George Preddy

George Preddy (5 February 1919-25 December 1944) was an American ace credited with 26.83 enemy air-to-air kills, ranking him as the top P-51 Mustang ace of World War II and sixth on the list of all-time highest scoring American aces. Business Interstate 85 through Greensboro, NC has been given the street name "Preddy Boulevard" in his honor.

He initially served in the Southwest Pacific Theater of Operations with the 9th Pursuit Squadron - 49th Pursuit Group in Northern Australia protecting Darwin. And had scored 2 damaged against Japanese aircraft while flying P-40s. He was hospitalized after a collision with another P-40, and then reassigned to the 352nd Fighter Group upon his release. The remainder of his kills were against German aircraft while with the 352nd, in the European Theater of Operations (ETO), flying out of Bodney, England and Asch, Belgium. His best-remembered feat was shooting down six German fighters on a single mission on August 6, 1944.

He was commanding officer of the 328th Fighter Squadron, 352nd Fighter Group when he was killed on Christmas Day, 1944 by friendly fire. Preddy had been conducting a fighter sweep and engaged two Bf 109s, destroying them. Spotting a lone FW 190, which had been strafing allied ground forces; he gave chase, but passing over the front line at tree-top height an American anti-aircraft battery (believed to be the 555th AAA Bn (AW) of the 12th AAA Group), which missed the enemy aircraft, fired at the P-51s, killing Preddy whose aircraft hit the ground 'at speed'. [Scutts, p78] Capt. William S. Cross, 12th Anti-Aircraft Group described the incident as follows:

The plane was hit and crashed nearby. It was not a terrible crash, it didn't go in head first, and the pilot could possibly have survived the impact. The gun crew ran to it as fast as they could. It crashed some five to six hundred yards away. Unfortunately, the pilot had been hit by one of the .50 caliber rounds. [Noah 1991, p. 164, 165]

George's brother William Preddy was also a P-51 pilot in the ETO in World War II with the 503rd FS, 339th FG. He died from lack of immediate medical care for wounds he sustained after being shot down by AAA while strafing Budejovice aerodrome in Czechoslovakia on the 17th April 1945.

Both brothers are buried side by side at Lorraine American Cemetery, St. Avold, France.

References

* [http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1648 National Museum of the United States Air Force: Major George Preddy]
* [http://www.acepilots.com/usaaf_preddy.html - website article]
* [http://www.afa.org/magazine/valor/1287valor.asp - one magazine article]
*Noah, Joe & Sox, Samuel L. Jr. (1991). George Preddy Top Mustang Ace. Greensboro, NC: Preddy Memorial Foundation. ISBN 0-9669042-1-4
*Scutts, J. (1994). Mustang Aces of the Eighth Air Force. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-85532-447-4
* [http://www.ozarkairfieldartworks.com/majorgeorgepreddy.html - Portrait of the flyer]
* [http://www.starduststudios.com/American.htm - more pictures of him]
* [http://www.newsobserver.com/689/story/1018522.html - Newspaper Article Discussing Renaming of Pope AFB to Preddy AFB]