Evening star., 1943-08-08
Combat Flight Thrills
Make Card Boss Son
Quit Diamond Game
BY LEO BRANHAM,
Associated Press Sports Writer.


Billy Southworth, jr., of Columbus
Ohio, who was awarded the Distin.
guished Flying Cross Monday. start.
ed out in life to pattern after hi.
well-known father, the manager o
the world champion st. Louis Car.
dinals.
Along came the war, however, ano
Billy found himself in the Army Ali
Forces instead. Now he has com.
pleted tour of operations as pilot
OF the Flying Fortress Winning
Run" and received the DFC for "ex-
traordinary achievements"
Previously awarded the Air Media
with three oak leaf clusters, his lat
est citation said that in "displaying
great courage and skill Capt South
worth has materially aided in the
success of each of these missions
and his actions are an inspiring ex-
ample for his fellow flyers"
Southworth traded the outfielder'
glove he wore while playing for the
Toronto Maple Leafs for a pair of
electrically heated gloves pilots use
at the controls of Flying Fortress
when cruising through the frigid
substratosphere.
Plans Career in Aviation.
Baseball was his first love, but
aviation now will be the big thing in
his life, for he is abandoning the
diamond and plans to continue fly
ing after the war.
Right now he hasn't thought far
enough ahead to decide on exactly
what kind of job he will seek when
the bombs stop falling, except that
it must be with big aircraft" Skip
pering giant four-engined Bit
has gotten into his blood.
1T would he okay," he unused, 'if
I could become transcontinental
airline pilot after the war"
Il joined the Army in December
1940," he explained. I'm 26. Soon
I will have been out of baseball for
three years-that's three of the best
years in any baseball players life.
Nope, it's aviation"
1t is with some degree of conf
dence and oertainty-at least far
more than the average bomber pilot
in the European theater of opera
tions-that Southworth can look to
the future
For he's through as a combat pilot
In Britain-through after participant
ing in many of the toughest raids.
including the first American aerial
attacks on Germany and the Ruhr
Valley He finished the required so
operational missions July II, when
he led a group from this station on
an attack in northwest Germany.
Cool as Ice In Combat. ,
True. he may be assigned to some
other war zone later, but at least
he's survived-without single
scratch-the grim competition in
this major league" of the toughest
game in the world.
Southworth, from what his COM
rades say about him. is the kind of
pilot that warns the hearts of Air
Force generals-the kind that makes
fat Hermann Goering tear his hair.
Cool as ice in the midst of desper-
ate air battles, skillful and business
like, he's "one of the ace pilots of
this theater," the boys tell you. A
pilit who on raid after raid took his
crew out and bombed and brought
them back. intact.
Last of his original crew of 10
to be taken off combat status, South
worth and his boys have mustered II
D. F. C.s 10 Air Medals and Oak
Leaf Clusters apiece. But there's
not single Purple Heart-the
award for wounds received in action
in the entire lot
Our bomber has been shot up a
few times, but in all my raids I've
never had a man wounded" South
worth said with pride
His crew has been credited with
destroying 10 enemy fighter planes.
Makes One Forced Landing.
Only once, when a dwindling gas
oline supply forced him to land at a
British field on the coast, has South
worth failed to return to his home
base from raids
That was the time he bombed the
Lorient submarine pens on the At
lantic coast of France, January "a
Southworth and another Fortress
pilot dropped out of their formation
to protect crippled bomber being
attacked by a group of Goering's s
yellow noses" One of the bomber
trio was shot down, but Southworth
and the second Fortress came
through after fighting off As enemy
attacks.
He'll never forget his first raid
OF all times to take a Snooze.
Southworths copilot for that day
dropped off to sleepSas their bomber
headed homeward after attacking
U-boat installations at st. Nazaire.
France, November Is, 1912
Relating the incident Southworth
said. 1T sort of peeved me, for we
were under attack by two ME 109s
that followed us. l woke up the c.
pilot, who never was guy to get
excited about anything, with a jolt
He said, What's the matter? There
wasn't anything for me to do, so I
took nap"
I'VE counted 30 flax (antiaircraft)
AicAto III Jul SIilp dlISl VIC sOt UhCh
that day" Southworth added.
Some Narrow Escapes.
Reviewing some of his other sky
battles, Southworth said:
Last December two Bits shot off
my left wing in a four-hour battle
over France. Another Fortress. out
Of control, came roaring toward us.
caught sight Of it in time to turn
and dive my ship violently. His wing
put a large dent in my horizontal
stabilizer. 1t was too close for COM
fort
Twice I've had unexploded fax
shells penetrate through my air.
plane and explode on the outside
doing little harm. Both times were
at st. Nazaire. Once over Germany
I lost an aileron control and a g.
foot hole was blasted in my wing
Then We proceeded through the
toughest opposition I've seen yet
encountering over 100 enemy fight
ers."