockets, reached 184mph, and had a anti-submarine warfare ships out to the limit of
range of about 100 miles at altitudes from a few the powerful AN/SQS-26 sonar.
hundred feet above sea level to four miles. Its con- The flight vehicle was the compact Gyrodyne
trol system used radar to track the aircraft’s flight DSN-1 helicopter, which used coaxial main
when it flew out of the control-
ler’s sight. A stick box provided “it could fly in weather that would ground
direct control using pictures
other aircraft, and the intelligence it gath-
from an onboard camera, which
was switched on when the Fal- ered could be processed by the unit’s staff
coner reached an area of inter- and be available for use in a timely manner.”
est during its 30-minute flight.
Images were captured by a still
camera or an optional video camera. rotors and, as the definitive turboshaft–powered
The Army purchased 1,485 Falconers over sev- DSN-3 (redesignated QH-50C), was first deployed
eral years, and although it had limited capability in January 1963. Possessing no sensors, the DASH
and never saw combat, drone expert John David relied on shipboard radars for command and
Blom says that it “solved many of the traditional control.
problems Army ground commanders had with Naval affairs expert Norman Polmar observed
aerial reconnaissance support. It was stationed that the DASH program was “both a success and
with his forces, it could fly in weather that would a failure.” More than any earlier remotely flown
ground other aircraft, and the intelligence it attack aircraft, DASH claimed a capability in its
gathered could be processed by the unit’s staff own right. According to many destroyer com-
and be available for use in a timely manner.” manders, DASH, when flown within its lim-
Despite these contributions, the Falconer was its, granted an unparalleled offensive reach to

February 2017 49
The AQM-34L Firebee “Tom smaller combatants. by placing the controller thousands of miles
Cat” flew an amazing 68 mis-
sions before being lost. (Photo from the aircraft in hostile territory. Unquestion-
On the negative side, 411 of 746 QH-50C
courtesy of USAF) ably, the Q-2C brought unmatched speed, range,
and QH-50Ds procured (55 percent) were lost
and survivability to the remotely piloted recon-
in crashes due to electronic-systems failures in
naissance mission, setting the standard for all
either the aircraft or the shipboard control units.
long-range ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and
Significantly, when DASH ships indepen-
Reconnaissance) drones to come.
dently flew QH-50s on “Snoopy” gunfire-support
After initial teething problems, the Lightning
missions over Vietnam beginning in January
Bug found success in a variety of configurations
1965, the partnership fared far better due to the
and in high- and low-level operations, mostly
increased operational tempo, which enhanced
over Vietnam between 1964 and 1973.
proficiency of their operators, and the fitting of
The 350th Reconnaissance Squadron flew
real-time video and film cameras. QH-50s also
3,466 Lightning Bug sorties between August 1964
bombed river traffic and tested cargo transport
and June 1975, losing 578
Many Military analysts point to the inherent drones (an average of one
potential liability of depending on a satellite loss for every six sorties).
The AQM-34Ls achieved a
systeM. KnocK out gps and Many electronic survivability rate of 87 per-
navigators Might drift aiMlessly. cent, and one flew 68 mis-
sions before being lost.
into remote outposts. Still, the complexity of the systems and a natu-
The Navy ceased DASH operations in Novem- ral proclivity for commanders wanting human
ber 1970 and would not procure another ship- eyes and cameras over the target stopped further
board drone for nearly two decades. development of the system.

Lightning Bug Pioneering RPV

The first Q-2A (Ryan 134) Firebee jet-propelled
target drone entered service in July 1957. At
the same time, Ryan began touting its Ryan 136
reconnaissance variant with longer wings for
higher-altitude flight and radar-return-reduction
modifications to the fuselage and engine intake.
By 1963, the redesignated Ryan 147, now
known as a “remotely piloted vehicle” (RPV), had
entered service in the Strategic Air Command
with its DC-130 Hercules drone-control aircraft.
It solved the problem of risking pilots over China
Beginning in 1975, interest in RPVs led to several
programs, including the Sky Eye and the poten-
tially capable Aquila, but they remained limited
for a variety of reasons. Meanwhile, a continu-
ing Israeli search for a relatively inexpensive RPV
led to their development of the Mastiff. The U.S.
Navy and Marine Corps chose the Mastiff II in
1986 for manufacture in the United States as the
aptly named Pioneer, an UAS that would dem-
onstrate many technologies still central to battle-
field UAVs.

50 FlightJournal.com
 A small twin-boom aircraft (essentially an
RC airplane) with a gimbaled TV and forward-
looking infrared turret, 100nm data-link range,
and eight-hour endurance, the RQ-2 Pioneer was
rail-launched from Marine Corps trucks and zero-
launched from two battleships. The 82nd Air-
borne Division took one system of five Pioneers
to Kuwait in 1990. Pioneer’s real-time targeting
capability led to the well-known Iraqi soldiers’
attempt to surrender to the USS Wisconsin’s RQ-1,
while the design’s endurance led to continu-
ous tracking of a mobile Scud launcher until its
destruction by other aircraft.
Changes in the types of conflicts involving U.S.
and NATO forces after the Cold War’s end ensured
that both kinds of pilotless vehicles—lookers and
shooters—would see service frequently. Over
such battle zones as Kosovo, however, early Pred-
ators were vulnerable to ground fire and lacked
the radar needed to fly in the frequently foul
weather. It has been a learning process.
No Pilots in Cages, Please
The use of drones flown by U.S. military and
intelligence organizations exploded in the late
1990s and really took off after the 9/11 attacks
for many reasons.
A key reason for the growth certainly lies in
U.S. revulsion over the treatment of downed
pilots in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. This
durable constraint, combined with the end
of the Cold War in the early 1990s, influenced
American actions in a succession of new conflicts
in which the combatants deployed asymmetric
(i.e., sometimes brutal and unacceptable) means
and ends that often frustrated U.S. aims. But it’s
also clear that the United States has enjoyed a
favorable asymmetry in many instances: The use Built by the Insitu subsid-
iary of Boeing Aircraft, the
of unmanned drones, as well as cruise missiles, ScanEagle was originally
forestalled any decision to put “boots on the designed for civilian fish spot-
ground,” whose wearers could be captured and ting but has proven itself as a
long-endurance observation
killed. drone. (Photo courtesy of
Wikimedia Commons)
The Sky’s the Limit?
The size, variety, and competence of the U.S. drone
fleet compared to just a decade ago is difficult to
summarize. Current or imagined drone design
envisages enhancements using more computer
power, sharper and more discriminating sensors,
or greater independence from continuous remote
control while ensuring more precise responsive-
ness. Overall capability per pound of airframe
keeps rising and is unlikely to level off soon.
Small hand-launched drones, like the electrically
powered RQ-11B Raven, weigh less than 5 pounds
yet carry EO/IR cameras and IR markers, and
cruise noiselessly at 1,000 feet for up to 90 min-
utes. The Navy’s widely used ScanEagle weighs
less than 50 pounds and offers persistent ISR. Its
origins in commercial fish finding demonstrate
the ubiquity of many drone capabilities. Well-
known Predator-family systems use runway-
launched aircraft (RQ-1/MQ-1/MQ-9) for both
ISR and armed attack. At the top of the weight
and cost scale is Global Hawk (RQ-4), which com-
bines high operating altitudes, subsonic cruise,
and a multitude of sensors.
The X-47B test aircraft successfully took off
and landed from aircraft carriers in 2013 and
conducted autonomous refueling trials in April
2015. The Aurora Orion completed an 80-hour
endurance flight in December 2015. Thus, the
drone horizon continues expanding—in both
directions.
February 2017 51
DRONES: YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW

Top: The Raven is a squad-

deployable, short-range,
low-cost UAV that instantly
gives infantry units eyes in
the sky. (Photo courtesy of
Wikimedia Commons) Above:
With a wingspan of 130 feet,
the Northrop Grumman
RQ-4 Global Hawk is a true
airplane-size unmanned aerial
vehicle. It has become the
“Swiss Army knife” of the
government drone program
as it is used for everything.
All-up unit cost, including
R & D, is reported to be $222.7
million. (Photo courtesy of
Wikimedia Commons)
Infallibility Is for Popes
Despite the improvements, drone design reveals
persistent shortcomings in several key areas, chief
among them being completely accurate position-
ing. The Global Positioning System (GPS) has
solved much of that problem but has introduced
other vulnerabilities.
The Vietnam-era AQM-34’s Doppler naviga-
tion system had a nominal drift error of 3 per-
cent, which often led to a failure of capturing the
target on film in many low-level flights.
The end of the Cold War in the early 1990s
accelerated the open use of the GPS satellite net-
work by civilians as well as organizations, and the
impact of increased accuracy has been dramatic.
Weak points still exist. Many military analysts
point to the inherent potential liability of depend-
ing on a satellite system. Knock out GPS and
many electronic navigators might drift aimlessly.
Indeed, a stealthy RQ-170 jet-powered drone was
reportedly brought down in Iran in 2014 through
GPS jamming. Several companies are working on
navigation systems that do not rely on GPS.
Available Manpower Limits
Unmanned Flight
Weight and cost growth are inevitable compan-
ions to mission creep and requirement expan-
sion. Perhaps the greatest constraint on drone
operation, however, comes from the very remote-
ness and limited supply of its operators. Far from
being a one-to-one-scale video game, drone opera-
tions require unique skills. In 2014, Captain “Joe”
described the two-person Predator team: The sen-
sor operator (SO), a “career enlisted aviator,” has
three tasks—“put the thing on the thing,” “opti-

PerhaPs the greatest constraint on drone oPeration, how-

ever, comes from the very remoteness and limited suPPly of
its oPerators. far from being a one-to-one-scale video game,
drone oPerations require unique skills.
52 FlightJournal.com

mize the picture,” and be “master of the laser.”
The Pilot leads the crew on the mission. He or she
makes the tactical decisions.
Captain Joe’s summary reveals just how many
opportunities exist for confusion and failure. For
example, the SO might act by simply putting
crosshairs on the target or working a problem “as
complex as finding enemy personnel via a talk-on
from a confused and disoriented, hunkered-down
JTAC [joint tactical attack controller] taking effec-
tive fire.” Meanwhile, the pilot’s situational aware-
ness “needs to reach outside of his crew position
to envelop the aircraft, the crew, the JTAC, and the
tactical situation on the ground.”
In 2015, MQ-1/9 pilots reportedly flew, on
average, 13 to 14 hours a day, six days a week,
imposing pressures that lead more pilots to leave
the service than the Air Force can train. Demand
across the battle spectrum continues to ratchet
up as well. In 2005, 11 combat air patrols (CAPs)
at a time could only fill a third of the demand in
Iraq. CAPs over battle areas worldwide increased
to 65 per day by 2014 but only satisfied 21 per-
cent of requirements.
Developed from the Predator
A Drone Revolution in Military Affairs? and stepping past the role
Let’s close with a range of questions concerning of surveillance and data
the future of UAS in U.S. military procurement gathering, the MQ-9 Reaper
and practice that go far beyond the reduction of is the first “hunter-killer”
UAV with weapons-delivery
crew positions in airframes. Does seeing drones capabilities. It can be flown
as tools too easily obscure their ambiguous role remotely by a ground-based
in tracking down terrorists or conducting persis- pilot or flown autonomously
by preprogrammed onboard
tent surveillance? How readily can the military intelligence systems. Unit
and civilians use the same technologies? How cost, not counting R & D, is
much will the current U.S. edge in drone expe- reported to be $16.9 million.
It is built by General Atomics.
rience and range of systems decrease over time?
(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia
How much money and talent will be diverted Commons)
from other “rice bowls”? At what rate will the
counter-drone response require more investment
in counter-counter-drone systems?
The answer to the foregoing questions is the
same cliche: “Only time will tell.” The single
guarantee about drones is that they are here to
stay, and we are only seeing the tip of a very
large technological/political/tactical iceberg that
is growing at an incredible rate. The future of
drones is going to be interesting. J
February 2017 53
 GALLERY

In 1930, Curtiss-Wright, in an
attempt to gain part of the
developing light-aircraft market,
introduced its CW-1 Junior. It did
well against the competition, such
as the Aeronca C-3.

Curtiss-Wright CW-1 Junior

At the dawn of light aircraft
TEXT & PHOTOS BY GILLES AULIARD

R
Regarding the birth of the little Curtiss-Wright CW-1 Junior, Karl White, the designer, has
been quoted as saying, “It started in 1930, when the Curtiss-Wright Corporation absorbed
a number of other companies, among them the Moth Co. where I was chief engineer. I
was moved to the Robertson plant near St. Louis, which was to become the commercial
airplane unit of the corporation. Walter Beech of Travel Air fame (and later Beechcraft)
was president. He immediately assigned me the task of designing ‘a two-seat light airplane that would
have enough gas to get off a field and fly the girlfriend around a little, and sell for less than $1,500.’”
After some unsatisfying early flight tests, White reworked the
project, in close collaboration with Beech and test pilot H. Lloyd
Child, to become the CW-1 “Junior.” The first flight took place on
October 5, 1930.
As originally designed, the aircraft was powered by a 45hp
3-cylinder Szekely radial (actually “triangular”) engine and was
priced at $1,490, flyaway St Louis. The fuselage was a fairly
complicated tubing structure that formed the streamlined nose with
the entire assembly covered in fabric. The wings were traditional
wood design, fabric covered.
Easy to buy, easy to fly, and inexpensive to operate, the CW-1
soon became one of the more popular Flivvers of the early 1930s.
The aircraft pictured, owned by Paul Seibert of Sonoma, California,
is a Curtiss-Wright CW-1 c/n 1140, one of the few Juniors still flying.
Accepted on May 25, 1931, at the Robertson factory, it was fitted with
the 45hp Szekely SR3-0 engine s/n 981 and a 2-blade, left-hand-
screw Flottorp wooden propeller, and it was registered as NC10962.
By June 1940, the Curtiss had clocked 548 hours total time, and
was still sporting its original engine, which might be a record for a
Szekely. A late 1920s’ design, the “Zeke” was an effort at designing
a low-horsepower engine of simplified design, so they stripped the
radial-engine concept to the very basics and used only 3 cylinders.
Zekes used overhead valves, and their rocker arms, which could
be clearly seen dancing in rhythm while running, had to be hand-
greased every few hours. They used only four bolts to hold the
cylinders on the case, which early on proved to be a point of fatigue
failure, and cylinders developed the distressing habit of departing the
engine. The fix for that was to install tension rods, tying each cylinder
February 2017 55
 Left top: With a 65mph cruising speed, the Junior was designed
for fun, not transportation. Left bottom: The flight deck had
better instrumentation than many of its peer group. Above:
Generous tail
surfaces were
a trademark.
Left: The fuel
gauge appears
to be the
often-used
Model A Ford
unit. Below: The
original 40hp,
3-cylinder
Szekley
engine has
been replaced
by a 65hp
Continental.

head to the next one, effectively wrapping the engine

in a steel band, as if applying an old-time bandage for
an aching tooth. The reliability was questionable, so
most Juniors still extant, including Seibert’s, have
been re-engined with the always-reliable Continental
A-65 engine.
Siebert reports, “It is a very easy airplane to fly,
although you have to climb in a relatively flat attitude.
For cruise, I set the engine at 2150rpm, which gives
me about 65mph ground speed, depending on the
wind conditions and the load.
“The horizontal stabilizer is only adjustable on the
ground to compensate for the pilot weight, so unless
you adjusted it right, it is either slightly climbing or
diving. However, elevator control pressures are light,
so flying out of trim is not really a problem. However,
the Junior has a big rudder that requires some effort,
but it acts in a very conventional way.
“Ailerons are way out on the wings and on the
heavy side, which is characteristic for late ’20s’
airplanes. Due to its long wing, the rate of roll is slow,
and in rough air, it can be uncomfortable. Bob Taylor,
founder the Antique Airplane Association, refers to
flying in rough air in the Junior as ‘holding a monkey on
a stick’.” J

56 FlightJournal.com
The lines of the CW Junior are
unique and easily recognizable.

February 2017 57
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 AVIATION
AVIATION INSIDER INSIDER

Igor’s Watch
The Czar recognizes a young designer’s talents
BY SERGEI I. SIKORSKY

B
y 1912, the 23-year-old Igor Sikorsky was recog- asked his guest about his thoughts about future
nized as Russia’s leading aviation designer and projects. Hesitantly, Sikorsky began describing an
pilot. That February, after establishing several aircraft he had been thinking of in his spare time.
He warned his host that most aviation authorities
records, his S-6 won first prize at the Moscow
considered his concept impossible. The prevail-
International Aircraft Exhibition. A few days later, ing theory held that 1,500 to 2,000 pounds was
he was offered the position of general manager and chief pilot the upper limit for an aircraft’s weight. Several
of the newly formed Aviation Division of the RBVZ, a huge indus- attempts to build heavier aircraft had ended in
trial complex that built locomotives, rail cars, automobiles, and dismal (and expensive) failures. The chairman,
however, urged him to continue.
agricultural equipment.
Sikorsky briefly described his vision of a large,
multiengine design with an enclosed cabin. The
That spring, Sikorsky accepted the offer and aircraft would have four motors, accessible in
Right: Igor Sikorsky was not
moved to St. Petersburg, headquarters of the flight for minor repairs. The chairman continued
only Russia’s premier aircraft RBVZ. By midsummer, he was testing two new with a series of increasingly detailed questions.
designer in 1913, but with the aircraft, his S-6B and S-7. Both were entered in Sikorsky concluded by volunteering his share of
“Grand,” became a standout
a major military competition scheduled in St. the competition’s prize money (if they won) to
worldwide. He immigrated
to the United States in 1919, Petersburg that fall. During the competition, fund the project. The chairman answered, “No…
where he established Sikorsky Sikorsky completed a required flight in his S-6B start construction immediately!” One week later,
Aircraft and produced a long and climbed out of the aircraft to find an invita- Igor Sikorsky, flying his S-6B, won first prize in
line of successful amphibians
and flying boats. Then, as
tion from the chairman of the military competition.
WW II approached, he invented the RBVZ for dinner that Despite fierce criticism from a number
and perfected the concept of evening. of Russian and European “experts,” the
the helicopter. (Photo courtesy
The chairman was giant aircraft was completed in the win-
of Sergei I. Sikorsky) Below:
Sikorsky designed and built retired Gen. Michael V. ter of 1912 and successfully flew in the
the four-engine Grand only Shidlovsky, a financier spring of 1913. With a wingspan of 92 feet
10 years after the Wright with a vision. After din- and a weight of 9,000 pounds, it was pow-
Brothers flew. The airplane
represented a monumental ner, Sikorsky reported ered by four 100hp Argus engines. The
advance in technology. (Photo on the status of his two public named it the “Grand,” and soon
courtesy of Sergei I. Sikorsky) entries. Shidlovsky then it was frequently seen over St. Petersburg.
At the time, it was, by far, the biggest and
heaviest aircraft to fly. It was also the first
multimotor aircraft in aviation history.
In July 1913, Czar Nicholas II expressed
a desire to view the historic aircraft. Sikorsky
proudly flew the aircraft to a military air-
field some 25 miles south of St. Petersburg.
There, the Czar walked around the aircraft, then
climbed aboard the Grand. The Czar and Sikorsky
then had a private chat for about 20 minutes that
Sikorsky would later remember as “very friendly
and relaxed.”
Some days later, one of the Czar’s court offi-
cers presented Sikorsky with a gold pocket watch
and chain “with the compliments of the Czar.”
The Imperial two-headed eagle crest, worked in
precious stones, is displayed on the back of the
watch. It would become one of Igor Sikorsky’s
prized possessions.
The success of the Grand led to an improved
version, a larger, more powerful four-engine
aircraft. It was named the Ilya Muromets after a
legendary warrior-knight. The I.M. had a larger
wingspan of 102 feet, a larger passenger cabin,

60 FlightJournal.com
 Czar Nicholas II viewed the airplane and had the watch presented to
Sikorsky in recognition of his achievements. The pendant was presented
to him by the city of Kiev because of Sikorsky’s record flight to that city;
the route is on one side, and the aircraft in three dimensions on the other.
The ancient Persian coin was one of Sikorsky’s prized possessions, so he
attached it to the watch. (Photos by Budd Davisson)

and a total of 530hp instead of the Grand’s 400. remained a treasured reminder of his early success
During the spring of 1914, the Muromets estab­ in old Russia and a good­luck charm for his new
lished a number of records: in May, carrying career in America.
12 passengers to 7,000 feet and, in June, carry­ Igor Sikorsky was given an ancient Persian coin
ing seven passengers over St. Petersburg for some minted some 800 years earlier. Sometime before
6 hours 30 minutes. Then Sikorsky decided to he left Russia, he attached the coin to the chain,
attempt an “impossible” flight. telling me that it must have had great signifi­
Early on the morning of June 30, 1914, Sikorsky cance to him. J
departed with a crew of three copilots (Lt. G. I.
Lavrov, Capt. K. F. Prussis, and mechanic V. S.
Panasiuk) on a cross­country flight, from St.
Petersburg to his hometown of Kiev. Though the
straight­line distance was about 650 miles, the
route flown with identifiable checkpoints was
closer to 800. The flight was fairly routine to the
fuel stop in the town of Orsha. After takeoff, an
SIDEBAR PHOTO BY TIM HAGGERTY

engine fire forced an emergency landing halfway

to Kiev.
The next morning, heavy rain and low clouds
made the flight to Kiev a dangerous affair. Pilot­
ing skill and good luck prevailed, however, and
Sikorsky arrived that day in Kiev. A hero’s wel­
come was followed by several days of rest with
his family.
During that time, the city of Kiev struck a Ilya Muromets: The Grander “Grand”
gold medal to honor the flight. On one side is The increased size and general proportions of the 1914 Ilya Muromets,
a replica of the nose of the Ilya Muromets, while combined with its “unique” lines, meant that someone would eventually build
on the opposite side is a microscopic map of the a flying model of it. In fact, Sal Calvagna from Long Island, New York, won the
2016 Spirit of Rhinebeck award for his version. This award is given to those
flight. Shortly after the return flight, Sikorsky had
who go above and beyond with their model. And any model with a 16-foot
the Kiev medal attached to the gold chain of the
wingspan is definitely “above and beyond,” especially considering the obscene
Czar’s watch. complexity of the Muromets’ structure. The most important part of Calvagna’s
In 1917, as the Bolshevik revolution destroyed efforts, however, is that it gives the world a detailed look at what Igor
the Russia that Igor Sikorsky had served so well, Sikorsky accomplished at the very beginning of aviation. With its four engines
he was warned that his life was in danger as “an and 102-foot wingspan (a B-17 is 104 feet!) and a large salon-type cabin
enemy of the working class.” He left Russia with capable of easily accommodating 12 passengers, it was so far ahead of the
the watch and chain taped around his waist. It competition that it might as well have been the space shuttle.—Budd Davisson

February 2017 61
 ONE OF A KIND

The Consolidated XP2Y-1

The PBY’s granddad BY JOE GERTLER

C
onsolidated Aircraft’s initial entry in the
development of long-range patrol flying
boats had a shaky start. Although the
company’s Model 10 was chosen by the
U.S. Navy as the PY-1 Admiral, the production
contract was granted to the underbidding Martin
Aircraft Company, as the Martin P3M.

62 FlightJournal.com
As Martin was completing that contract, Consolidated went after
the next patrol plane requirement with an enclosed cockpit and an
added lower half-wing (sesquiplane) with a 45-foot span. The new
XP2Y-1 was ordered on May 26, 1931. It was a curious design of the
prototype, with an additional third engine mounted on a pylon atop
the wing. The same three-engine configuration had been rejected
on the earlier design, as it failed to improve performance to any
significant degree.
The unique prototype was only tested for about two months
before the upper engine was removed. Subsequent production
Model 22s, designated P2Y Rangers, were powered by twin engines
located below the 100-foot span upper wing. Its first test flights on
March 26, 1932, were powered by the three Wright 1820E Cyclone
9 radials. The Navy was strongly focused on air-cooled engines for
the vast majority of its aircraft. At the time, the P2Y was the largest
flying boat in the U.S. Navy. Most versions cruised at a little over
100mph but had incredible range for the time: more than 1,100 miles.
They remained in service, well into World War II.
The design and its modifications proved successful for the Navy,
achieving significant milestones. In January 1934, six P2Y-1s flew
nonstop from San Francisco to Hawaii, at 500 feet, in heavy weather,
to a world record 2,408 miles in 24 hours and 34 minutes. President
Roosevelt proclaimed the flight as “the greatest undertaking of its
kind in the history of aviation.”
While the P2Y may not have directly evolved into the PBY,
Consolidated’s experience in developing the design and the data
derived from the actual operation of a long-range aircraft formed
the foundation for its legendary PBY Catalina. Its P2Y background
resulted in the XPBY-1 setting a new world’s seaplane record in
October 1935, by flying 3,281 miles from the Canal Zone to San
Francisco in 34 hours and 45 minutes. The “B” was added to the
designation of this line as the Navy recognized its additional
capability as a bomber.
P2Y production totaled 78 aircraft, including upgraded “dash
ones” as P2Y-2s with more powerful Wright R1820s faired into the
wing, with 23 P2Y-3s entering service in 1935. The type left the
U.S. inventory in 1941, although Argentina and Colombia used P2Ys in
limited numbers. No P2Y airframes are thought to exist today. J
Much to the disappointment of
Consolidated Aricraft’s designers, the
addition of a third engine failed to produce
a significant performance improvement.
It was even more surprising, considering
they had attempted a third engine addition
to an earlier version, with the same result.
(Photo courtesy of Joe Gertler)
June 2016 63
reviewRUNWAY
Lucky 666: The Impossible
Mission
by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
(Simon & Schuster, 368 pages, $30.00)
It’s fitting that a book that reads like fiction
but is factual and invests so much in detail
is titled Lucky 666. This excellent read, set
in the Pacific theater of World War II, is the
story of a misfit crew assembling their own
beefed-up B-17 bomber from scraps (naming
it “Lucky 666”). They eventually face a critical
recon mission in which they generously gave
themselves a 10 percent chance of surviving.
Before we reach the recounting of their
amazing flight, the authors provide insight
into the sparring between Army and Navy as
well as the day-to-day challenges faced by
those serving in the Pacific.
Among those featured in the story are
Gen. Douglas MacArthur, whose reputation
takes another thumping in these pages,
and his air marshall, Gen. George Churchill
Kennedy, who was popular with his men.
Making passing, and also unfavorable,
appearances are Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel
and Lyndon Johnson. The authors discount
the traditional belief that Midway was the
war’s turning point. They interestingly recap
what now seems, in our age of drone warfare,
to be quaint moralizing over whether the
United States could target Japan’s Yamamoto.
The leading characters in the story are
the Capt. Jay Zeamer and Lt. Joe Sarnoski.
Zeamer, at times acting in a manner
fully worthy of court martial, is the most
compelling character in this excellent book.
Sarnoski, the more traditional of the two
but with a flair for sometimes breaking into
in-flight song (in Polish), is promoted from
enlisted man to officer and receives his
orders to return stateside just prior to their
fateful mission, from which only one of them
would survive.
64 FlightJournal.com
BY GREG SULLIVAN
The Crash Detectives: Boeing in Photographs:
Investigating the World’s A Century of Flight
Most Mysterious Air Disasters by Martin W. Bowman
(The History Press, 160 pages, $44.95)
by Christine Negroni
Truth be told, I’m not a huge fan of coffee-
(Penguin, 285 pages, $17.00)
table books. For an iconic American brand
The challenge posed for a brisk-reading book
such as Boeing, however, notice needs to
like The Crash Detectives, which recounts
be taken.
the investigations surrounding some of the
This book is a fine collection of images
most mysterious flight disasters, is to avoid
with informative captions. Although the
becoming something you might expect
pictures are mostly black and white,
from Ralph Nader. But far from becoming a
almost 30 percent of the book is in color.
reactionary Unsafe at Any Altitude, the book
The introduction neatly encapsulates the
even-handedly covers a significant number of
company’s 100-year history. We learn of
tragic and near-tragic flights.
the company’s early dependency on military
There are five sections: Mystery, Conspiracy,
orders—and furniture building. After all,
Fallibility, Humanity, and Resiliency. For a book
founder William E. Boeing was the son of a
that necessarily covers so much loss of life,
timberman.
the final section ends things on a high note,
There are many fine pictures from the
recounting the stories of pilots who saved
post-WW II era, including an awesome
the day. The Conspiracy section is particularly
AH-64 Apache attack helicopter image,
compelling and covers the recent Malaysia
which gets its own page. In this section, a
370 disappearance as well as the crash of
large percentage of the pictures are similar
TWA Flight 800 in 1996, the death of Dag
commercial aircraft, differentiated mainly
Hammarskjöld in 1961, and other mysteries.
by their carrier’s signage. Surprisingly to
I happened to see the Clint Eastwood film
me, there are just a few images of the new
Sully, briefly mentioned in the book, while
Boeing 787; many are of the company’s
preparing this review, and the movie served
more photogenic 747, including those
as a perfect complement to the book. In
dedicated to transporting the president as
discussing pilot demeanor, the book/film
well as space shuttles.
The Right Stuff is referenced with regard to
Some minor distractions to me are the
pilot hubris. My recollection of that book
use of British English in the text and the
is that it also holds that pilots are prey to
sometimes disappearing header information
the misguided belief that the airframe is
regarding section/page. For my money,
never to blame. The Crash Detectives sets
the images from the company’s inception
one straight on that count, covering design
through WW II are the book’s selling point.
issues from the infamous de Havilland Comet
I found them and their story engaging.
of the 1950s through the recent Boeing
Included is one from the crash of the XB-17
Dreamliner’s ion battery problems (and, in
“Flying Fortress” prototype in 1935. (This is
doing so, reminded me of another film: the
also covered in The Crash Detectives and
Glenn Ford melodrama Fate Is the Hunter.)
both books cite the failure to remove ground
There are so many stories covered in this
locks as the cause of the crash.)
book that I sometimes felt a bit lost as the
If this kind of book is your thing, it would
author transitioned quickly from one story to
make a welcome addition to your library. J
the other. So attention is required. The tone is
conversational, however, and this book is a fine
work of nonfiction. I was able to read it quickly,
although I suspect the ease with which one
digests its contents is in inverse proportion to
the frequency with which one flies.
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 TAILVIEW
Snapshot: A Moment Frozen in Time
W
hat do you see in this picture? Sharper than most
WW II images, this one is of a fairly tranquil scene
on the deck of CV-6, USS Enterprise. The shot was
taken on May 15, 1942, and the red circles in their
insignias had been painted over. That’s barely five months af-
ter Pearl Harbor and about three weeks before the crew seen
here going about their jobs would be fighting for their lives
in the Battle of Midway. Hence, the tranquility—they don’t
yet know what is headed their way. But they have an inkling.
The war was only six weeks old when the Big E paired with
USS Yorktown to raid Japanese bases in the Gilbert and Marshall
Islands. And they tasted action when they launched a futile
attack against the Japanese on Wake Island. Their combat
experience changed their view of themselves: They knew they
might be big, but they weren’t invincible.
Then, three weeks before this photo was taken, Enterprise
had escorted her sister Hornet with 16 B-25s to bomb Tokyo,
and they cheered at their success. They had proved that the
Japanese weren’t invincible either!
If you look at the photo and count, you can also see eight
Grumman F4F Wildcats (not GM/Eastern FM-2s) and seven
Douglas SBD Dauntlesses. It doesn’t take much research to reveal
that this photo contains as many as four times the Grumman-
built Wildcats as there are now flying; only two are still in the
air. A dozen or so GM FM-2 Wildcats are still flying but a much
smaller number of actual Grummans. A dozen or so sit lifeless
in museums. Roughly 1,900 Grummans were built, so that’s a
66 FlightJournal.com
BY BUDD DAVISSON
survival rate of 1 out of 160. Eastern built 4,000 FM-2 versions
(plus 1,200 FM-1s), but only about 25 still exist, which is also
1 out of 160.
The line of SBDs (with the one hiding behind the carrier’s
island) includes almost twice as many as the four now thought
to be flying. There are roughly 15 in museums. That’s a sur-
vival rate of approximately 1 in 300.
There are more than 40 young souls seen working on the
Wildcats or repositioning the Dauntlesses. How many of those
have survived to today is anyone’s guess, but age alone would
dictate the survival rate. Combat would further whittle down
the numbers. The youngest would be 91 years old today. Soon,
we will have lost them all, while a few of the aircraft will still
be with us. Whether they will be in the air or displayed as
stuffed dinosaurs in museums, remains to be seen.
Seldom have WW II photos survived that are as crisp and reveal
as much as this one does. Every time we lay eyes upon any
image of this period of history, however, we should remember
that we are now standing with one foot in the past, the other
in the future. We are even now stepping through a doorway,
and on the other side, all we will have of our past will be pho-
tos and the memories they engender. The voices of both those
who made that history and the steeds they rode into battle will
be silenced by time. That’s the sad reality of life. So we should
savor those few voices, both mechanical and human, while we
still can. J
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