John Leppla

[knusel]

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

[knusel]

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

[Laurent Rizzotti]

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.

[focusfocus]

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

[knusel]

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

[Laurent Rizzotti]

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)

[knusel]

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

[knusel]

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

[RSwank]

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/

[R Leonard]

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