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
" 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 T. Keillor)
Part II - December 1, 1944 to March 1, 1945
"Cartwright's Plane". S/Sgt. Carl Cartwright was the Crew Chief responsible for Capt. Peter T. Keillor's assigned P-47D, s/n 44-19766, WZ-L. Note the remaining D-Day Invasion stripes on the lower fuselage. ( Picture Source: Peter T. Keillor collection )
" On the 2nd of December, I was designated Squadron "B" Flight commander. Dorain Ledington( 16 ) was designated Squadron "C" Flight commander. He was a real fine fellow. He was from Kansas and failing to get into the aviation cadet program, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, went to England and flew Spitfires. When the USAAF took in the citizens that had foreign commissions, he came to the 78th and flew a tour in P-47s. He went home for R&R and then returned to the ETO for another tour. December was pretty slow too. I flew missions on the 4th, 5th, 6th, 10th and 12th.
We were told that we would be changing from the good old P-47s that would stand any punishment to P-51s which were an unknown entity and no one wanted to change. One story on the P-47 concerned a pilot in the 84th before the invasion. He was strafing in France when he ran into a cable. It cut off the bottom four cylinders of the front row on his engine and he made it back across the channel and crash landed in England. Try that with another plane. One of our planes that I saw come back with hole a couple of feet in diameter at the left wing root. The pilot could have got out of the cockpit and jumped through the hole. However, the P-51 had considerably more range and by that time we were having to go deeper and deeper into Germany. "
A section of P-51s approaches the pattern over Duxford's east runway. The P-51B, WZ-P, s/n 42-106886, in the forground was used initially as a trainer for the 84th FS, but later flew combat. In the background, on the left, is Capt. Peter T. Keillor's assigned P-51K, s/n 44-11747, WZ- L. ( Source Credit: Garry L. Fry via Nicholas Vale/AFM, "Eagles of Duxford", 1991, Phalanx Publishing, Ltd., ISBN 0-9625860-2-1 )
" On the 7th of December, we got an old B model Mustang to check out in. I flew it first, probably because I'd flown a lot more different planes than anyone else. The 82nd and 83rd got their 51s earlier than we did and started to fly missions as far as Austria. The 84th would put a P-47 high over Holland to provide a radio relay to the distant planes. After the 12th of December, a heavy fog settled in and we didn't fly for two weeks. This was during the Battle of the Bulge and we couldn't do a thing to help. Of course our information as to what was going on was pretty sketchy. Christmas Day was shrouded in white fog. I said that I had three white Christmases in a row, the coral sand of Canton Island in 1942, the whitecaps of the Pacific on the ship from Oahu to San Francisco in 1943 and now, the fog in England. One day I wandered out onto the airfield. The fog was so thick I could have been lost except for the airplane tracks in the grass. Suddenly there was a "whoosh" and "thunk" close by and I found a stick about five feet long and a half inch in diameter stuck in the ground. It was from a rocket that the control tower or weather people had shot up through the fog.
I flew patrols around Coblenz on the 28th and 29th. On the 30th, I flew MEW patrol(radio relay) over Holland. I stayed on station at about 33,000 feet as long as I dared and then headed for home. It wasn't that far and all down hill, but my fuel was low. I figured my speed and distance and adjusted my descent to get me there as quick as possible. The trouble was that I ran out of altitude when I got to the coast with 50 miles to go. When I got to Duxford, I didn't fool with the traffic pattern. I just put it on the ground and was happy to be there. My gauges were showing empty. We never lost a man in December, not just the 84th, but the whole Group. I got my new plane, a P-51K, in time to fly it on the 30th."
P-51K, s/n 44-11747, WZ- L, was Captain Peter T. Keillor's assigned aircraft. He was the 84th FS "B" Flight leader. Note, the 75 gallon drop tank mounted on the wing pylon. ( Source Credit: Peter T. Keillor collection )
" I flew my first Mustang mission on the 5th of January with others on the 6th, 7th and 8th. These were high altitude escort missions to Krueznach, Mannheim, Koln and Koblenz and on the 13th to Koblenz again. During that time in my cockpit heater didn't work or worked very little. The outside temperature at 28,000 feet was about 80 degrees below zero. It was cold. I wore long wool handles, wool pants and shirt and a intermediate flying suit(jacket and pants). I had silk gloves on under leather gloves and sheepskin boots over my shoes and wool socks. It was still cold. After we got back on the 8th, it set in to snow and it put down about eight inches of the white stuff. When the weather cleared, they graded the snow off the runway( they had put down a steel plank strip) and we prepared to takeoff again on the 10th. We were warned not to hit the banks on the side of the runway, but by the time I took off, three planes had hit it and gone cart wheeling across the field wrecking the aircraft. I was doing fine until I got right up to takeoff speed and I got to worrying that I might be crowding my wingman and since I thought that I was off, I let it drift to the left a bit. "Wump", I was through the bank and out in the snow going 100 miles per hour and nearly to the end of the field. I poured on full power and hauled it out of the snow and looked up to see a large earthen bunker right in front of me. I just stalled the left wing over the bunker and then I was flying. I was ready to go on, but my wingman told me that something was loose underneath and I had to go back and land. Someone on the flight line who was watching the takeoffs said to me "You got out and lifted that wing over the bunker didn't you?" A small fairing on the right strut had broken loose and was flapping free.
On January 14th, we were over Koln and someone saw planes down against the snow. We dropped our external tanks to dive down, but mine didn't come off until I wasted some time firing my guns to shake them loose. When I got down I couldn't find anything to shoot at. My element leader, Frank Oiler( 17 ), saw a Jerry on the way down and got him. We lost four pilots in January; Grimes( 18 ), Spooner( 19 ), Elin( 20 ) and Packer( 21 ). Grimes evaded capture, Spooner was reported KIA having been seen to crash upside down. He survived, but was badly burned. Packer was hit, bailed out and was captured. Elin had instrument failure in the clouds and crashed in England. "
When German pilots spotted American fighters they were heard to call out " Achtung Indianer! ". Literally translated, it meant, " Attention, American Indians! ", a derogatory label that Captain Peter T. Keillor proudly carried on his 84th Fighter Squadron P-51K, s/n 44-11747, WZ- L. ( Source Credit: Garry L. Fry via James T. Jones, "Eagles of Duxford", 1991, Phalanx Publishing, Ltd., ISBN 0-9625860-2-1 )
" I don't remember what the reason was, weather probably, but I didn't fly a mission from the 22nd of January until the 19th of February. I aborted one mission because oil from the propeller covered my windshield and I couldn't see forward. On the 19th of February, we escorted bombers and then were supposed to go down and strafe whatever we could find. There were thick clouds everywhere, but I found a hole and went down to the ground. I found a town which I presumed to be Bielefeld, though I've never been totally sure. There was a big rail yard and I went through it and shot up a locomotive that released a big cloud of steam and smoke.. Later, my wingman who was right behind me, told me that he got so much soot on his canopy that nhe had to pull up into the clouds. I was all alone when I got through the town. There was a bypass with a large truck on it. I gave it a burst and then pulled up in a lazy turn,fat, dumb and happy! Suddenly, there was a "wump-wump" and it felt like the second one was right under my feet. That would be bad, because all the oil, fuel and coolant lines were there. The engine was still running so I pulled up and after a few seconds started trying to find the damage. I was relieved when I looked back and saw that my rudder had been hit which had shocked the rudder pedals. About that time I looked down and saw a cloud of little white puff balls right under me. I had flown over an airfield and the Germans shot a truckload of 20 millimeters at me, but I was just a bit too high for them. The 20 millimeter shells were timed to explode at a certain distance so that they wouldn't rain down on the German gunners themselves. I set sail for home noticing only a slight vibration. It was about three hundred miles and I got there OK. I pulled up to the hangar so the mechanics could repair the damage. I got quite a shock when the engine stopped and the top propeller blade had about an eight inch hole in it about a foot from the end. That gunner got pretty close to get hits on my rudder and propeller.
We escorted to Nuremberg on the 23rd and Hall on the 25th, strafing on the return. On the 27th, we escorted to Leipzig and at that time we didn't strafe because it was a six hour, ten minute mission. February was a bad month for losses. On the 3rd, my room mate, Lonnie Gresham( 5 ) was shot down on his fourth pass over an airfield and was captured. After the war he said he was hit and the last thing he remembered was seeing his engine bouncing away in front of him. He had a fractured hip but a German doctor took good care of him. On the same day, Warren Sawall( 22 ) was shot down by flak and became a POW. On the 20th, Merle Brendle( 23 ) and Charles Lyle( 24 ) were shot down and killed. On the 24th, Louis Musgrave( 25 ) was killed. The next day, Charles Oldfield( 26 ) and Mark Wilson( 27 ) didn't come back. They apparently went down together and evaded capture by being taken in by the Dutch underground "
Click here for part III
Part III - March 1, 1945 to EOW
Webmasters Notes:
(16) - Dorian Ledington - Capt. Dorian Ledington, a pilot in 84th FS, 1-11-44 to 4-21-45, KIA, west of Coblenz, Germany. Trying to locate an airfield for his wingman( 2nd Lt, John R. Sole, KIA this day ), who was critically low on fuel. Visibility turned zero and he apparently crashed.
(17) - Frank Oiler - 1st Lt. Frank E. Oiler, a pilot in 84th FS, 6-26-44 to 3-28-45, "F" Flight leader.
(18) - Grimes - Capt. Wilbur K. Grimes, a Pilot in 84th FS, 6-26-44 to 1-16-45, hit while strafing near Speyer, Germany, bailed over Belgium, evaded.
(19) - Spooner - 1st Lt. Richard H. Spooner, a pilot in 84th FS, 9-2-44 to 1-15-45, POW, east of Bruchstadt, Germany, downed while strafing.
(20) - Elin - 1st Lt. Herbert W. Elin, KIFA, a pilot in 84th FS, 7-29-44 to 1-13-45, crashed after instrument failure in bad weather, near Bassingbourne, U.K.
(21) - Packer - 1st Lt. Allen R. Packer, a pilot in 84th FS, 9-22-44 to 1-17-45, POW, hit by flak east of Elmshorn, Germany. bailed and captured.
(22) - Warren Sawall - 2nd Lt. Warren J. Sawall, a pilot in 84th FS, 11-3-44 to 2-3-45, POW, shot down by flak near Luneburg Heath airdrome, captured.
(23) - Merle Brendle - 1st Lt. Merle V. Brendle, a pilot in 84th FS, 12-16-44 to 2-20-45, KIA, crashed near Valenciennes, France. hit by flak while strafing near Stuttgart, Germany.
(24) - Charles Lyle - Capt. Charles L. Lyle, a pilot in 84th FS, 10-15-44 to 2-20-45, KIA, attempted to bail near Haussy, France, hit by flak while strafing near Stuttgart, Germany.
(25) - Louis Musgrave - 2nd Lt. Louis R. Musgrave, a pilot in 84th FS, 10-8-44 to 2-24-45, KIA, hit by flak near Einbeck / Hanover, Germany.
(26) - Charles Oldfeild - 1st Lt. Charles S. Oldfield, a pilot in 84th FS, 11-13-44 to 2-25-44, downed while strafing near Speyer, Germany. Evaded capture, returned to Duxford on 4-21-45. ( with 1st Lt. Mark T. Wilson )
(27) - Mark Wilson - 1st Lt. Mark T. Wilson, a pilot in 84th FS, 9-2-44 to 2-25-44, downed while strafing near Speyer, Germany. Evaded capture, returned to Duxford on 4-21-45.
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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