“Cold hard statistics mask the human side of the three-year campaign to cripple the Axis from the air.”
By Colin Heaton
AMERICA’S AIR WAR against Nazi Germany is a story often told using cold hard statistics: numbers of sorties and missions, tonnage of bombs dropped, percentage of targets hit, accuracy of strikes and, of course, losses of planes and air crews. Yet, figures like these can mask the human side of the three-year campaign to cripple the Axis from the air.
Our new book Above the Reich: Deadly Dogfights, Blistering Bombing Raids, and Other War Stories from the Greatest American Air Heroes of World War II, in Their Own Words tells of one of the Second World War’s longest and deadliest campaigns through the eyes of the men who fought it.
Specifically, the book focuses upon five unique airmen who flew with the U.S. Army’s Eighth Air Force during the war in Europe. Here’s a preview.
James H. Doolittle
James H. Doolittle is most famous for the 1942 raid on Tokyo that bears his name. But following his daring mission in the Pacific, he took over the Eighth Air Force in Europe.
Born into a family of the most modest of means, the former boxer became obsessed with flying. After enlisting in the U.S. Army and becoming a pilot trainee, he sought to find out all that he could about aviation: the science, the engineering and the flight characteristics of every aircraft he could get his hands on. In 1925, he earned the first doctorate in aeronautical engineering in the United States.
Doolittle was also a tactical innovator. He was involved with the Link Trainer flight simulator and development of avionics in increase pilot navigation accuracy. His sharp mind rapidly adapted to any current situation requiring a solution. His many close calls with death from flight training to advanced flying and air racing gave him a sixth sense. He was able to determine just how far to push himself and his aircraft. This presence-of-mind also allowed him to know just how far to push his subordinates, and in which direction, to get the best results. The results helped win World War Two.
When Doolittle took over the “Mighty Eighth,” he changed the method of waging the air war against the Germans. He listened to subordinates with far more combat time: fighter and bomber leaders. He studied the problems and developed the proper responses to the Luftwaffe threat.
“Doolittle more than anyone else cost us the air war over Europe,” said German flying ace and lieutenant-general Adolf Galland. “I always considered him a friend after we met.”
High praise indeed.
Curtis E. LeMay
Curtis LeMay was also a man of humble origins. And like Doolittle, he decided that his future included aviation. A self-taught orienteer and navigator, his skills brought him into the early U.S. Army Air Corps. LeMay was part of the first two long-range South American tours touting the newly formed bomber group. Their distance flying and navigation proved their value and guaranteed congressional support for the project.
LeMay rose in rank and responsibility and during the war. He commanded a bombardment group and later a wing. He was the protégé of Maj. Gen. Robert Olds, father of fighter ace Robin Olds.
After creating the legendary “box formation” to protect bombers from enemy fighters, he went to the Pacific and took command of the bombing of the Japanese home islands. It was his group that dropped both atomic bombs.
After the war LeMay became Chief of Staff to the newly independent United States Air Force and then commander of Strategic Air Command.
He directed the Berlin Airlift and served directly under and worked with presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower Kennedy and Johnson. His blunt and direct style of communication did not endear him to many in the political arena.
The modern nuclear arsenal is in large part to Curtis LeMay’s efforts to create both a first strike and immediate response strategic nuclear program to maintain superiority during the Cold War.
Robin Olds
Robin’s father, Robert Olds was the impetus behind the development of the B-17 bomber program. Aide to General Billy Mitchell, who was the first strong advocate of bombers. Son Robin Olds graduated West Point as an All-American star football player. As a fighter pilot, his tour of duty saw him flying P-38s and P-51s against the best pilots the Germans had. He managed to survive a few harrowing missions in the process.
Olds finished the war an ace and married actress Ella Raines. Her powerful Hollywood and political influence kept him out of the Korean War, where he saw his fellow aces increase their scores. However, during the Vietnam War Robin made history with Operation Bolo, a 1967 mission that saw USAF fighter jets ambush and destroy enemy MiG-21s over North Vietnam. It was such a success, Ho Chi Minh put a $100,000 price on the American flier’s head.
Robert S. Johnson
Oklahoma native Robert Johnson was a born fighter, a boxer like Doolittle, and he never backed down from a scrap.
Upon reaching Europe he joined the legendary 56th Fighter Group flying P-47 Thunderbolts under the command of Colonel Hubert “Hub” Zemke.
Johnson soon found himself fighting against some of the best German aces of the Luftwaffe, from JG-2 and JG-26 on a regular basis. The 56th produced the highest-scoring collection of aces in the European Theater of Operations.
One of his kills was the great 206-victory ace Lt. Col. Hans Philipp.
On another occasion, he encountered Major Egon Mayer. The 102-victory ace riddled Johnson’s P-47 with bullet and cannon fire, but after 29-minutes still couldn’t down the American. Amazed, Mayer brought his fighter alongside Johnson’s damaged Thunderbolt, looked at his opponent and then tapped his own head in bewilderment as if to suggest that Johnson was crazy. Noting then that the American flier couldn’t roll his canopy back to bail out of his crippled aircraft, Mayer pointed toward England and escorted Johnson until he was safely out of danger. The German then waved and flew away.
Johnson flew over 90 missions flying with other ace legends Francis S. Gabreski, Walker “Bud” Mahurin, Zemke and others. He scored 26 kills. Along with the Pacific War’s Richard Bong, Johnson matched Eddie Rickenbacker’s Great War tally. A propaganda icon, Johnson was ordered home. After returning from a war bond tour, he eased into a more peaceful career.
Edward R. “Buddy” Haydon
Hailing from San Angelo, Texas, Haydon grew up a cowboy who wanted to fly. Following his graduation from flight school and marrying his wife Nelda, he went to England and joined the 357th Fighter Group flying alongside such legends as Chuck Yeager and Bud Anderson. From bomber escorts to ground attack missions, Haydon often found himself in tenuous situations in his P-51 Mustang.
Case in point: On Nov. 8, 1944, he found himself isolated from his unit over Achmer, Germany when he went head-to-head with a Messerschmitt Me-262, one of the new enemy jet fighters. Losing the fast-moving opponent in a low-level melee just 100 feet off the deck, Haydon reacquired the target on the other side of a forest. Almost colliding with the jet, he forced the already damaged enemy into the ground, killing the pilot. At the controls of the Messerschmitt was 258-victory ace and 23-year-old Major Walter Nowotny, the commander of Kommando Nowotny, an experimental fighter unit named after him. The entire encounter was witnessed by Adolf Galland who, as General of the Fighters, was visiting the unit at the time.
Haydon later encountered a pair of Me-262’s near Munich in January 1945, when he and wingman Dale Carter apparently went head to head against 222-victory ace Major Erich Rudorffer and 206-victory ace Major Theodor Weissenberger. Both Germans escaped, after which Haydon decided to hit their airfield instead.
He was shot down during the attack and became a prisoner of war, originally listed as “killed in action” until his liberation in April 1945. He retired to Steamboat Springs, Colorado and was neighbors with Robin Olds, until he and Nelda relocated back to Texas. He retired a full colonel.
Colin Heaton is the co-author of Above the Reich: Deadly Dogfights, Blistering Bombing Raids, and Other War Stories from the Greatest American Air Heroes of World War II, in Their Own Words. He’s a military historian, former soldier and Marine sniper, professor, and specialist in interviewing military veterans.
