Evening star., 1944-04-17
Copt. Gentle Says American Air Forces Reached
lop Power When Mustang Fighters Arrived
Continued From First paee,l

HlcIlDeI, W1eN our SlQe was turned
loose on the offensive, if only TO
a day.
Through all the long months tha
followed. while the 9th Air Fore
was building itself up from tn
ground, we prepared to take tn
offensive away from the German,
and then with the Thunderbolt
really started to 60 out and get il
Flew Bomber Support.
The big bombers we're the heav,
guns in this phase of the war. Thei
job was to beat the German air fore
out OF Western Europe, and our jol
was to help keep the German al
force from stopping them.
In those days we few close sup
port for the bombers. When tn,
German fighters came in on tn,
bombers-not before-we turnet
into fighters and shot at them. Al
soon as an individual plane or 4
single formation of them broke of
to attack, we hustled back to tn.
bombers. The thing was it was {
limited offensive. We couldn't 60 al
out. We had to peck and peck unit
they were weak enough to trample
down.
In those days I got some prob.
ables" and some damages" We
could not follow the enemy fighters
past the point at which they broke
OF the attack. We had to clint
back to the bombers to make sure
they were not hit from another side
We could not follow the smokers
or the partially clobbered to see
them crash or, if more shooting was
to do that and finish them
off.
Groups Score Stayed Low.
The score Of the whole group was
low in those days and it stayed low
1t was April 2, 1943, when the group
quit Spitfires for Thunderbolts, anc
about June or July of that veal
when we started noticing a kind ol
faltering in the Luftwaffe. The
pecRing of the bombers and our.
selves was beginning to take effect
1t looked like the time would come
when we'd be turned loose tc
trample them down.
But the German is a crafty foe
and he undertook then one of those
planned retreats" of his. He took
many of his planes out of France
Holland and Belgium and there we
were sitting in our Thunderbolts un-
able to follow after them.
The Fortresses and Liberators bar
relied right into Germany after the
Luftwaffe. We could 60 along with
them only so far and no further.
The bombers had to 60 the rest OF
the way without us. The Luftwaffe
just waited for the bombers to 20
past our sphere of action. Then they
hit and didn't stop hitting until our
oombers were back with us. Then
the Luftwaffe strutted back home
ike dogs which chased a marauder
out OF the front yard and are con-
tent to let it go at that.
Meanwhile, the home front was
ousy on the Mustang. With the
Mustang there was no place for
the Luftwaffe to retreat. That plane
put the Huns back right ups afainst
tfe wall, but we did not have enough
fighter. cover in the latter part OF
last year and the early part az this
year to give anything but close
support to our bombers. Fighter
planes had to fly close formation
to protect one another and had ia
devote themselves to breaking of
enemy attacks, but could not follow
through on the Hun making his
getaway. 81
Time Finally Arrives.
This was the old pecking days all
over again. But this time there
vas this important difference: When
We would get strong enough to start
he would have no place
20 run. He would have to stand and
light.
The time finally came for us in
ate February of this year.
There was no more need to put
Ill our planes in close support of
he bombers. There was no more
heed to keep the formation at any
cost. We were sent out there to 20
md get and clobber the Nazis. If
hey wouldn't come up into the air
We would go down against their
ground guns and shoot them up on
The ground. Get them, that was
the idea; kill them, trample them
down.
I. personally, was ready for this.
had been wanting to fly, and flying
was practically my whole life. In
the two years Of mixing it with the
Germans had learned a great
many things that you can't learn in
any but the hard way. And there
were many in Col. Don Blakeslee's s
group who were in the same con-
dition. 1t was no accident that when
the bell finally rang for the bic
fight Col. Blakeslee's team became
IN seven weeks OF the happiest
hay riding ever, the highest.
scoring outfit In the whole league
Luftwaffe Deteriorates.
In all this time the Luftwaffe has
deteriorated steadily, but it has beer
thing about which I have beer
Slow to make up my mind about
The Nazis all seemed like champs te
me at first but as started to learr
my business I began TO notice thai
some of them did not know theil
business as we'll as others. In re.
cent days I have noticed more anc
more Huns who do not know thei,
business. This may be because the
older / get in this game the more
critical become and the easier il
is for me to spot boy who is greer
at the trade and worried and MOI
sure of himself and on the defen.
sive all the way.
But I don't think that's the whole
reason. I think it is true that tn.
Luftwaffe consists more and NOR.
of new boys as the old hands &c
killed of. However. there still ar,
quite lot of the old hands around
and they are real hot shots. The,
know two things you need to know
in this business: How to kill an,