A GOOD WWII pilot's tail.. or a tale of a tail..

[DougGuy]

I worked with an older gent once in electronics repair shop named Charles "Chuck" Judd, who wanted SO badly to be a fighter pilot when the war broke out. He made flight school, and his assignment during the war was in the Pacific, ferrying aircraft to forward bases. He flew the Dauntless dive bomber and other aircraft from bases in the Hawaiian islands to the Philippines, then he would go back and get another.

On one particular trip he was ferrying a Dauntless dive bomber from Honolulu to Manila. The aircraft could make the flight if they took out all the ammo and used the weight savings for extra fuel which they did. On this trip, somewhere over the Pacific, a Japanese twin engine Betty spotted the lone dive bomber and gave chase.

Chuck knew with the amount of fuel he had on board that he couldn't outrun the Betty, but he could out maneuver it easily enough. After a few failed attempts to get away, he was determined to come out ahead one way or another and he got behind and above the Betty, put his plane into a dive and flew through the tail of the Betty, chopping off a massive chunk of the airplane, and sending the crippled Betty into the drink with it's crew.

He made it to Manila none the worse for wear, and upon landing they could not believe what he had done to survive the harrowing flight, and even more could not believe the Dauntless made it the rest of the way! It had sheet metal all in the engine cowling, had holes all in the wings, chunks taken out of the propeller blades, but it was a tale with a happy ending and Chuck went back to Hawaii and ferried more aircraft before the end of the war came.

[CastingFool]

that's quite a story!

[uscra112]

Honolulu to Manila? Not non-stop, obviously.

[DougGuy]

Heh no.. Not non stop..

[HollandNut]

the Germans towards the end , when they knew it was over , many times dove into bomber formations taking out vertical stabilizers , sometimes the entire tail section

[leftiye]

The same maneuver was a standard Russian tactic if out of ammo. (read it somewhere back in the mists of time)

[6bg6ga]

I worked with an older gent once in electronics repair shop named Charles "Chuck" Judd, who wanted SO badly to be a fighter pilot when the war broke out. He made flight school, and his assignment during the war was in the Pacific, ferrying aircraft to forward bases. He flew the Dauntless dive bomber and other aircraft from bases in the Hawaiian islands to the Philippines, then he would go back and get another.

On one particular trip he was ferrying a Dauntless dive bomber from Honolulu to Manila. The aircraft could make the flight if they took out all the ammo and used the weight savings for extra fuel which they did. On this trip, somewhere over the Pacific, a Japanese twin engine Betty spotted the lone dive bomber and gave chase.

Chuck knew with the amount of fuel he had on board that he couldn't outrun the Betty, but he could out maneuver it easily enough. After a few failed attempts to get away, he was determined to come out ahead one way or another and he got behind and above the Betty, put his plane into a dive and flew through the tail of the Betty, chopping off a massive chunk of the airplane, and sending the crippled Betty into the drink with it's crew.

He made it to Manila none the worse for wear, and upon landing they could not believe what he had done to survive the harrowing flight, and even more could not believe the Dauntless made it the rest of the way! It had sheet metal all in the engine cowling, had holes all in the wings, chunks taken out of the propeller blades, but it was a tale with a happy ending and Chuck went back to Hawaii and ferried more aircraft before the end of the war came.


Thank you for that. It brought back memories of my father in law that flew the China Burma Hump in WWII. I used to enjoy his stories when he was alive and miss him.

[richhodg66]

The Dauntless had a reputation for being tough and having an ability to absorb punishment, dive bombers kind of had to be.

The kind of guts our airmen had during WWII doesn't exist anymore at least not on a collective basis like that.

I watched an episode of Dog Fights once that interviewed pilot who actually took on three Zeroes alone in a dauntless. He knew he could dive and turn faster than they could because the airplane was so tough, and knew he had to keep them head on, if he let them get behind him, they'd kill him, so he used that tactic and kept charging into them. This is long, but here's the episode on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjqj1e8t1BE

[Mallard57]

The Dauntless had a reputation for being tough and having an ability to absorb punishment, dive bombers kind of had to be.

The kind of guts our airmen had during WWII doesn't exist anymore at least not on a collective basis like that.

I watched an episode of Dog Fights once that interviewed pilot who actually took on three Zeroes alone in a dauntless. He knew he could dive and turn faster than they could because the airplane was so tough, and knew he had to keep them head on, if he let them get behind him, they'd kill him, so he used that tactic and kept charging into them. This is long, but here's the episode on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjqj1e8t1BE
I remember reading about that incident, they made him a fighter pilot after that.

[Goatwhiskers]

6bg6ba, FWIW my dad also flew the Hump. He was one of those who had a few funny stories, but never talked much about what actually went on. My visit to the D-Day Museum in New Orleans taught me a lot about why our dads didn't talk much about the war, they just came home and tried to get on with life. GW

[HollandNut]

Ma's brother was a medic on the beach D Day , he had some tales , what we hear these days is very sanitized compared to what they would tell , if they ever spoke at all .. Dad never talked about it and his brother ( 101 Airborne ) worked with the French Underground ..

[fecmech]

The same maneuver was a standard Russian tactic if out of ammo. (read it somewhere back in the mists of time)
We sent quite a few P40's to the Russians and I remember reading of one particular Russian pilot who chewed a couple tails off German aircraft with his prop when out of ammo.

[MtGun44]

Mostly sent B25s and P39s. The P-39 had very poor performance at high altitude due to the
Allison having only a single speed, single-stage supercharger and no intercooler. But it did
have a 37mm cannon firing thru the prop hub. Since the biggest problem for the Russians
was tanks, the P-39 was welcomed and was very helpful at low altitude against ground
targets, especially tanks.
I saw a P-39 and B-25 at the Russian's Monino aviation museum (mostly outdoors) outside
of Moscow.

Bill

[C. Latch]

Thanks for that story. My stepfather's father was a pilot in WWII, he ferried planes from somewhere in the interior US to a base on the west coast.

No harrowing war stories to tell, but he sure got to test-drive some awesome planes.

[nicholst55]

We sent quite a few P40's to the Russians and I remember reading of one particular Russian pilot who chewed a couple tails off German aircraft with his prop when out of ammo.

That was actually Soviet doctrine with the old Polikarpov I-6 fighter! It had a wooden prop with steel leading edges, made for just that purpose.