I was planning on getting a copy of our church’s records as well as doing some research for some of the families.
-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
Historical Research
- Thread starter Randy Daytona
- Start date
I was planning on getting a copy of our church’s records as well as doing some research for some of the families.
Yesterday a history/genealogy buff friend recommended this site to me: https://www.familysearch.org/en/
To go along with the church, are the websites for the funeral homes. Another member of my father's generation at our church back home just passed away 2 weeks ago. Hard to believe that Mr. Thomas was an Army drill instructor among other things during WW2. As I was reading the obituary on the funeral home website (small town, all the church members use the same funeral home), I read of the others who passed recently to include Mr. Billy who earned a purple heart as an Army lieutenant in WW2, Mr. Mort who did 25 missions as a B-24 tail gunner in the 8th Air Force and Mr. Sammy who rolled with Patton's 3rd Army.
The last members of the Greatest Generation are passing from the stage...
This is an LDS/Mormon site. They have pretty amazing genealogy records, especially for church members.
Couple of notes on the historical research: ordering from the National Archives is helped if there is a death certificate, also the website does not allow dates prior to 1900. I have attached notes to the records request for some relatives who fought in WW1 - waiting to see what kind of response I will receive.
Veterans' Service Records | National Archives
www.archives.gov
Excitingly, a relative notified me that she had her dad's WW2 flight records. She mentioned he was stationed in Italy and I remember he started out in Thunderbolts and then his squadron was re-equipped with Mustangs. Best guess right now is the 306th Fighter Wing of the 15th Air Force - which coincidentally is now based at Shaw AFB in SC. If that is the case, will have to pay a visit the next time I go back home to the Palmetto State. Now back to digging while I wait on the details. Anybody else researching their family's military history?
And for the record, I'm gonna take the muscle of the Thunderbolt over the agility of the Mustang...
It wasn't Thunderbolts the squadron had originally, but of all aircraft, Spitfires - and then the squadron swapped them out for Mustangs.
At any rate, found my uncle in the 5th Fighter Squadron, 52nd Fighter Group, 306 Fighter Wing, 12th (and then 15th) Air Force (now a training squadron at Vance). https://militaryhistorynow.com/2018/07/17/2772/
Now searching for another relative and have it narrowed down to the 20th Air Force, XXI Bomber Command - commanding general was the legendary Curtis LeMay.
Historical research can be quite addictive.
At any rate, found my uncle in the 5th Fighter Squadron, 52nd Fighter Group, 306 Fighter Wing, 12th (and then 15th) Air Force (now a training squadron at Vance). https://militaryhistorynow.com/2018/07/17/2772/
Now searching for another relative and have it narrowed down to the 20th Air Force, XXI Bomber Command - commanding general was the legendary Curtis LeMay.
Historical research can be quite addictive.
XR, the squadron code on the aircraft is from RAF 71 Squadron. We know them as the Eagles. The pilots of that squadron became the 334th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group USAAF.
The 334th flew Spitfires and then the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt in 1943. After about a year the squadron switched to North American P-51 Mustangs.
GroundPounder
Well-Known Member
Any idea on how formalized the training was as they switched from one make to the other?
From what I've read (long time ago), Some squadrons strapped them on and learned on their first mission.
Pretty accurate. Aircraft built during the war all used the same fundamental cockpit management systems. You’d get in and an experienced user would say you push this and pull that and here’s your X,Y,Z switch that works just like the one in a P-XX. Training movies were quite common (you can see lots of these on YouTube) and were really very informative. But yes, it was pretty much “It flies just like any other airplane…” kind of training.
Griz, weren't those guys former USAAC who joined the RCAF before US involvement in the war? That's a later model Spit than the Mk I and II, with US markings.
Most, but not all. When assumed by the AAF these guys rolled into two US Fighter Groups, the 31st and 52nd. Both groups used Spits until -47’ and -51’s came along. The Spits were loaners so they kept British markings. Here is one from Italy, 1944.
I recently went to an AF Historical Society talk where a historian was pretty harsh over the AAC’s leadership views of the P-40 and P-39 which he pretty much proved were superior to the Spitfire and most German and Japanese models. His view, they drowned those puppies so they could get their favorites built faster (-47 and -51). They were equally weary of the P-38 and it was noted that it was saved by the killing of Yamamoto!
Last edited:
The word from cousin is that the order of priority of who in the squadron would first transition to the Mustang was a pullup contest. (NO, it was not a Marine Corps squadron...)
Fighter Squadron 5 was confirmed as the patch on my uncle's leather flight jacket. The squadron is still in existence, it is a training squadron at Vance AFB now https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5th_Flying_Training_Squadron
Now to find my another relative who flew B-25's...
Eh? I'm not sure how one 'proves' that. Either way, the P-47 and P-51 did 'prove' themselves to be excellent fighters during the war.