Ten Mustangs were lost in November with two each lost due to enemy aircraft, flak and unknown causes and one lost due to mechanical failure. One plane ran out of gas and the pilot ditched to be picked up by Air Sea Rescue, another plane lost its wing after strafing a locomotive, and one plane crash landed at Raydon, killing its pilot. Only four planes were lost during December with three going down due to enemy aircraft and one to mechanical failure.

Major Wayke K. Blickenstaff--A great day!

Lt. Col. Gallup completed his tour early in November, and on the 9th, Major Wayne K. Blickenstaff became Commanding Officer of the 350th Squadron. Blick had just returned from a 30 day leave to the U.S. and had flown the first mission of his second tour on November 4th, his 100th combat mission. A commercial artist by profession, he stood five seven and a half, weighed 155 pounds and was 24 years old. He wore a mustache, was very likable with a quick smile and was a competent pilot and leader who was always concerned for his men.

First air action of the last two months of the year came on the 2nd of November in the Hannover area. Lt. Abernathy shot down a 109 for his second aerial victory, and Lt. Lester M. Grainger had a most interesting day. Flying alone he observed what appeared to be three Spitfires, but closer examination proved them to be Me 109s - painted greenish-grey, with RAF roundels on the topside of both wings and fuselage and red and white stripes on the tail. The trailing edges of the wings had a black strip painted their entire length, and from a distance this made the wings look like those of a Spitfire. Grainger closed on the number three, fired and the pilot bailed out. Then he blew up the leader. On his way home, Grainger ran out of gas two miles off the coast, ditched and was picked up by Air Sea Rescue.

The 353rd’s largest bag of enemy aircraft in the air to this date came on November 27th. Dispatched on its second strafing mission of the month against an oil supply depot at Annaburg with Maj. Junttila leading, the 353rd (with the 357th Fighter Group flying on its right) was directed instead into contact with two massive gaggles of 100 enemy aircraft. Junttila with the 352nd Squadron and Blickenstaff with the 350th attacked one gaggle while the 351st took on the other. In the following 35 minutes of action the 353rd claimed 21.5-l-5 enemy aircraft while losing two planes, one from the 350th and one from the 352nd. The victories included an FW 190 for Capt. Compton, his third, an Me 109 for Lt. Arthur C. Cundy, his first, and one-half a 109 for Maj. Junttila, the victory being shared with a pilot from the 357th Group. Leading victor in the battle was Major Blickenstaff who became the first (and only) pilot in the Group to destroy four enemy planes in one engagement.

His encounter report read:

“As the gaggle proceeded in a southerly direction, I pulled in behind one (FW 190) and gave him 3 or 4 short bursts with the result that pieces began flying off the E/A. In the meantime I closed rather rapidly, gave him one final burst, and he seemed to disintegrate. To avoid flying through the pieces, I popped the stick forward as he began to fall off to the right.

“I pulled back into the same gaggle onto the tail of another. A few bursts at an estimated range of 500 yards caused pieces to fly off him. The E/A started a slow turn to the right. After closing a little more, I gave him a good burst and observed strikes all over the cockpit, and he went down with the engine afire and smoking badly.

“The enemy formation persisted in a southerly direction, and I again caught up to it and got on the tail of another E/A. While attempting to close sufficiently for a good burst, I noticed another E/A about 9 o’clock and slightly low to me. I was having difficulty overtaking the E/A ahead, so I chopped back and slid over behind the E/A at 9 o’clock. However, I began to overrun him, so I started a barrel roll around him in an attempt to stay behind. When one half of the way around in my roll, the E/A made a sharp turn to the left and away from me. Before I could take advantage of this opportunity, the E/A split S’d, and thinking that he was evading to the deck, I turned to select another from the main gaggle. He pulled back into me, firing a long 90” deflection burst which hit my cowling as I turned to meet the pass. As he continued to pull up, I quickly rolled over and ended up on his tail again. As I had by now lost excessive speed, I was able to turn easily with the E/A and hit him with several bursts of rather large deflection. I then followed the E/A as he rolled over and started down, clobbering him in the cockpit with a good burst. Not being too certain that the (190) would not pull out, I watched him as he continued down. I saw him go straight in, so I zoomed back up.

“The main gaggle continued merrily on its way, ignoring the fights that were going on to its rear. I again started after them with my wing man following.  Lt. Duke, my wing man, had done an excellent job as he was with me during the entire show. We had chased the gaggle for about a minute when Lt. Duke warned me to break left. As I broke to the left, I looked back and saw an FW 190 on Lt. Duke’s tail. Lt. Duke elected to break to the right and the 190 followed him. This enabled me to complete my turn so that I was able to pull up behind the E/A. Immediately after observing strikes on the 190, he rolled over and split S’d. I followed through, getting strikes in the middle of the airplane. Pieces began to fly off the 190 and it continued down, smoking badly.”

At long last, Blick had his first victories.

Ch 27