8th AF Signatures

more in 2 weeks guys the 364th fg rep and I had a good long 1 hr talk yesterday with some great news ..........

yee haw

 

dang nam it, wish I had a digi at my disposal as I just received from ace and friend Dick H. of the 78th fighter group a white/black Mustangs and Legends 2007 baseball style cap with his Mustang on the front and his signature on the side plus an all white polo shirt with the same Mustang Logo of his Stang mount

ah life is good !!

very very cool.............

 

Excellent, Erich. I was just wondering how Dick was doing. I still have to write him back as two of his mails got clogged up in the 6.000+ mails that I received after the pc-outage....

Are you still working with him on those two claims?

 

hey Stevin !

yes Dick is doing fantastic and full of life. I have his two jet kills confirmed now if your interested. One was Hans Grünburg who was shot down on landing but was able to bail out literally in the last seconds wounded. The last pilot was killed in a crash, and both over the area of Saatz

 

That is awesome, Erich! Congrats on achieving that. That makes Dick an ace then! I am sure he is chuffed to bits with that. I remember he wrote me about those kills in his second email and how they were never confirmed and how it would have made him an ace. I'll write him soon...

BTW do you know what happened to Grünburg after the war?

Well done!

 

Stevin I have been in contact with him this morn in relationship to his squadron patch which he is trying to remember who created it and why. He said the squadron never wore it on their leather flight jackets. yes a very fine man.

 

Achtung ~ Look out guys I have my digital now in hand...........more surprises....... maybe next week once I figure out how to use this thing between jobs

I wonder how many images are permissable on this thread ??

 

..great thread Erich ..a shame it seems to have stalled - did you not get that camera working...??
I'm interested in Burdick - his best day I believe was 14 Jan 45 against JG 300 & JG 301. He was one of the higher scoring pilots in what was the lowest scoring 8th AF FG. Did he tell you anything about the origins of his P51's name 'DoDo'?

cheers

Neil

 

This is one heck of a great shot of this guy!! Good show Erich!! I'm surprised i'd never seen this topic before.

He reminds me of Commander Guy Waldron-who was a U.S> Navy Squadron Commander at the Battle of Midway. I'd love to have a copy of this photo. Kinda also reminds me of a Gregory Peck "Twelve O'Clock High" original studio release photo of him as Gen Savage.

 

..Yeah me too... it appears nicely reprinted in an article published in the Flypast Feb 08 issue in which Peterburs relates his account of downing Walter Schuck's Me 262...

 

both of you are welcome to copy and paste from the photo depicted for you files, mine from him is signed at the very bottom and dated back in 04. he sent me a half dozen pics of himself with the Stang "Josephine" and yes Neil that was the crate he used to catch Walter in his 262. Joe is a great guy.

As for Burdick I received this pic above and a couple copies of mission reprots silly me I never asked him about Do-do the name but do have the reason why printed out from many eyars ago buried, I still work on the little known 356th fg as these guys although very low-scoring in the overall kill ratios of the 8th AF did on the norm run into more 262/Ar 234's than most other 8th AF groups.

the camera is still giving me fits unfortunately but will get it managed I hope soon and yes friend and vet of the 8th D. Hewitt just sent me another truckload of signed goodies I need to post here, he shot down 2 Me 262's of JG 7 in the last days, one of them Hans Grünburg who bailed out at extremely low level and severely injured but that rescued him rightly so out of the war. his Kamerade was KIA. Hewitts wingman was shot down by ground Flakvierlings and Hewitt thought he was KIA but no so and found that out sometime after the war years later - so this is just a tad bit more to my older post above if it makes any sense ....... ~

and yes Neil the 356th was heavily involved against the JG 301 and Fw's of IV./JG 54, have some interesting details on some missions for the near future.

here is another pic sent to me along with a very nice compilation of his two jet kills-missions a 262 while flying this Jug and a Ar 234 in March 45 in his Mustang, 78th fg pilot H. Lamb. He actually sent copies of the two combat reports and then did a completely re-write of his mission(s) in his own words, quite thrilling reading really ..........

 

Great pic, Erich - that is a wonderful-looking Thunderbolt....

 

one more for the day, Jug pilot W. Groce who shot down another Me 262 in November of 44. in many 8th Af histories 352nd fg pilot Gerbe is given a shared if not complete credit for the 262 kill, but in W.,'s own words, he has the aerial combat film showing in truest form the 8 .50's tearing the 262 apart, Gerbe and another Mustang buddy of the 352nd flew in front of Groce to finish what was left of the smoking jet on it's dive .....

my copy is signed by him in the upper right, note this is an earlier D model not the one with the usual Bubble top canopy that he flew in the fall till wars end, Groce claimed oh geez my mind is going ..... 4 LW a/c ?

 

I'll bring this back up as some have not seen it yet, think Martin in fact brought up my old thread when I interviewed Don Bryan at some length over the phone and by email about his Ar 234 kill when trying to pop the Remagen bridge in 45. Friend Troy Wrights interpretive painting of the wild event...must interview Don further



~ think if I remember correctly and probably not but this was Don's 4th ? encounter of the Ar 234

Don looks much of the same today, the fire of a fighter pilot is still in his eyes as he did in this early portrait with his Stang



and here :

 

gotta include this from several years ago that he sent me. D. Hewitt having a gas!

 

ok one more for the 356th and it's 359th f.s. a wee bit of colour ~



the 356th had quite the colours for markings, the spinner-prop was the distinquishing mark besides the tail rudder. the sister squads the 360th and the 361st had for a short time blue rings painted for the 360th and red rings over blue for the 361st f.s.

 

that's a super shot Erich..thanks a lot !

 

Thanks for the info about that article. I'm going to see if I can find a copy of that mag, somewhere here. W-M and Barnes and Nobles here I come.

Thanks again Falke.

 

Seeing all of Erichs stuff on American AF aces is making me interested in reading about something other than Staliongrad and the Eastern Front; for a change.