Evening star., 1944-04-23
Gentle Sees Teamwork as Key to Victory
In Yonk Sky Battles Aquinst Nuzi Planes

Capt. Don S. Gentle, Piqua
(Ohio) Sth Air Force flyer, pho
has destroyed 80 German planes
in the air and on the ground,
tells the story OF air 7Unrtare in
the European theater. Eighth OF
SerieS.)
BY CAPT. DON S. GENTLE,
As Told to Ira Wolfert.
AN 9th AIR FORCE FIGHTER
BASE, England, April % (By Wire
less) When the bell rang for the
big fight against Hitler's Luftwaffe
last February, our 26-year-old Col
Donald Blakeslee, another Ohio boy.
led into action as fine a team as I
think any nation has ever been able
to gather together.
The boys had a lot of natural
ability. Most of them had been SO
eager to fly that they had joined
the RAF or the RCAF before we had
got into the war. Now their ability
was tempered with experience. Their
enthusiasm for the fight was sweep
ing and contagious Each man was
confident he would survive.
There is pretty good test of the
confidence OF group in the amount
of money the individuals in it save.
1t isn't an infallible test, because
there are surprising number of
people who just aren't interested in
the future, even when they are sure
they are going to live to see it. But
Col. Don Blakeslee's group stands
high in allotments sent home.
Banks All but S150 Monthly.
AS a measure of my own conf
dence, have been living on an av-
erage of about dollar and a half
month since I got over here, and
have been banking the rest to carry
me through the lean, job-hunting
days expect after the war.
We started the offensive battles
with 106 German aircraft DESTROYED
to our credit, and by March II the
group score had mounted to 200.
BY the second week in April we had
434 to our credit and were top scor-
ers for the whole European theater
OF operations. In the month from
March II to April Is we got more
than twice as many German air.
planes as we had in the two years
of 1912 and 1943.
Yes, there's no doubt that attack
is the way to kill Germans. In my
own case I shot down Is Germans
from March 3 to April /.
Picked Best Wing Man.
4 The whole attack has been a life
time for many of our boys and has
been long life for me. I started
the battle by picking the best man
could get to fly on my wing
Johnny Godfrey of Woonsocket.
r. l., who doesn't like Germans.
They killed his brother Reggie at
sea and the name Johnny has
painted on his plane is "Reggie's
Reply" He means it, too. The point
about him is that he not only is
a fierce, brave boy, but he knows
his business as well.
To show how team works even
when a big brawl has boiled the
team down to two men flying wing
on each other. Johnny and I spent
20 minutes over Berlin on March 8
and came out of there with six
planes destroyed to our credit. I got
a straggler and Johnny got one, and
then got another one fast.
A Hun tried to outturn me, and
this was a mistake on his part. Not
only cannot Messerschmitt 109
outturn a Mustang in the upstairs
air, but even If he had succeeded
there was Johnny back from his
kill and sitting on my tail waiting
to shoot him down. He was waiting
too, to knock down anybody who
tried to bounce me off my kill
Team Work Counts.
There were Huns all around
Berlin's air was cloudy with them.
The gyrations this dying Hun was
making made me take violent action,
but Johnny rode right along like a
blocking back who could run with
the best. After two Huns had blown
up and another had bailed out
Johnny and I formed up tight and
went against team of two Messer-
schmitts.
"I'll take the port one, and you
take the starboard one," 7 told
Johnny, and we came in line abreast
and in a two-second burst finished
off both of them. They were dead
before they knew we were there.
Then Messerschmitt bounced
Johnny. Johnny turned into him,
and I swung around to run inter-
ference for him. The Hun made
tight swing to get on Johnny's tail,