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| Text for the above items : |
Air Superiority by Robert Taylor. It had taken almost six years of continual air fighting for the Allied forces to attain complete and total air superiority over the Luftwaffe. At the outbreak of World War II the mighty German Air Force had appeared invincible but the ensuing Battle of Britain gave the Luftwaffe its first taste of what was to come. When America joined the war, bringing with her to Europe new types of fighters and bombers, the writing must have been clearly chalked on the wall of Hitler's bunker. Unleashing the full power of the Eighth Air Force against the Third Reich by day, and with the RAF Bomber Command's constant attacks by night, production in Germany's aircraft and munitions factories became fatally depleted. In the air the Allied fighter pilots were beginning to dominate the skies, and by the spring of 1945, had achieved complete air superiority. It had been a long and bitter struggle, fought with great courage and sacrifice. |
Urban 'Ben' Drew - Good Hunting by Brian Bateman. (P) On August 25th 1944, Ben Drew found himself locked in a stalemate with the Bf109 of an experienced Luftwaffe pilot. Circling each other to try and force an advantage, the two pilots spiraled towards the ground until the German finally broke away from the Lufberry circle to escape the guns of the Mustang. With 5 of his 6 guns jammed from the extreme forces encountered while circling, Ben Drew chased his opponent, raking the fuselage with the one remaining gun. The enemy aircraft started to smoke then nosed into the ground at full throttle. As he flew over the resulting fireball, Ben remembered how his mother always ended her letters - good hunting, son.. |
Mustang Recce by Robert Taylor. Russ Berg flies his 10th Recce Group P51s in low and fast, dodging flak and enemy fighters, to get vital photographs for General Patons advancing forces. A superb study of World War IIs most outstanding tactical fighter in action, in the hands of one of the USAAFs most distinguished and highly decorated pilots. |
Towards the Home Fires by Robert Taylor. As the New Year of 1945 dawned, the snow had already spread to blanket the southern half of England. The festivities of Christmas had passed and the relentless pounding of German cities and industrial targets continued unabated. On every front Hitler's once-fabled armies were in full retreat. The endgame was now in play. With dusk approaching, Robin Olds, flying his P-51K Scat VI, leads a flight of Mustangs of the 434th Fighter Squadron, 479th Fighter Group low over the historic estuary town of Maldon in Essex as they head home to their base at Wattisham, 14 February 1945. The mission saw Olds add three more German fighters to his tally south of Berlin, making him one of the foremost Aces of the unit. |
American Patrol by Michael Turner. USAAF P-51s from 357th Fighter Group, led by Capt. Bud Anderson in Old Crow, over the D-Day beaches in the early morning of June 6th 1944. |
Mustangs Over the Mediterranean by Nicolas Trudgian. Mustangs of the 31st Fighter Group pass low over an Italian fishing village, heading out on another combat patrol. |
Guardian Angel by Anthony Saunders. Depicting Mustang aircraft escorting Flying Fortresses on a bombing raid over Germany. |
Fighting Red Tails by Robert Taylor. With their distinctive red tails, P-51 Mustangs of the 332nd Fighter Group - the famed Tuskegee Airmen, climb to operational height as B17 Fortresses from the 483rd Bomb Group manoeuvre into formation at the start of another long and dangerous mission over Germany, Oct 1944. A welcome sight for the Fortress crews, the renowned all-black Tuskegee pilots were credited for never losing an escorted bomber to enemy aircraft. For the first time ever Robert pays tribute to the Tuskegee Fighter Pilots in this stunning portrait of one of the most famous fighter units of WWII. |
Dallas Doll by Philip West. North American P51D-NA15 Mustang 414495 Dallas Doll 352nd Fighter Squadron, 353rd Fighter Group, 8th Air Force. American designed and built, British inspired and, later, powered, the Mustang turned into arguably the finest WW11 long-range fighter ever constructed. The Mustang, developed from the Prototype NA73X, was manufactured in large quantities, with an impressive final total of 15,586 aircraft. Of these 13,600 were powered by the British, Rolls Royce designed Merlin engine. |
Dual Victory by Richard Taylor. A spectacular dogfight over Eisenach on 24 March 1945 when the doughty Clyde East, returning from a recce over Schweinfurt and with photos already in the can, takes on a group of six Me109s. Flying his legendary Lil Margaret, having already dispatched one, he peels round to line up his second Me109 to add two more victories to his remarkable tally. |
Mustang Escort by Graeme Lothian. Mustang P51 Nooky Booky IV flown by Captain Leonard Kit Carson of the 362nd Fighter Squadron, 357th Fighter Group, giving fighter escort top cover protection to the B17s of 381st Bomb Group, returning after a raid in Germany, January 1944. Kit Carson ended the war as top scorer of the 357th with 18.5 aerial victories in the last 6 months of the war. |
American Eagles by Robert Taylor. The 357th Fighter Group was thrown into action soon after arriving in England in February 1944. Being the first fighter group equipped with P-51 Mustangs, great things were expected of them, and they did not disappoint; in the final year of the war they achieved a faster rate of victories than any other group in the 8th Air Force, and the record for the highest number of enemy aircraft shot down in a single mission - in excess of 50 - during a great air battle on 14th January 1945. |
Major Urban 'Ben' Drew - First Victory by Brian Bateman. (P) Urban Ben Drew claims his first victory in his Mustang as he makes a strafing run of a Luftwaffe JU-52 transport at Toussus-Le-Noble in France in mid 1944. |
Tribute to Hubert 'Hub' Zemke by Ivan Berryman. Hub Zemke lends his name to 'Zemke's Wolf Pack', the 56th Fighter Group that became deadly with the P-47 Thunderbolt thanks to his tactics with the machine. He scored a total of 17.75 victories in the war, mostly with this unit, but is depicted here on 26th September 1944 flying a P-51 Mustang with the 479th Fighter Group. He scored just 2.5 victories with this unit, but the one depicted here is over the German Ace Alfred Grislawski in his Me109 - a victory that injured Grislawski and meant he took no further combat role in the war. At the end of October, Hub Zemke's airframe failed in turbulence and he bailed out to be taken prisoner for the rest of the war. Amongst his many decorations are the Distinguished Service Cross and Distinguished Flying Cross as well as the Purple Heart. He died aged 80 in 1994. |
Last One Home by Ivan Berryman. A pair of P51D Mustangs of the 361st Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, escort a damaged B17G Flying Fortress of the 381st Bomb Group back to its home base of Ridgewell, England, during the Autumn of 1944. |
King of the Strafers by Iain Wyllie. Lt. Col. James A (Goody) Goodsons Mustang.. Goodson's first victory, an Fw-190, on 23rd June 1943, was followed by many more. He became proficient in shooting down Luftwaffe planes, and soon 15 had found they could not outfight him. In the meantime, he became known as the King of the Strafers, wrapping up 15 enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground for a total of 30 destroyed. The end of his combat with the 4th Fighter Group was not the least unusual. Now a Major and CO of the 336th Squadron, he strafed Neu Brandenburg airfield in Germany. A 20mm found its mark and he was badly wounded in his legs, but managed to crash-land and hobble off to a nearby wood. He kept on the run for a week before being captured. He was questioned by the Gestapo and summarily thrown into solitary to be shot the next morning. Jim, who spoke German well, cleverly convinced the SS that he was too valuable to the Reich alive and was transferred to the Luftwaffe's jurisdiction. He was welcomed and duly interrogated by Hanns Scharf, the Luftwaffe's master interrogator. He was assigned to Stalag Luft III, and was greeted by many of his friends who had preceded him. |
Mustang Mayhem by Nicolas Trudgian. As Red Dog Norleys P-51D screams across the field at hangar height with his squadrons Mustangs fanned out behind him, the 4th Fighter Group pilots jink through the intense groundfire wreaking havoc on the ground. In this, its final major mission of the war, the group destroyed no fewer than 105 enemy aircraft in two blishtering airfield attacks. |
Mustang by Geoff Lea. No text for this item |
Blue Nose by Richard Taylor. P-51s of the 328th Fighter Squadron high above towering cumulus clouds over East Anglia in November 1944. Led by Major George Preddy, the P-51 pilots prepare to escort a large formation of B-17s on yet another arduous long range mission to Germany. |
Final Victory by Simon Atack. Typical of the aggressive fighter pilots led by the great Hub Zemke was Robin Olds. Having completed his training on the P-38 in America, Olds arrived at RAF Wattisham, England in May 1944, assigned to fly the remarkable twin-boomed fighter with the 434th Squadron. It didn't take long for the novice pilot to make his mark. After flying interdiction missions over France and Germany, with the 479th Olds took part in the D-Day operations, then on August 13 opened his score by jumping two Fw190s at ground level. After a brief but hectic fight, he brought both down. A couple of weeks later he bagged three Me109s - his wingman got another two - when attacking a group of some fifty enemy fighters while escorting bombers high over Muritz Zee. Converting to P-51D Mustangs, Olds completed two combat tours, flying deep penetration missions, engagements with the Luftwaffes new Me262 jet fighter, and strafing attacks on German facilities and airfields. By the end of the war, at 23 years of age with the rank of Major, Robin Olds was in command of 434 Squadron. His final tally was 13 air victories, and he was credited with a further 11.5 enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground. Simon Atacks powerful painting recreates Robin Olds last air victory of WWII. Flying Scat VII he is seen bringing down a Me109 G10 high over Germany in the late spring of 1945 while flying escort to B-17s bombers of the 381st Bomb Group. Remarkably, this P-51 survived the war and in 1958 was sold to a private owner. In 1992 it was returned to its old wartime configuration. |
Teamwork by Nicolas Trudgian. P-51 Mustangs of the 20th Fighter Group make a low pass over B-17s of the 401st Bomb Group at Deenethorpe, as they return to their base at Kingscliffe in late 1944. |
Mustang The ubiquitous North American P-51 Mustang, which many consider to be the best all-around fighter of WW II, owes its origins to the British Air Ministry. Following Britains entry into WW II in 1939, the RAF was interested in purchasing additional fighter aircraft from American sources, particularly the Curtiss P-40. Curtiss, which was busy, was unable to guarantee timely delivery so the British approached North American Aviation as a possible second source for the P-40. North American chose to propose its own fighter design which would use the same Allison engine as the P-40. Utilizing new laminar flow wings, the North American fighter was expected to have performance better than the P-40. Developed in record time the new aircraft was designated as a Mustang I by the Brits, whereas the USAAF ordered two for evaluation which were designated XP-51 Apaches. Intrigued with the possibility of using this aircraft also as a dive bomber, North American proposed this to the USAAF which decided to order 500 of the P-51 aircraft to be modified for dive bombing use. Designated as the A-36 Invader, this version of the Mustang utilized dive flaps, and bomb racks under each wing. Some reinforcing of the structural members was also required because of the G-forces to be encountered in dive bombing. A-36s entered combat service with the USAAF prior to any P-51s. In early 1943 the 86th and 27th Fighter Bomber Groups of the 12th Air Force began flying A-36s out of Northern Africa. Despite some early problems with instability caused by the dive flaps, the A-36 was effective in light bombing and strafing roles. It was not, however, capable of dog fighting with German fighters, especially at higher altitudes. Despite these drawbacks one USAAF pilot, Captain Michael T. Russo, who served with the 16th Bomb Squadron of the 27th Fighter Bomber Group, was credited with five confirmed aerial victories in the A-36, thereby becoming the first mustang ace. |
| Top Aces for : Mustang | |
| A list of all Aces from our database who are known to have flown this aircraft. | |
| Name | Victories |
| Bob Doe | 15.00 |
| James Lindsay | 7.00 |
| Werner Christie | 11.00 |
| Eugeniusz Horbaczewski | 16.50 |
| Walker Mahurin | 20.75 |
| Charles Older | 18.50 |
| Leonard Carson | 18.50 |
| Herschel Green | 18.00 |
| Robert Foy | 17.00 |
| Clarence Anderson | 16.25 |
| Richard Peterson | 15.50 |
| James Goodson | 15.00 |
| Donald Bochkay | 14.83 |
| John Landers | 14.50 |
| Arthur Jeffrey | 14.00 |
| Robert Curtis | 14.00 |
| Donald Strait | 13.50 |
| Donald Bryan | 13.33 |
| James Brooks | 13.00 |
| Robin Olds | 13.00 |
| Clyde East | 12.00 |
| Charles Yeager | 11.50 |
| Robert Goebel | 11.00 |
| George Ceuleers | 10.50 |
| Raymond Littge | 10.50 |
| Robert Anderson | 10.00 |
| Spiros Pisanos | 10.00 |
| Wayne Blickenstaff | 10.00 |
| Ernest Fiebelkorn | 9.50 |
| Robert Smith | 8.67 |
| Thomas Hayes | 8.50 |
| Arthur Fiedler | 8.00 |
| Charles Weaver | 8.00 |
| Dale Karger | 7.50 |
| Donald Cummings | 6.50 |
| Arval Roberson | 6.00 |
| Clayton Gross | 6.00 |
| Fred Ohr | 6.00 |
| Robert Karr | 6.00 |
| Robert Schimanski | 6.00 |
| Urban Drew | 6.00 |
| Wilbur Scheible | 6.00 |
| William Dillard | 6.00 |
| Clinton Burdick | 5.50 |
| Dudley Amoss | 5.50 |
| Gordon Compton | 5.50 |
| Maurice Long | 5.50 |
| Robert Winks | 5.50 |
| William OBrien | 5.50 |
| Duerr Schuh | 5.00 |
| Gerald Brown | 5.00 |
| Harrison Tordoff | 5.00 |
| James Empey | 5.00 |
| Niven Cranfill | 5.00 |
| Robert Barkey | 5.00 |
| Robert Abernathy | 5.00 |
| Royce Priest | 5.00 |
| William Daniel | 5.00 |
| William Allen | 5.00 |
| Agorastos Plagis | 16.00 |
| Tom Neil | 14.00 |
| Paul Farnes | 8.00 |
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