357th Fighter Group

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= 357th Fighter Group


caption=357th Fighter Group
dates= 16 December 1942- 20 August 1946
country= United States
allegiance=
branch= United States Army Air Forces
type= Fighter group
role= Air Superiority
size= 125 P-51 aircraft, 1000 personnel
command_structure=66th Fighter Wing
Eighth Air Force
current_commander=
garrison=RAF Leiston, UK
ceremonial_chief=
colonel_of_the_regiment=
nickname="The Yoxford Boys"
patron=
motto= Semper Omnia (All Things at All Times)
colors=
march=
mascot=
battles=DUC: Berlin, 6 March 1944 and Leipzig, 29 June 1944
DUC: Derben, 14 January 1945
Big Week
313 group missions
anniversaries=

The 357th Fighter Group was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. The 357th operated P-51 Mustang aircraft as part of the U.S. Eighth Air Force and its members were known unofficially as "The Yoxford Boys" after a village near their base. (Group tradition holds that the name was the invention of Lord Haw Haw in a broadcast greeting the night of its arrival at RAF Leiston.) [Olmsted 1994, p. 23.] Its victory totals in air-to-air combat are the most of any P-51 group in the Eighth Air Force and third among all groups fighting in Europe. [http://afhra.maxwell.af.mil/numbered_studies/1039707.pdf "USAF Historical Study 85: USAF Credits for Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II".] Office of Air Force History, AFHRA, 624, 629, 631, 633. Retrieved: 14 October 2006. ]

The 357th flew 313 combat missions between 11 February 1944 and 25 April 1945. It is officially credited by the U.S. Air Force with having destroyed 595.5 German airplanes in the air and 106.5 on the ground. The 357th existed as a USAAF unit only during World War II and its immediate aftermath. Its history, lineage and honors were bestowed on a now-defunct Ohio Air National Guard group, but the Ohio ANG considers itself a direct descendant of the 357th FG. [http://www.oh.ang.af.mil/pages/history.htm "Ohio Air National Guard".] Retrieved: 14 October 2006.]

Organization of the 357th Fighter Group

The 357th Fighter Group was constituted and activated on 16 December 1942, at Hamilton Army Air Field, California, by General Order 147 of the Fourth Air Force. It made eight permanent changes of station during its existence and was based in the United States, England, and Germany. The 357th was inactivated on 20 August 1946, at Neubiberg, Germany.

357th FG command staff

Like all Allied aircraft flying over the continent, the 357th applied alternating 18-inch, black and white bands, known as "invasion stripes", to the rear fuselage and wings of its fighters just prior to D-Day. It retained the lower wing stripes and lower portion of the rear fuselage until the end of 1944, when most invasion stripes were deleted.SOURCES: The basic source is Freeman, but Olmsted and Little Friends website have identical data

Invasion preparation and support

Because of the extended range of the P-51, the primary mission of the 357th continued to be heavy bomber escort. On 11 April 1944, 917 heavy bombers and 819 escort fighters of the Eighth Air Force attacked aviation industry targets in Saxony-Anhalt resulting in a severe fighter reaction by the Jagdverbände. A total of 64 bombers were shot down in one of the heaviest losses to the Eighth, but strong escort support kept the losses from being worse. Three Mustangs from the 364th Fighter Squadron were also shot down but the group as a whole was credited with 23 of the 51 aerial victories scored. Another 22 were credited during the 24 April operations against Bavarian airfields and aircraft factories, with 70 total for the month resulting in eight additional aces in the group. While scoring 174 kills in April and May 1944, the 357th also lost 33 Mustangs.

Beginning in late February 1944, Eighth Air Force fighter units began systematic strafing attacks on German airfields that picked up in frequency and intensity throughout the spring (as example, on the above mentioned missions VIII Fighter Command scored 130 strafing kills in addition to 109 aerial victories) with the objective of gaining air supremacy over the Normandy battlefield. In general these were conducted by units returning from escort missions, but many groups also were assigned airfield attacks instead of bomber support. On 21 May, these attacks were expanded to include railways, locomotives and rolling stock used by the Germans for movements of matériel and troops in missions dubbed "Chattanooga", . The 357th lost two of its aces in combat when their Mustangs were shot down by flak. [Olmsted 1994, p. 144.]

On D-Day, the group flew eight missions and nearly 130 sorties, and, thereafter, multiple daily missions over the beachhead. The group also performed its first bombing missions using the Mustang in June. It encountered few German aircraft during the month until 29 June, when on a mission to Leipzig it shot down 20. For its actions over Berlin on 6 March and the Leipzig mission the group was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation.

The 357th also began receiving new P-51D Mustangs as replacement aircraft but many pilots preferred the earlier B models still prevalent in the group as being more maneuverable and better-powered at high altitude. [Olmsted 1994, p. 56. Quote from the deputy group commander, Lt.Col. Hayes.] By the end of June 1944, the 357th had claimed 283 German aircraft shot down and counted 26 pilots recognized as aces. Losses over its initial four months of combat amounted to 27 killed or missing in action, 30 captured and 72 P-51s destroyed.

Operations in the summer and fall of 1944

In July 1944, the K-14, an improved gryoscopic gunsight of British design, reached the 357th for replacement of the existing N-3B reflector sights in the P-51B and C. The K-14 allowed for rapid, accurate lead-computing of up to 90° deflection by analog computer with pilot inputs through hand controls. However, the sights were sized for the cockpits of older Mustangs, now constituting less than a third of the 357th's strength. Group commander Col. Donald Graham directed the 469th Service Squadron to mount a K-14 in his assigned P-51D ("44-13388" B6-W "Bodacious") to replace its N-9 reflector sight, using bracing and panel cutouts to form a recess. Testing the sights in combat in September, the K-14 proved so effective that Graham offered the installation method to other Eighth Air Force groups for retro-fitting the gunsight into all D-model Mustangs in the field, with the 357th method adopted in March 1945 by the Eighth Air Force Modification Center. [Freeman 1993, p. 191. K-14A sights were factory installed beginning with the P-51D-20-NT block in March 1945.]

The 357th flew escort for the second shuttle-bombing mission by the Eighth Air Force, "Frantic V", on 6 August 1944. Escorting two B-17 groups of the 13th Combat Bomb Wing to bomb a Focke-Wulf manufacturing plant in Rahmel, Poland, 64 Mustangs of the group continued on to the Soviet Union, landing at Piryatin airfield, a P-39/Yak-3 fighter strip southeast of Kiev, Ukraine, while the bombers, carrying 357th maintenance crews, continued further east to Mirgorod. [Olmsted 1994, p. 80. Though transported, the 357th mechanics never joined the group at Piryatin, resulting in some maintenance mishaps.] The next day, the Mustangs escorted the B-17s against synthetic oil production plants in Trzebinia, Poland, returning to Piryatin, and on the 8th, escorted them to Foggia, Italy, bombing Romanian airfields en route. Temporarily based at San Severo with the 31st Fighter Group, the 357th supported a C-47 mission to Yugoslavia on 10 August to evacuate Allied evaders and escaped POWs. On 12 August 1944, the entire Frantic force returned to England, attacking German lines of communication in Toulouse, France, as part of the preparation for the invasion of Southern France.

Large-scale combat between VIII Fighter Command and the Luftwaffe interceptor force had become virtually nonexistent after 28 May 1944 but, in August, contact was made for the first time with both rocket-propelled and jet-propelled interceptors. While themselves a harbinger of a tactical change by the Luftwaffe, the contacts also indicated that the Germans were husbanding their fighter aircraft for sporadic reaction against Allied bomber attacks. The 357th, escorting B-17s against oil targets near Munich, encountered one such reaction on 13 September, engaging 75 Messerschmitt Bf 109s and claiming 15 shot down, but losing five Mustangs.Fact|date=January 2008

On 15 September, operational control of VIII Fighter Command's three fighter wings was placed directly under the headquarters of the bomb divisions, removing a layer of command, with a wing controlled by each division. After this date, the 357th Fighter Group's primary duty was protection of the B-17s of the 3rd Bomb Division based in East Anglia. In September, the simplified mission planning, along with the adoption of the K-14 gyro sight and the issuance of air-inflatable Berger G-suit to pilots came at a time when numerous veteran pilots were completing their combat tours. Although a significant number of aces opted to fly second tours after taking leave in the United States, [Olmsted 1994, p. 89. The 2nd tour aces included Carson, England, Anderson, Peterson, Foy, Hayes, Broadhead and Dregne.] these innovations helped the group absorb the pilot turnover without significant loss of combat efficiency.

The Luftwaffe also reacted with a massed response against the airborne invasion of Holland. On the afternoon of 18 September, German fighters attacked a large re-supply effort of Arnhem by Eighth Air Force B-24 bombers. The 357th intercepted a force of 60 Bf 109s near Maastricht, claiming 26 destroyed.Fact|date=January 2008The next afternoon the Allies used over 600 transports for airlift in marginal weather conditions, some of which were attacked by numerous German fighters, including Bf 109s of Jadgeschwaders (fighter wings) 11 and 26. The 357th "bounced" the interceptors as they left the battlefield northeast of Arnhem, shooting down 25 (although five were not credited until after the war when repatriated POWs were debriefed). Against their 51 claims, the 357th lost seven Mustangs, with three pilots killed and three capturedFact|date=January 2008.

Air-to-air contacts declined in the following month, but one notable combat occurred during an escort mission to Bremen on 12 October 1944, when 1st Lt. Chuck Yeager claimed five German fighters to become an "Ace in a day", and the group scored its 400th kill. [ Scutts 1987, p. 110. ] Yeager had been with the group since its inception but had only been credited with 1.5 kills to that point. Assigned as mission leader, Yeager observed 22 Bf 109s of III./JG 26 crossing his flight path at the same altitude and attacked. Yeager's feat was unique in that the first two German pilots abandoned their aircraft as he closed the range but before he opened fire. [Olmsted 1994, p. 91-92. ]

On 6 November 1944, Yeager also claimed one of the first Me 262 jet aircraft shot down, when after a series of skirmishes with three jets in thick haze over Osnabruck, he encountered one attempting a landing and blew off its wing. Two days later, 357th pilots again engaged the Kommando Nowotny. 1st Lt. Edward R. "Buddy" Haydon shared a jet credit in which the German commander, Major Walter Nowotny, was killed, and 1st Lt. James W. Kenney shot down Hauptmann Franz Schall. [Scutts 1987, p. 118.]

The Jagdverbände made three concerted attempts to attack Eighth Air Force bombers between 21 November and 27 November 1944, and on the last generated an estimated 750 fighter sorties, the largest defensive reaction of the war. The three fighter wings of the Eighth used a tactical ruse to score a significant victory. Assigning 13 groups to a fighter-bomber mission, P-51s and P-47s simulated heavy bomber formations while other P-51s flew escort patterns above them. The resulting radar contact triggered the heavy fighter reaction near Magdeburg, and the force was directed towards them by a microwave early warning (MEW) site ("Nuthouse") at Gulpen, Netherlands.

In the 66th Fighter Wing, the 353d and 357th Fighter Groups engaged approximately 200 Fw 190s of JG 300 and JG 301, with the 353d downing 22 and the 357th, 30 in the ensuing combats. Captain Leonard K. "Kit" Carson, on the 38th mission of his second tour and having nine previous credits, became the second 357th pilot to become an "ace in a day", while Yeager and Capt John B. England claimed four kills each. [Olmsted 1994, p. 92-93.] One week later, on 5 December, the 357th escorted 3rd Division bombers to Berlin and encountered 100 more German fighters, claiming 22 against a loss of twoFact|date=January 2008.

Winter operations and jet combat

Fog and ice conditions grounded the P-51s for much of December 1944, but during the German Ardennes offensive the Eighth Air Force conducted the largest single operation in its history on 24 December, dispatching 2,046 bombers and 853 fighters to attack lines of communication and airfields in Germany. The 357th Fighter Group launched a total of 76 Mustangs split into an "A" group of 25 led by group commander Lt.Col. Irwin Dregne and a "B" group of 51 led by Major Richard Peterson. Each group engaged large numbers of German fighters of JG 300 near Fulda and the 357th as a whole shot down 30 more, losing three including a P-51 that collided with a 55th Fighter Group Mustang.

In the first two weeks of January 1945 the 357th along with all Eighth Air Force groups supported bomber attacks against German ground transportation during the Allied counter-offensive in the Ardennes, strafing ground targets daily. However, on 14 January, strategic bombing resumed with attacks on oil installations near Berlin. The 357th was tasked with protecting 3rd Air Division B-17s, employing a variation of the escort tactic called the "Zemke Fan",. [http://www.afa.org/magazine/valor/0495valor.asp "Valor: Col. Hubert "Hub" Zemke"] , "Air Force Magazine". Retrieved: 23 October 2006.] designed to lure in interceptors. Sending 66 Mustangs including spares, the 364 FS led the mission flying ahead of the bombers at 26,000 feet, the 362nd flew close escort over the lead combat box of bombers while the 363d flew farther back over the third box at higher altitude.

Near Brandenburg, the 357th observed the contrails of more than 200 fighters approaching the lead bomber combat box from the southeast. The heavily-armored "sturmgruppen" Fw 190s of II/JG 300 attacked the B-17s in "company front" formations of eight abreast, while a protective force of 100 Bf 109s of JG 300's other three gruppen attempted to cover them from 32,000. The 364 FS attacked and broke up the sturmgruppen formations, which were pursued by the trailing 363rd FS. The German top cover attempted to enter the mêlée and were intercepted by the 362 FS, quickly joined by the 364th. The 30-minute battle resulted in 56.5 German fighters claimed as shot down, by far the largest single day kill of the war by an Eighth Air Force group. [Freeman 1993, p. 216. After the war, with three credits deleted and two added, the revised totals were 55.5.]

Including the victories of group staff flying with various squadrons, the 364th is credited with 23.5 kills, the 362d with 20, and the 363rd with 12. Ironically, two of the most prolific aces of the 363rd FS, Capt. Bud Anderson and Capt. Chuck Yeager, had been assigned to the mission but scored no kills. On the last mission of their second tours, they were sent as spares and broke away before contact to make an impromptu farewell tour of Europe that included buzzing neutral Switzerland and Paris, France. [Yeager and Janos 1985, p. 75-76.] Even so, the mission resulted in five more aces for the 357th (Dregne, Evans, Maxwell, Sublette and Weaver) and immediate recognition of the feat by Eighth Air Force commanding General Jimmy Doolittle. The group received its second Distinguished Unit Citation for the mission.

In the four major combats of 27 November, 2 December, 24 December and 14 January, the 357th Fighter Group claimed 137.5 aircraft against a loss of nine Mustangs.Fact|date=January 2008 The 357th had two more large-scale engagements with German fighters before the end of the war. On 2 March 1945, escorting B-17s to Ruhland, the group encountered its frequent foes JGs 300 and 301 a final time, shooting down 14 and losing one Mustang.Fact|date=January 2008 On the way back to base, strafing airfields, the group had an additional four P-51s shot down by flak, with two pilots killed. On 24 March, flying an area patrol near Gutersloh to protect the Allied airborne crossing of the Rhine, it encountered 20 Bf 109s of JG 27 and shot down 16 without loss.Fact|date=January 2008

The Jagdverbände, severely depleted, turned to jet interceptions beginning 9 February 1945, in an attempt to stop the onslaught of Allied heavy bombers. The Allies countered by flying combat air patrol missions over German airfields, intercepting the Me 262s and Ar 234s as they took off and landed. The tactic resulted in increasing numbers of jets shot down and controlled the dangerous situation, particularly as the amount of German-controlled territory shrank daily. [Scutts 1987, p. 133.] The 357th claimed an additional 12.5 jets destroyed during this period to total 18.5 for the war, [Olmsted 1994, p. 4, 152.] and destroyed three others on the ground. The 357th flew its 313th and final combat mission on 25 April 1945, without contact or loss.

Casualties

Aerial victories

The first aerial victory by a 357th pilot occurred 20 February 1944, with the downing of an Me-109 by 1st Lt. Calvert L. Williams, 362nd Fighter Squadron, flying P-51B "43-6448" (G4-U "Wee Willie"). The final victory was an Me-262 shot down on 19 April 1945, by 2nd Lt. James P. McMullen, 364th Fighter Squadron.

The 357th Fighter Group had 609½ claims credited by the Eighth Air Force for German aircraft destroyed in air-to-air combat. "U.S. Air Force Historical Study No. 85" recognizes 595.49 aerial victories for the 357th. This total is the third highest among USAAF fighter groups in the ETO (behind the 354th and 56th Fighter Groups), the second highest among Eighth Air Force groups, and the highest among the 14 P-51 groups of VIII Fighter Command. Eighth Air Force also credited the 357th Fighter Group with 106½ German aircraft destroyed on the ground, making an overall total of 701.99, which is sixth among all Eighth Air Force fighter groups. Of the air-to-air totals, 18½ were Me-262 jets, the most destroyed in aerial combat by any USAAF group.

Among the various units of the 357th, the 364th Fighter Squadron had the most victories with 70 pilots credited with 212 kills. The 362nd Fighter Squadron was credited with 198 kills by 63 pilots, the 363rd Fighter Squadron with 154.99 kills by 50 pilots, and group headquarters with 30.5 kills by nine pilots.

Counting only air-to-air victories registered while with the group (therefore discounting air-to-ground claims), the 357th had 42 pilots become aces, the most of any ETO fighter group (the 354th Fighter Group of the Ninth Air Force also had 42, the 56th Fighter Group had 39 and the 4th Fighter Group 32 by the same criteria).

Aces of the 357th Fighter Group

SOURCE: Olmsted 1994, p.148. He in turn used AF Historical Study 85¹Totals include one Me 262 jet shot down²Totals include two Me 262 jets shot down

Postwar history and heritage

See main article: Ohio Air National Guard

In July 1945, the 357th Fighter Group moved to Neubiberg Air Base in Bavaria as part of the Four-Power Occupation Force, and was inactivated there in 1946.

The 357th Fighter Group was re-designated the 121st Fighter Group on 21 August 1946, a unit allocated to the OHANG in 1947. The official site of the Ohio Air National Guard notes that the OHANG is "descended from the 357th Fighter Group".

357th Fighter Group P-51 survivors and replicas

"Old Crow" (P-51D-10-NA 44-14450 B6-S), 363rd Fighter Squadron, survived World War II and is now in private ownership in Sweden. Originally the Mustang flew in olive drab camouflage, but in late 1944, was stripped to a bare metal finish, although its black-and-white "invasion stripes" remained on the bottom of the rear fuselage. The plane has been restored by its owner in its OD paint scheme and is based in Belgium.

A number of private owners of P-51s have restored their Mustangs in 357th livery for display at air shows and private exhibitions. Most are P-51Ds produced too late to see combat and declared surplus, or models that served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 1950s, although the Mustang restored as "Frenesi" was first an F-6K photographic reconnaissance model. Among Mustangs restored to resemble 357th aircraft are:

¹OD=Olive Drab NMF=Natural Metal Finish

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Freeman, Roger A. "The Mighty Eighth". St. Paul, Minnesota: Motorbooks International, 1993. ISBN 0-87938-638-X.
* Freeman, Roger A. "The Mighty Eighth War Diary". St. Paul, Minnesota: Motorbooks International, 1990. ISBN 0-87938-495-6.
* Freeman, Roger A. "The Mighty Eighth War Manual".St. Paul, Minnesota: Motorbooks International, 1991. ISBN 0-87938-513-8.
* Maurer, Maurer. "Air Force Combat Units of World War II", Washington, DC: Office of Air Force history, 1961. ISBN 0-405-12194-6
* Olmsted, Merle C. "The 357th Over Europe: the 357th Fighter Group in World War II". St. Paul, Minnesota: Phalanx Publishing, 1994. ISBN 0-933424-73-6.
* Olmsted, Merle C. "The Yoxford Boys: The 357th Fighter Group on Escort over Europe and Russia". Fallbrook, California: Aero Publishers Inc., 1971 (Out of print, less comprehensive version). ISBN 0-8168-9766-2.
* Scutts, Jerry. "Lion in the Sky: US 8th Air Force Fighter Operations 1942-45". Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, UK: Patrick Stephens, 1987. ISBN 0-85059-788-9.
* Yeager, Charles E. Yeager and Leo Janos (ed.) "Yeager: An Autobiography". New York: Bantam Books, 1985. ISBN 0-553-05093-1.

External links

* [http://www.af.mil/shared/media/ggallery/hires/AFG-060228-002.jpgUSAF Gallery portrait of P-51D "Nooky Booky IV"]
* [http://357thfightergroup.com/ 357th Fighter Group "Yoxford Boys" commemorative site]
* [http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/survivors/index.shtml P-51 Mustang survivors at "Mustangs Mustangs"]
* [http://www.cebudanderson.com/ Clarence "Bud" Anderson's website]
* [http://aaron.smith.free.fr/PilotsPlanes/PilotsPlanes.html Pilots and planes of the Famous Yoxford Boys] 65 photos of 357th P-51s]
* [http://www.starduststudios.com/Boulevards_of_Paris.htm Story of 357th FG over Paris with illustrations]
* [http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/mustang/combat-reports.html Encounter reports of P-51 Mustang pilots] Numerous original 357th kill claim reports reproduced here halfway down page
* [http://afhra.maxwell.af.mil/numbered_studies/1039707.pdf USAF Historical Study 85: USAF Credits for Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II 27.21 MB pdf file]
* [http://www.littlefriends.co.uk/357thfg.php?action=list_records&sort_order=ASC&order_by=macr 357th FG page of Little Friends]