He even
tried to give bed and equipment inspection and had us line up for full
uniform inspection on the runway. I can't remember what finally
happened to him, but on one mission were led by a Colonel who came
from another base and was an experienced combat pilot. I think he was
sent to check out what kind of an outfit we were.
Of the 23 missions I flew, most were bomber escorts and a few were
bombing runs to targets in France and not too deep into Germany. The
P-51 had two tanks that hung one from each wing and they hold 150
gallons of gasoline each. On bombing runs these two racks held a 500
pound bomb each. If we were called back from a mission due to a change
in the weather, we would drop them in the Channel as it was too
dangerous to land with them still attached as they might Jar loose on
the runway. We thought about all the gas Rationing at home while we
were dumping all that fuel. These tanks and the 50 gallon tank that
was located right behind the pilot plus the tanks in the wings were
the reason the P-51 could stay in the air about six hours and was
able to escort the bombers all the way to Berlin and back. The
English Spitfires could only go as far as Belgium and France with the
bombers and the bombers suffered heavy losses until we were there to
intercept them. We would also be there to guard the bombers coming
home slowly after being damaged and losing engines. The Spitfire
planes would escort them as far as Belgium where we would pick them
up, then the Spitfires would meet them there again coming home.
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