78th Fighter Group
78th Fighter Group
Personal pictures, stories and web "links" submitted by 78th Fighter Group veterans, family and friends.
_Capt. Peter T. Keillor, 84th Fighter Squadron, 9-2-44 to EOW
Captain Peter T. Keillor, 84th Fighter Squadron, stands by the 82nd Fighter Squadron P-51B, s/n "ww 2108826"( the "ww" was applied to aircraft determined unsuitable for combat either due to extensive flight hours or wear. They were retained for either training or other non-combat duties). This aircraft was painted overall insignia red after VE Day, benchmarking the time that the photo was taken. This P-51B was also converted to a "two-seater". ( Source Credit: Peter T. Keillor collection )
Peter T. Keillor, from Danbury, Texas, officially joined the USAAC Aviation Cadet Training program on November 10, 1941. As a member of the Class '42 F, he received his wings and commissioned a 2nd. Lieutenant on June 26, 1942. During his career, Pete served in the ETO(European Theater of Operations), the PTO(Pacific Theater of Operations) and stateside during World War II. He was assigned to six(6) distinct Air Force organizations, including the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th and 13th Air Forces. He initially was a member of the 44th Fighter Squadron, 7th US Air Force, flying P-40 Warhawks out of Bellows Field, Oahu, Hawaii. He was re-assigned to the 333rd Fighter Squadron on Canton Island, located mid-Pacific( part of the Phoenix Island Group ) flying P-39 Aircobras. In February of 1943 , he, his squadron mates and P-39s were transferred to the 67th Fighter Squadron, Fifth Air Force, at Henderson (Cactus) Air Field on Guadalcanal, then to Milne Bay and Woodlark Island in New Guinea, back to Munda and eventually to Baracoma( both in the Soloman Island chain ). In December, 1943, he returned stateside where he was assigned as a pilot gunnery instructor to the 49th HQ & AB Squadron at Harding Field in Baton Rouge, LA; Victoria and Galveston, Texas, respectively; Strother Field, Winfield, Kansas and Pierre, South Dakota. Pete requested re-assignment for overseas duty hoping to make it back in time for the invasion of Europe...but " that didn't happen". He arrived in England on August 30, 1944, received orders assigning him to the 78th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, in Duxford, Cambridgeshire. Pete served with the 78th Fighter Group, 84th Fighter Squadron until July 18, 1945. He returned stateside for the second time and remained in the USAF until March of 1946. Pete Keillor resides in Danbury, Texas. He is the current vice president of the " Duxford 78th Fighter Group Association ".
Pete has been kind enough to share some pictures and a chapter from his personal autobiography.
" Wandering Through WW II with an Old Peashooter Pilot "
by Peter T. Keillor
The story and pictures are posted with permission of the author, Peter T. Keillor. It is unlawful to reproduce either the story or pictures in whole or in part without the expressed written consent of the author. This story was originally published in the March, 2001 issue of the Duxford 78th Fighter Group Association " Checkerboard " Newsletter. (Copyright © 2001 by Peter Keillor)
Part I - August 30, 1944 to December 1, 1944
" The order sending me to Duxford was dated August 30, 1944 and on the 2nd of September, I was assigned to the 84th Fighter Squadron and appointed assistant Engineering Officer along with Alfred Garback( 1 ), Richard Spooner( 2 ), Mark Wilson( 3 ) and Eugene Wood( 4 ), who came with me. Garback and I were assigned an upstairs corner room in the Officer's Club where we stayed until the war ended. The Officer's Club was a large brick building that was infinitely more luxurious than your average Air Force Station. There were two wings with living quarters and between them and front was a bar and lounge area with game tables and in the back was the mess hall. The rooms had three beds, a lavatory, closets and a writing desk. The bathrooms were just down the hall. There was steam heat throughout. Some of the pilots lived just outside in temporary wooden buildings and even those were pretty nice. Spooner lived there and called his room Spooner's Greasy Spoon. He had lots of guests for whom he fried potatoes. I don't remember if there was another in the room at first, but we were soon joined by Lonnie Grisham( 5 ) till he was shot down in February. "
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( Picture on left ) Farmer( Capt. James M. Farmer. a pilot in the 84th FS from 9-24-44, KIFA after VE day ) and Coffey( 1st Lt. Charles F. Coffey, a pilot in the 84th FS from 2/16/45 to EOW ) listening to a radio broadcast in Pete Keillor's assigned room at the Duxford Officers Club. ( Source Credit: Peter T. Keillor collection ) ( Picture on right ) Robert Holmes( left - Capt. Robert B. Holmes, a pilot in the 82nd FS on 12-18-44 to 4-16-45, KIA , C - Flt. Commander, on 2-2-45 ) and Peter Keillor( right ) behind the Duxford Officers Club. Bicycles were the popular form of personal transportation at Duxford. ( Source Credit: Peter T. Keillor collection )
" I took my first flight on the 5th of September. On the 6th, the Squadron lost Major Quince Brown( 6 ), the top Ace and first in the ETO to strafe a train. He was shot down and got out safely, but was killed by a farmer. On the 8th, they took us up in formation on an orientation flight. My opinion of the P-47 changed that day. Another Squadron bounced us and we had a mock dogfight. In the heat of battle, I pushed the throttle up to war emergency power, seventy two inches of mercury and twenty seven hundred rpm. The P-47 became another kind of animal. On the 9th of September, I went on my first mission, a bomber escort to Aachen, which was uneventful till we were on our way back. I was flying wingman on the flight leader, cruising along straight and level at 10,000 feet, when I heard a low "wump wump". I looked around and there were a bunch of big black puff balls right behind us and catching up fast. I hollered "BREAK!" and did so immediately and I guess everyone else did too. We reformed and came on home. I had a little shrapnel hole in my wing and the fellow whose plane I was flying complained bitterly because that was the first time his plane had been hit. I don't remember who it was, but chances are better than even that he was eventually shot down. On the 10th, a pilot named Clark( 7 ) was killed strafing a train. He had problems with not pulling up in time and just the day before had warned us new pilots to be careful. I guess he had problems with his depth perception. Two other pilots, Parmalee( 8 ) and Clague( 9 ), went in the same day. "
Captain Peter T. Keillor in the cockpit of his assigned P-47D, s/n 44-19768, WZ-L. Note the auxiliary fuel tank mounted under the fuselage and a 250 lb. fragmentation bomb mounted on the wing pylon. ( Picture Source: Peter T. Keillor collection )
" On the 11th, 12th and 15th we escorted bombers to Hanover, Geissen and Coblenz and on one of those missions we lost some bombers. We should have been above the bombers, but instead were flying slightly below them and well off to one side. Suddenly, we saw a bunch of Me-109s coming straight down through the bomber formation and several planes started to spin down. We chased the Germans, but soon lost them. On the 17th we started covering the air invasion of Holland known as "Operation Market Garden". The force consisted of hundreds of transport planes and gliders. Some of the old bombers pulled two gliders and other planes, mostly C-47s, carried paratroopers. They all went in slow and straight at about one thousand feet, sitting ducks for ground fire. The gliders would drop off and land and the guys were good. Of course, some of them would mess up, but most of them stopped in rows, wing tip to wing tip. Other fields were covered with parachutes. Our job was to cruise around under them and stop anyone we could see, shooting at them. I remember the first day, I was a wing man of course, we saw a 20 millimeter flashing in a hedgerow and I followed my leader down. I fired my eight fifties at it and then dropped the two fragmentation bombs I carried. When I got home, I had a little tear in my wing and I am pretty sure it was made by a piece of my own bomb. On the 18th, I flew with R. E. Smith( 10 ) and I am not sure where we were. I didn't see much of the incoming invasion planes, but we found plenty of flak. There must have been something important around because the Germans had a field full of gun emplacements. I judged them to be something like 40 millimeters because they had bigger flashes and fired slower than the twenties. Also, you could hear the shells go by in spite of engine noise, helmet and headset. Eugene Woods( 11 ) was the other wingman in the flight and a real eager beaver. He couldn't wait to get into combat, but he hadn't learn that you had to dodge bullets. He made a pass at one of those emplacements and went right on into the ground. The rest of us stayed right there for an hour and a half, twisting and turning and taking a quick shot at an emplacement from time to time, but never flying straight for more than a second. My plane didn't get a scratch. We lost Lt. Fee( 12 ) that day too. I went back on the 20th and 23rd and got slight hits on my plane. One was just a graze and didn't even break the skin. The 78th Fighter Group got a Distinguished Unit Citation for their efforts. "
Capt. Peter T. Keillor and his ground crew pose in front of his P-47D, s/n 44-19766, WZ- L. Crew Chief, S/Sgt Carl Cartwright is shown on the right. Cpl. Ralph Suttle is in the center of the picture. ( Picture Source: Peter T. Keillor collection )
" The rest of September and October were pretty slow because of the weather. I only flew nine missions and all were escorting heavies. On one we went down to strafe and I shot up a locomotive. On the 7th of October, three of us were sent to an RAF base at Warmwell for six days to learn about a new gyroscopic gun sight that we were getting. While I was there, I started drinking hot tea with milk and sugar like the British. I liked their practice of stopping for tea every afternoon. During October we lost two more pilots, Belt( 13 ) and Smith ( 14 ).
On the 2nd of November, we were rousted out by the intelligence officer as usual. We could hear the bombers circling around to get formed up. They took off real early and took a couple of hours to get into formation. We ate breakfast and went to the briefing, on to the ready room and then put on our flight gear. Then we went to our planes in the squadron dispersal area, cranked up and taxied out to takeoff. We lined up, usually in six rows, eight abreast and took off eight at a time. That was an advantage over the normal runways where they took off two at a time. The disadvantage was that, with the rain and heavy traffic, the field got pretty muddy. This morning we were to catch the bombers over the Netherlands and escort them to Dortmund. As we crossed the coast of Holland, my engine gave a cough and then another. The coughs became more frequent till there was nothing but coughs and I had to make a choice. I was at 20,000 feet over a country occupied by the Germans and I could take my chances there, or I could head back toward England over about one hundred miles of icy water and hope Air/Sea Rescue would find me. I decided to risk the cold bath and switched to the emergency channel and started hollering "Mayday". At the same time, I was trying to get the engine to run. I would shut it off completely and restart it, but it still backfired. I never heard any response from the rescue people. Finally, when I got down to about 10,000 feet, the engine would run a little with the throttle almost closed. Then, it took a little more power and by the time I got back to Base it was running normally. It had gotten something into the carburetor that had choked off the fuel flow, probably ice, and when the ice melted it was fine, but it gave me quite a scare. "
Capt. Peter T. Keillor's assigned P-47D, s/n 44-19766, WZ-L, shown in the 84th Fighter Squadron dispersal area at Duxford. The rudder was painted black indicative of all 84th FS aircraft. Note the 100 gallon steel auxiliary fuel tank mounted to the fuselage centerline and the presence of winter, the latter suggesting that this picture was taken in late 1944. ( Picture Source: Peter T. Keillor collection )
" November was slow, I only flew four missions by the 16th, all escorts. On the 17th, they moved the planes to Bassingbourne so they could install a steel mat runway at Duxford. That took till the 11th of December and we commuted to work. I didn't fly many missions from there. I had a chance to take a week off at an air force rest home, and since we weren't doing much I took it. Spooner and I went down to the 8th Air Force Rest Home at the Aylfield House for a week. We played golf( my first ), rode horses( I nearly bounced off the rough old nag ), played tennis( we were both absolute novices ) and had a pretty good vacation. After we got back to base, I flew one more escort mission on the 30th to Leipzig. We lost one pilot, William Kelly( 15 ), to a flying accident in November.
By that time you could really tell who the pilots were, because they all looked like a bunch of raccoons. The sun seldom got to the ground in England, but shone very brightly at twenty eight thousand feet. The only part of a man's skin that was exposed was around his eyes, from his oxygen mask to his helmet. That area was a dark tan and everything else was dead white. It was hard on the wing men because the sun was always low and you had to keep your eyes on the leader even though it usually meant looking right into that bright sun. "
Click here for part II
Part II - December 1, 1944 to March 1, 1945
Webmaster's notes:
(1 ) - Alfred Garback - 1st Lt. Alfred A. Garback, a pilot, in 84th FS, 9-2-44 to EOW, Flt CO in squadrton.
(2) - Richard Spooner - 1st Lt. Richard H. Spooner, a pilot in 84th FS, 9-2-44 to 1-15-45, POW, hit by flak while strafing locomotive near Bruchstadt, Germany.
(3) - Mark Wilson - 1st Lt. Mark T. Wilson, a pilot in 84th FS, 9-2-44 to 2-25-44, shot down( flak ), evaded , returned 4-21-45.
(4) - Eugene Wood - 2nd Lt. Eugene W. Wood, a pilot in 84th FS, 9-2-44 to 9-18-44, KIA.
(5) - Lonnie Grisham - 1st Lt. Leon M. Grisham, a pilot in 84th FS, 9-22-44 to 2-3-45, POW.
(6) - Quince Brown - Maj. Quince L. Brown, apilot in 84th FS 4-21-43 to 9-6-44, KIA, hit by flak while attacking Vogelsland air field, Germany, bailed, captured and subsequently murdered by the SS.
(7) - Clark - 2nd Lt. Lawton E. Clark, a pilot in 84th FS 6-26-44 to 9-10-44, KIA, during ground strafing mission( train ).
(8) - Parmalee - 2nd Lt. Charles E. Parmalee, a pilot in 84th FS 6-26-44 to 9-10-44, KIA.
(9) - Clague - 1st Lt. Robert E. Clague, a pilot in 84th FS 11-26-43 to 9-10-44, POW, hit by flak attacking an airfield, bellied in and captured.
(10) - R.E. Smith - Maj. Raymond E. Smith, a pilot in 84th FS 3-43 to 3-28-45, 2nd tour, 9-25-44 to EOW, Squadron Ops. officer.
(11) - Eugene Woods - see (4) above.
(12) - Lt. Fee - 1st Lt. John R. Fee, a pilot in 84th FS 12-24-43 to 9-18-44, POW, hit by flak at Nijmegen bridge, spun in, captured.( Operation Markrt Garden)
(13) - Belt - 2nd Lt. Dwight G. Belt. a pilot in 84th FS, 7-24-44 to 10-1-44, KIFA, struck B-24 bomber during training mission.
(14) - Smith - 2nd Lt. Robert D. Smith, a pilot in 84th FS, 9-26-44 to 10-7-44, KIA, ground strafing mission, after 2nd pass at train, seen mushing into the ground. 6 miles northwest of Neustadt, Germany.
(15) - William Kelly - 1st Lt. William G. Kelly, a pilot in 84th FS, 10/44 to 10-9-44, KIFA, details unknown, U.K.
Thanks... to all that have contributed to these pages on behalf of the 78th Fighter Group Family!
This page was last revised on 3 / 20 / 02
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