New 15th AF P-51 Story--52nd FG

[kaki3152]

I just finished reading the new 52nd FG P-51 story; "Dumb but Lucky" by Richard Curtis. its a well written, story that provides a clearful insight into some of the
actions of the 15th AF. Some highlights of the book:

(1) It explores the personal feelings of the "white" USAAF fighter pilots towards the 332nd FG. The book describes an incident where supposedly a 332nd FG pilot who had scored three victories, performed three rolls over an airfiled but crashed at the end of the last roll, describing the as:"...that Jig augered in,spreading himself all over the landscape". There were some 332nd FG pilots who augered in after attempting some low level acrobatics. none of the two 332nd FG pilots who scored three victories in one day.

(2) It provides the background behind the death of an unfortunate 332nd FG pilot who was burned to death in a tent after the tent was hit by a falling tank.
The incident happened on March 29 (28?),1945 when two P-38s rat racing over the airfiled dropped their belly tanks to obtain more manuevrability.
The unfortunate pliot,Lt. Ronald Moody burned to death

(3) There are some good descriptions of skirmishes with Me-262 attempting to
intercept recon planes.

All in all, a good read. I'd recommend it to anyone intrested in the 15th AF.

[Dénes Bernád]

Hi Carlos,

Any details on the missions over Rumania and Hungary?
Thanks.

[kaki3152]

Denes,


He describes a few mission, but the bulk of his missions were from Sept 44-March 45. Cheap book (I got my copy for $6.45),well worth the price.

[Csaba B. Stenge]

Well, a friend of mine said, that it's not enough detailed work (a general problem to me regarding the FG histories, except for few ones).

But the mentioned price is really cheap, maybe I'll order it also.