John Leppla
 

Hello,

additionally to his personal score of 4, has John Leppla ever been credited with the 3 kills of his gunner John Liska ?

Cheers,

Michael

Re: John Leppla
 

Hello there Gentlemen,

from Frank Olynyk I learned that John Leppla scored 4 kills in the SBD and one in the F4F. His gunner John Liska scored 3 kills with him and 1 with another pilot. Leppla was not credited with the kills of his gunner.

Can anybody tell me more about Leppla's last flight ?
I'm also interested in wether Liska has survived the war.

Michael

Re: John Leppla
 

If you have access to fold3, you will find details here about Leppla's loss:
https://www.fold3.com/image/268402014

Liska flew as a gunner with VS-10 on 26 October 1942, the day Leppla was shot down, and claimed a Zero.
https://www.fold3.com/image/268401776?terms=Liska

Liska then survived another battle with Zeroes on 14 November 1942, two pairs of SBD fighting several Zeroes and one US plane being shot down while Liska's escaped.
https://www.fold3.com/image/267969669 (and next page)

After this date, a search of fold3 returns no entry for John Liska (I searched Liska actually, and there is a Frank Liska KIFA with VB-117 on 6 June 1944)

He survived his last known battle and is not in the available US Navy casualty list (that is still a work in progress according to authors):
http://www.naval-history.net/WW2USca...USNbyNameL.htm

But that proves nothing: the Frank Liska listed above is not on the above list either.

Re: John Leppla
 

Hi Michael

After analyzing the reports of US and Japanese fights,here are the facts.
Liska:
In fact,its claim (unfounded) as a gunner of Lt.Martin D.Carmody ( 2 Zeke also claimed in the same fight:no Japanese losses IN THIS FIGHT,and only IN this fight) was against 7 Zeke:
Lt.SATO Masao (Zuiho)
PM.MORIYAMA Gonji (Zuiho)
SM.TOCHI Hajime (Zuiho)
EV. ABE Yasujiro (Shokaku)
MT.OHARA Koji (Shokaku)
QM.ITO Tomitaro (Shokaku)
SM.YANO Shigeru (Shokaku)
Whom they claimed equally unfounded 2 probables SBD Collectively by(TOCHI,ABE,OHARA,YANO).

IN the same way,the victory of Leppla is particularly doubtful .
During his last fight with his "winger" (Albert Mead),it was against 2 Zeke of the Zuiho (LV.HIDAKA Saneyasu,PM.MITSUMOTO Jiro) who suffered no losses and who shot down them:Leppla and Mead.

Michel

Re: John Leppla
 

...I think John Liska has a son called Michael
https://books.google.de/books?id=EM9...=liska&f=false

Re: John Leppla
 

The extract of the book took place on 16 November 1942, two SBD and a B-26 were lost in bad weather during repositionning flight between Guadalcanal and Espiritu Santo.

See
https://www.fold3.com/image/267852551 (loss)
https://www.fold3.com/image/267852572 (crew found)

Re: John Leppla
 

Hello Laurent & Michel,

I cannot open the fold3 files because I'm not a member of that site.
Thanks for the explanations.
Is it known if Leppla left a widow ?

Michael

Re: John Leppla
 

..is this John Liska, the gunner of John Leppla ?
https://www.mantecabulletin.com/obits/john-liska/

Re: John Leppla
 

Yes, he was Leppla's gunner. The family had moved to California by 1930. They appear in both the 1930 and 1940 census. His father was Ambrose Liska.

Here is a newspaper write-up from 1942.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/t...all/122349123/

Re: John Leppla
 

John Liska was promoted to the warrant officer grade of Radio Electrician on 15 Jun 1945.