History of the 348th Fighter Group

Sorry, I looked through all of my Father's photos and the only photo that I have of the Devils Angel 2 is the one that I uploaded several years ago. Good picture of your grandfather.

 

The above photo with the 342nd Fighter Squadron sign was taken at Itami Airfield, Japan on November 3, 1946. Personnel in the picture include: 1st row L-R: SSG Riccardi, TSGT Terry, Lt. Wayne R. Smith, F/O Lanza.
2nd Row: Lt "Bat" Masterson, Lt. "Snake" Stapelton, SGTY Sehorn, SSG La Frano (line chief).
3rd Ros: F/O Jim Weeks, Unknown, Sgt Bowser, Lt. Bob Shaffer

 

Biak,
Glad to see you posting some of the photos that I sent to you. I see several people asking you if the photos that I sent to you may have pictures of their relatives. I thought that I sent you several indexes to people in the photos, but perhaps I didn't. The file below is a PDF file that shows personnel in the 342nd Fighter Squadron with a cross reference of all the photos that they are pictured in. I also have a file that shows photo by photo who is in the photos and where they were taken. I tried to upload it with the one below but it is too big for me to upload. I will try again, but this should answer many questions that may come up. It is 2.4 Megabytes.

I also thought that I sent you a file folder that contained all of the information written on the backs of photos. This information is also included in the file that I couldn't upload because of its size.

Also, I came across another photo that may interest you. My father had about five photos framed in his office for years. Most I had already scanned in but the one of the 348th Fighter Group taken on Itami I did not have scanned in. I took it out of the frame and when I went to scan it in my Father, Wayne Smith, had written the names of many of the people in the photo (probably most from the 342nd) on the back. This was among the photos taken by a Signal Corps photographer at the end of the war on the island of Ie Shima. I think that I told you the story about them that my Father being an avid photographer, helped the Signal Corps photographer to develop copies of the photos for the many people in the photos that wanted copies. When he finished he asked my Father if he wanted the original Grafex negatives and he said sure. I still have these negatives, except for the 348th group photo. I think what happened to the negative was that he sent it to be blown up into a large photo to hang in his office and lost the negative in the process. The photo is still extremely pristine and clear. I will try to upload it but I think that it is probably also too large to upload.

 

My mistake, the index is on the 342nd Fighter Squadron, not the 348th Group. As I thought, the images are too large to post. I'll see about lowering the resolution and posting them.

 

I reduced the resolution on the index in order to be able to upload it. Enjoy!!!

 

For some time now I have wanted to post my dad's log book but lack of time and opportunity always have a way of complicating things. This log book was issued by the "Royal Australian Air Force" so I'm sure he started this while stationed in New Guinea. I'm not sure if he logged his New Guinea activities in real time or transcribed them from another daily, weekly or monthly log that was kept. I feel his log is pretty accurate, at least he always told me so, but some minor details may have been missed. I say "pretty accurate" because I do know he was involved in a minor accident with Lt. Leonard Leighton (KIA August 16, 1943) on August 8, 1943, this is from an official accident report of that time but it is not documented in the log book. Also, I believe some of the information was transcribed from a previous stateside log book as he has included his time with the 341St Operation Training Unit - O.T.U. stationed in Providence Rhode Island as well as 'Primary' time in Coleman Texas and an incomplete listing of his 'Basic' time at Randolph Field in San Antonio. I can tell that the log was initially lightly done in pencil then somewhere along the line he inked in the information.
"CM" means combat missions, "CZ" means he was flying in a combat zone and the "A" stands for Slow Time, the period when the pilots 'Broke In' the aircraft prior to flying to Port Moresby, New Guinea. I plan on initially posting his Australian/New Guinea time and then post his O.T.U. time later. Each page is 1.3 MB so I'll have to do this in parts.

 

1st Page

 

Apparently the file page at 1.3 MB is still to large. I'll have to figure something out.

 

First 3 pages.

 

Second 3 pages

 

Next 3 pages

 

3 more

 

3 more

 

Last one. So this completes my Dad's 14 months in the SWP theater. When he returned to the USA he no longer kept the log book current but did have all of his states side fight time documented in his USAAF official papers which he had kept from the first day of his Army Air Corps fight training until he was discharged.

 

Sorry one more

 

Biak,
I think you’re right about the “My Faithful Dulcy” comment on the photo of Merle leaning against the P-47, it had to be just after the oil leak incident, makes a lot of sense doesn’t it.

Speaking of so many things we’ll never know: I think back to the mid 1950’s and my dad would tell my brother and me so many stories about his time in the service, we were always all ears, those stories helped shape our life. Unfortunately those stories to a young boy are easily forgotten over time and I find that when I really want to hear them again it’s too late. By the mid to late 1960’s we rarely heard those stories anymore unless we asked, which mostly we didn’t.

Looking at vintage pictures of the flight line in New Guinea it seems to me that not all planes had names or nose art but many did. In my Dad’s case he did - “Battlin Beaut” and he painted the nose art on the plane. And and I think that most, if not all, of the aircraft were shared by other pilots (perhaps with the exception of Fiery Ginger) - maybe the newer pilots.