357th Fighter Group The 357th Fighter Group was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War . The 357th operated P - 51 Mustang aircraft as part of the U . S . Eighth Air Force and its members were known unofficially as " The Yoxford Boys " after a village near their base in the UK . ( Group tradition holds that the name was the invention of Lord Haw Haw in a broadcast greeting the night of its arrival at RAF Leiston . ) Its victory totals in air - to - air combat are the most of any P - 51 group in the Eighth Air Force and third among all groups fighting in Europe . The 357th flew 313 combat missions between 11 February 1944 and 25 April 1945 . It is officially credited by the U . S . Air Force with having destroyed 595 . 5 German airplanes in the air and 106 . 5 on the ground . The 357th existed as a USAAF unit only during World War II and its immediate aftermath . Its history , lineage and honors were bestowed on an Ohio Air National Guard group , but the Ohio ANG considers itself a direct descendant of the 357th FG . History . Squadron commanders . Three fighter squadron s were constituted 16 December 1942 , and assigned to the group . Training history and movement overseas . The 357th remained at Hamilton Field , while its squadrons were activated and personnel and equipment acquired . Cadre for the new group were drawn from the 328th Fighter Group , already at Hamilton . Two of the three designated squadron commanders had served in the Philippines during the first days of the war , Major Hubert Egnes with the 17th Pursuit Squadron , and Captain Varian White with the 20th Pursuit Squadron , and both had air - to - air victories over Japanese aircraft . On 3 March 1943 , the group moved by rail to Tonopah , Nevada , where it remained until 3 June . At Tonopah the members lived in and worked under primitive conditions , described as " tar - paper shacks " , and without enclosed hangar maintenance facilities . They inherited much - used P - 39 Airacobra fighters from the 354th Fighter Group , training at Tonopah preceding them , and immediately began a regimen of six - day work weeks with six sortie s a day practicing air - to - air combat , bombing , and strafing maneuvers . While adequately powered at low altitudes and suited for close support operations , the P - 39 was prone to stalls at higher altitudes . Three pilots and a flight surgeon died in training accidents while at Tonopah , including Captain White , who was replaced by Major Thomas Hayes , another veteran of the early Pacific campaign . In June the group entered its next training phase , changing stations to Santa Rosa Army Air Field , California ( the 362 FS was based at nearby Hayward ) . There the group continued training on P - 39s , flying bomber escort and coastal patrol practice missions . On 7 July 1943 , a mid - air collision occurred between two P - 39s , killing both pilots including Captain Clay Davis , commander of the 363 FS . On the same date the group commander , Lt . Col . Stetson , relinquished command , and sources who were present at the time are contradictory about a possible connection : Olmsted states that Stetson was sent overseas to command a fighter group ; Yeager states he was relieved of command for the high death rate in training . Thirteen pilots and a flight surgeon died in P - 39 training accidents in the United States , and numerous aircraft were lost or heavily damaged in non - fatal accidents . The 357th received an influx of 60 new pilots and moved again , to bases at Oroville and Marysville , California in August 1943 . It entered its final phase of training on 28 September with the squadrons redeploying to Second Air Force bases at Pocatello , Idaho ; Casper , Wyoming ; and Ainsworth , Nebraska , respectively , where they engaged in large - formation mock interceptor missions against bomber groups in training . On 24 October after a final tactical inspection , the group was declared ready for overseas deployment . Beginning 3 November , the 357th turned in its P - 39s and entrained for Camp Shanks , New York , where the entire group staged for embarkation aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth , departing New York City on 23 November 1943 . Debarking at Greenock , Scotland , on 29 November , the group immediately moved by train to its base in Suffolk . Combat operations and tactics . Ninth Air Force . The 357th had been allocated to the Ninth Air Force as a P - 51 tactical air support unit . It moved into its base at RAF Raydon on 30 November 1943 . It had no aircraft until 19 December , when the it received a former Mustang III of RAF Fighter Command , hastily repainted in U . S . olive drab . By the end of the year the 357th received 15 Mustangs , severely restricting conversion training for the pilots , and some made the transition by ferrying in new aircraft . All but a handful gained flying experience in the new aircraft only by flying combat operations . This handful , consisting of group and squadron commanders and proposed flight leaders , made approximately a dozen sorties on escort missions with the 354th Fighter Group , which had been flying combat only since 1 December . Pilots from both units learned that the P - 51s still had maintenance flaws to be worked out , primarily in guns that jammed in maneuvering and engines that overheated from loss of coolant , and the commanding officer of the 363 FS was shot down on a mission while flying with the 354th Fighter Group on 25 January 1944 . The need for a long - range escort fighter had resulted in a decision to give the Eighth Air Force a priority for the Mustang , reversing the earlier allocation of these groups to the Ninth for tactical support of Allied ground operations in France . The 357th was re - assigned to VIII Fighter Command in exchange for a P - 47 group that had already begun combat operations , and at the end of January , changed bases with the 358th Fighter Group , moving to its permanent base at RAF Leiston on 31 January . VIII Fighter Command , Eighth Air Force . Initial operations . Assigned to the 66th Fighter Wing , the 357th was the first P - 51 Mustang Group of the Eight Air Force . Between its move to Leiston and 11 February , when it flew its first combat mission , the group received a full inventory of P - 51B fighters . On 8 February six pilots flew a final mission with the 354th , a deep penetration bomber escort to Frankfurt , Germany , and lost a pilot killed in action . The first group mission , led by Medal of Honor - recipient Major James H . Howard of the 354th FG , was an escort mission for B - 24 ' s bombing V - 1 sites in the Pas de Calais . The new commander of the 4th Fighter Group , Lt . Col . Don Blakeslee , led two similar missions on 12 and 13 February , with the first combat loss occurring on 13 February . The 357th changed commanders on 17 February , its former commander Col . Chickering moving up to a staff position in the Ninth Air Force , and its new CO Col . Spicer the former executive officer of the 66th Fighter Wing . The groups ' fourth combat mission was its first over Germany , at the start of the coordinated strategic bombing attacks against the Luftwaffe and the German aircraft industry that came to be called the " Big Week . " The 357th flew all five days , losing eight Mustangs in combat but recording its first 22 aerial victories . Attacks intensified as Berlin was bombed by the USAAF for the first time in March , with the group shooting down 20 fighters during the first major raid on 6 March . The 364th Fighter Squadron led the group in aerial victories , with 32 by the end of March , and with two pilots claiming ace status on 16 March . In its first month of operations , the 357th flew 15 missions , losing 14 P - 51s but credited with 59 kills . On an escort mission to Bordeaux , France , on 5 March , the 357th lost two aircraft . Group commander Col . Henry Spicer was captured while the French Resistance aided Flight Officer Charles E . Yeager in evading capture for 25 days . He successfully escaped to Spain , where he remained six weeks before being returned to Allied control . Camouflage , unit markings and call signs . The initial group of P - 51B aircraft received by the 357 FG were finished in factory - applied olive drab with gray lower surfaces . The USAAF in a major policy change had ended this specification on all aircraft produced after 13 February 1944 . The 357th applied field camouflage to its replacement P - 51C ( beginning in March ) and P - 51D ( beginning in June ) fighters until December 1944 , with most receiving an overall coat of " RAF green " ( a shade similar to olive drab ) with gray undersurfaces , but a prominent minority being bare metal with olive drab tails and upper surfaces . This practice distinguished 357th Mustangs from those of the other Eighth Air Force groups until 1945 when the camouflage was phased out . In February 1944 , VIII Fighter Command assigned the 357th Fighter Group two - letter squadron identification codes to be painted on the fuselages of its fighters , and each squadron assigned its aircraft individual letter identifiers . The Eighth Air Force had in January given veteran units permission to use brightly colored spinners and identification bands on the engine cowls of their fighters . In late March , the 66th Fighter Wing adopted colored spinners and a checkerboard paint scheme to be painted as an identifying cowl band on the noses of its aircraft , with each of its five groups assigned a different color . These bands were wide with six - inch ( 152 mm ) squares . The 357th ' s group nose colors were red and yellow , and many nose art names were also painted in matching colors . In late 1944 the 357th began to discontinue the use of olive drab camouflage and adopted a color system painted on the tail rudders of its Mustangs to identify the squadron . On 23 April 1944 , VIII Fighter Command changed its system of radio call sign s to reduce confusion when the fighter groups , now numbering a hundred or more fighters in their inventories , deployed two groups on escort missions ( " A group " and " B Group " ) . Station call signs ( RAF Leiston ' s was EARLDUKE ) were unchanged , but all previous call signs were discontinued . In 1945 provision was also made for a C Group on missions ( usually only eight to 12 fighters ) and all fighters assigned to a C Group mission used the common call sign . Like all Allied aircraft flying over the continent , the 357th applied alternating , black and white bands , known as " invasion stripes " , to the rear fuselage and wings of its fighters just prior to D - Day . It retained the lower wing stripes and lower portion of the rear fuselage until the end of 1944 , when most invasion stripes were deleted . Invasion preparation and support . Because of the extended range of the P - 51 , the primary mission of the 357th continued to be heavy bomber escort . On 11 April 1944 , 917 heavy bombers and 819 escort fighters of the Eighth Air Force attacked aviation industry targets in Saxony - Anhalt resulting in a severe fighter reaction by the Jagdverbände . A total of 64 bombers were shot down in one of the heaviest losses to the Eighth , but strong escort support kept the losses from being worse . Three Mustangs from the 364th Fighter Squadron were also shot down but the group as a whole was credited with 23 of the 51 aerial victories scored . Another 22 were credited during the 24 April operations against Bavarian airfields and aircraft factories , with 70 total for the month resulting in eight additional aces in the group . While scoring 174 kills in April and May 1944 , the 357th also lost 33 Mustangs . Beginning in late February 1944 , Eighth Air Force fighter units began systematic strafing attacks on German airfields that picked up in frequency and intensity throughout the spring ( as example , on the above mentioned missions VIII Fighter Command scored 130 strafing kills in addition to 109 aerial victories ) with the objective of gaining air supremacy over the Normandy battlefield . In general these were conducted by units returning from escort missions , but many groups also were assigned airfield attacks instead of bomber support . On 21 May , these attacks were expanded to include railways , locomotives and rolling stock used by the Germans for movements of matériel and troops in missions dubbed " Chattanooga " , . The 357th lost two of its aces in combat when their Mustangs were shot down by flak . On D - Day , the group flew eight missions and nearly 130 sorties , and , thereafter , multiple daily missions over the beachhead . The group also performed its first bombing missions using the Mustang in June . It encountered few German aircraft during the month until 29 June , when on a mission to Leipzig it shot down 20 . For its actions over Berlin on 6 March and the Leipzig mission the group was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation . The 357th also began receiving new P - 51D Mustangs as replacement aircraft but many pilots preferred the earlier B models still prevalent in the group as being more maneuverable and better - powered at high altitude . By the end of June 1944 , the 357th had claimed 283 German aircraft shot down and counted 26 pilots recognized as aces . Losses over its initial four months of combat amounted to 27 killed or missing in action , 30 captured and 72 P - 51s destroyed . Operations in the summer and fall of 1944 . In July 1944 , the K - 14 , an improved gryoscopic gunsight of British design , reached the 357th for replacement of the existing N - 3B reflector sight s in the P - 51B and C . The K - 14 allowed for rapid , accurate lead - computing of up to 90° deflection by analog computer with pilot inputs through hand controls . However , the sights were sized for the cockpits of older Mustangs , now constituting less than a third of the 357th ' s strength . Group commander Col . Donald Graham directed the 469th Service Squadron to mount a K - 14 in his assigned P - 51D ( " 44 - 13388 " B6 - W " Bodacious " ) to replace its N - 9 reflector sight , using bracing and panel cutouts to form a recess . Testing the sights in combat in September , the K - 14 proved so effective that Graham offered the installation method to other Eighth Air Force groups for retro - fitting the gunsight into all D - model Mustangs in the field , with the 357th method adopted in March 1945 by the Eighth Air Force Modification Center . The 357th flew escort for the second shuttle - bombing mission by the Eighth Air Force , " Frantic V " , on 6 August 1944 . Escorting two B - 17 groups of the 13th Combat Bomb Wing to bomb a Focke - Wulf manufacturing plant in Rahmel , West Prussia , 64 Mustangs of the group continued on to the Soviet Union , landing at Piryatin airfield , a P - 39 / Yak - 3 fighter strip southeast of Kiev , Ukraine , while the bombers , carrying 357th maintenance crews , continued further east to Mirgorod . The next day , the Mustangs escorted the B - 17s against synthetic oil production plants in Trzebinia , Poland , returning to Piryatin , and on 8 August , escorted them to Foggia , Italy , bombing Romania n airfields en route . Temporarily based at San Severo with the 31st Fighter Group , the 357th supported a C - 47 mission to Yugoslavia on 10 August to evacuate Allied evaders and escaped POW s . On 12 August 1944 , the entire Frantic force returned to England , attacking German lines of communication in Toulouse , France , as part of the preparation for the invasion of Southern France . Large - scale combat between VIII Fighter Command and the Luftwaffe interceptor force had become virtually nonexistent after 28 May 1944 but , in August , contact was made for the first time with both rocket - propelled and jet - propelled interceptors . While themselves a harbinger of a tactical change by the Luftwaffe , the contacts also indicated that the Germans were husbanding their fighter aircraft for sporadic reaction against Allied bomber attacks . The 357th , escorting B - 17s against oil targets near Munich , encountered one such reaction on 13 September , engaging 75 Messerschmitt Bf 109 s and claiming 15 shot down , but losing five Mustangs . On 15 September , operational control of VIII Fighter Command ' s three fighter wings was placed directly under the headquarters of the bomb divisions , removing a layer of command , with a wing controlled by each division . After this date , the 357th Fighter Group ' s primary duty was protection of the B - 17s of the 3rd Bomb Division based in East Anglia . In September , the simplified mission planning , along with the adoption of the K - 14 gyro sight and the issuance of air - inflatable Berger G - suit to pilots came at a time when numerous veteran pilots were completing their combat tours . Although a significant number of aces opted to fly second tours after taking leave in the United States , these innovations helped the group absorb the pilot turnover without significant loss of combat efficiency . The Luftwaffe also reacted with a massed response against the airborne invasion of Holland . On the afternoon of 18 September , German fighters attacked a large re - supply effort of Arnhem by Eighth Air Force B - 24 bombers . The 357th intercepted a force of 60 Bf 109s near Maastricht , claiming 26 destroyed . The next afternoon the Allies used over 600 transports for airlift in marginal weather conditions , some of which were attacked by numerous German fighters , including Bf 109s of Jadgeschwader s ( fighter wings ) 11 and 26 . The 357th " bounced " the interceptors as they left the battlefield northeast of Arnhem , shooting down 25 ( although five were not credited until after the war when repatriated POWs were debriefed ) . Against their 51 claims , the 357th lost seven Mustangs , with three pilots killed and three captured . Air - to - air contacts declined in the following month , but one notable combat occurred during an escort mission to Bremen on 12 October 1944 , when 1st Lt . Chuck Yeager claimed five German fighters to become an " Ace in a day " , and the group scored its 400th kill . Yeager had been with the group since its inception but had only been credited with 1 . 5 kills to that point . Assigned as mission leader , Yeager observed 22 Bf 109s of III . / JG 26 crossing his flight path at the same altitude and attacked . Yeager ' s feat was unique in that the first two German pilots abandoned their aircraft as he closed the range but before he opened fire . On 6 November 1944 , Yeager also claimed one of the first Me 262 jet aircraft shot down , when after a series of skirmishes with three jets in thick haze over Osnabrück , he encountered one attempting a landing and blew off its wing . Two days later , 357th pilots again engaged the Kommando Nowotny . 1st Lt . Edward R . " Buddy " Haydon shared a jet credit in which the German commander , Major Walter Nowotny , was killed , and 1st Lt . James W . Kenney shot down Hauptmann Franz Schall . The Jagdverbände made three concerted attempts to attack Eighth Air Force bombers between 21 and 27 November 1944 , and on the last generated an estimated 750 fighter sorties , the largest defensive reaction of the war . The three fighter wings of the Eighth used a tactical ruse to score a significant victory . Assigning 13 groups to a fighter - bomber mission , P - 51s and P - 47s simulated heavy bomber formations while other P - 51s flew escort patterns above them . The resulting radar contact triggered the heavy fighter reaction near Magdeburg , and the force was directed towards them by a microwave early warning ( MEW ) site ( " Nuthouse " ) at Gulpen , Netherlands . In the 66th Fighter Wing , the 353d and 357th Fighter Groups engaged approximately 200 Fw 190 s of JG 300 and JG 301 , with the 353d downing 22 and the 357th , 30 in the ensuing combats . Captain Leonard K . " Kit " Carson , on the 38th mission of his second tour and having nine previous credits , became the second 357th pilot to become an " ace in a day " , while Yeager and Capt John B . England claimed four kills each . One week later , on 5 December , the 357th escorted 3rd Division bombers to Berlin and encountered 100 more German fighters , claiming 22 against a loss of two . Winter operations and jet combat . Fog and ice conditions grounded the P - 51s for much of December 1944 , but during the German Ardennes offensive the Eighth Air Force conducted the largest single operation in its history on 24 December , dispatching 2 , 046 bombers and 853 fighters to attack lines of communication and airfields in Germany . The 357th Fighter Group launched a total of 76 Mustangs split into an " A " group of 25 led by group commander Lt . Col . Irwin Dregne and a " B " group of 51 led by Major Richard Peterson . Each group engaged large numbers of German fighters of JG 300 near Fulda and the 357th as a whole shot down 30 more , losing three including a P - 51 that collided with a 55th Fighter Group Mustang . In the first two weeks of January 1945 the 357th along with all Eighth Air Force groups supported bomber attacks against German ground transportation during the Allied counter - offensive in the Ardennes , strafing ground targets daily . However , on 14 January , strategic bombing resumed with attacks on oil installations near Berlin . The 357th was tasked with protecting 3rd Air Division B - 17s , employing a variation of the escort tactic called the " Zemke Fan " , designed to lure in interceptors . Sending 66 Mustangs including spares , the 364 FS led the mission flying ahead of the bombers at , the 362nd flew close escort over the lead combat box of bombers while the 363d flew farther back over the third box at higher altitude . Near Brandenburg , the 357th observed the contrails of more than 200 fighters approaching the lead bomber combat box from the southeast . The heavily armored " sturmgruppen " Fw 190s of II / JG 300 attacked the B - 17s in " company front " formations of eight abreast , while a protective force of 100 Bf 109s of JG 300 ' s other three gruppen attempted to cover them from 32 , 000 . The 364 FS attacked and broke up the sturmgruppen formations , which were pursued by the trailing 363rd FS . The German top cover attempted to enter the mêlée and were intercepted by the 362 FS , quickly joined by the 364th . The 30 - minute battle resulted in 56 . 5 German fighters claimed as shot down , by far the largest single day kill of the war by an Eighth Air Force group . Including the victories of group staff flying with various squadrons , the 364th is credited with 23 . 5 kills , the 362d with 20 , and the 363rd with 12 . Ironically , two of the most prolific aces of the 363rd FS , Capt . Bud Anderson and Capt . Chuck Yeager , had been assigned to the mission but scored no kills . On the last mission of their second tours , they were sent as spares and broke away before contact to make an impromptu farewell tour of Europe that included buzzing neutral Switzerland and Paris , France . Even so , the mission resulted in five more aces for the 357th ( Dregne , Evans , Maxwell , Sublett and Weaver ) and immediate recognition of the feat by Eighth Air Force commanding General Jimmy Doolittle . The group received its second Distinguished Unit Citation for the mission . In the four major combats of 27 November 2 December , 24 December and 14 January , the 357th Fighter Group claimed 137 . 5 aircraft against a loss of nine Mustangs . The 357th had two more large - scale engagements with German fighters before the end of the war . On 2 March 1945 , escorting B - 17s to Ruhland , the group encountered its frequent foes JGs 300 and 301 a final time , shooting down 14 and losing one Mustang . On the way back to base , strafing airfields , the group had an additional four P - 51s shot down by flak , with two pilots killed . On 24 March , flying an area patrol near Gütersloh to protect the Allied airborne crossing of the Rhine , it encountered 20 Bf 109s of JG 27 and shot down 16 without loss . The Jagdverbände , severely depleted , turned to jet interceptions beginning 9 February 1945 , in an attempt to stop the onslaught of Allied heavy bombers . The Allies countered by flying combat air patrol missions over German airfields , intercepting the Me 262s and Ar 234 s as they took off and landed . The tactic resulted in increasing numbers of jets shot down and controlled the dangerous situation , particularly as the amount of German - controlled territory shrank daily . The 357th claimed an additional 12 . 5 jets destroyed during this period to total 18 . 5 for the war , and destroyed three others on the ground . The 357th flew its 313th and final combat mission on 25 April 1945 , without contact or loss . Casualties . A total of 128 P - 51s were lost in combat by the 357th Fighter Group . Sixty pilots were killed or missing in action , 54 were made prisoners of war with two of those dying in captivity and 13 evaded capture to return to duty . ( The additional two casualties were a pilot killed and a squadron commander made POW while flying with the 354th FG in January 1944 ) . Three other pilots landed in neutral territory and were interned . Twenty - six Mustangs were destroyed in operational and training accidents in the UK , as was an AT - 6 . A total of 13 pilots and a mechanic were killed , three of whom died after cessation of combat operations . Of the 128 combat losses , 38 were attributed to attack by German fighters , 29 to flak , ten to mid - air collisions , 21 to mechanical causes ( mostly engine failure ) , five to friendly fire , five to bad weather and 20 to causes not determined . Aerial victories . The first aerial victory by a 357th pilot occurred 20 February 1944 , with the downing of an Me - 109 by 1st Lt . Calvert L . Williams , 362d Fighter Squadron , flying P - 51B " 43 - 6448 " ( G4 - U " Wee Willie " ) . The final victory was an Me - 262 shot down on 19 April 1945 , by 2d Lt James P . McMullen , 364th Fighter Squadron . The 357th Fighter Group had 609½ claims credited by the Eighth Air Force for German aircraft destroyed in air - to - air combat . " U . S . Air Force Historical Study No . 85 " recognizes 595 . 49 aerial victories for the 357th . This total is the third highest among USAAF fighter groups in the ETO ( behind the 354th and 56th Fighter Group s ) , the second highest among Eighth Air Force groups , and the highest among the 14 P - 51 groups of VIII Fighter Command . Eighth Air Force also credited the 357th Fighter Group with 106½ German aircraft destroyed on the ground , making an overall total of 701 . 99 , which is sixth among all Eighth Air Force fighter groups . Of the air - to - air totals , 18½ were Me - 262 jets , the most destroyed in aerial combat by any USAAF group . Among the various units of the 357th , the 364th Fighter Squadron had the most victories with 70 pilots credited with 212 kills . The 362d Fighter Squadron was credited with 198 kills by 63 pilots , the 363d Fighter Squadron with 154 . 99 kills by 50 pilots , and group headquarters with 30 . 5 kills by nine pilots . Counting only air - to - air victories registered while with the group ( therefore discounting air - to - ground claims ) , the 357th had 42 pilots become ace s , the most of any ETO fighter group ( the 354th Fighter Group of the Ninth Air Force also had 42 , the 56th Fighter Group had 39 and the 4th Fighter Group 32 by the same criteria ) . Aces of the 357th Fighter Group . ¹ ² Postwar history and heritage . In July 1945 , the 357th Fighter Group moved to Neubiberg Air Base in Bavaria as part of the Allied Occupation forces and was inactivated there in 1946 . The 357th Fighter Group was re - designated the 121st Fighter Group on 21 August 1946 , a unit allocated to the OHANG in 1947 . The official site of the Ohio Air National Guard notes that the OHANG is " descended from the 357th Fighter Group " . 357th Fighter Group P - 51 survivors and replicas . " Old Crow " ( P - 51D - 10 - NA 44 - 14450 B6 - S ) , 363rd Fighter Squadron , survived World War II and is now in private ownership in Sweden . Originally the Mustang flew in olive drab camouflage , but in late 1944 , was stripped to a bare metal finish , although its black - and - white " invasion stripes " remained on the bottom of the rear fuselage . The plane has been restored by its owner in its OD paint scheme and is based in Belgium . A number of private owners of P - 51s have restored their Mustangs in 357th livery for display at air shows and private exhibitions . Most are P - 51Ds produced too late to see combat and declared surplus , or models that served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 1950s , although the Mustang restored as " Frenesi " was first an F - 6K photographic reconnaissance model . Among Mustangs restored to resemble 357th aircraft are : ¹