User:Buckboard1/sandbox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents |
[edit] table
| Aircraft | Weapons/Tactics | MiG-17 | MiG-19 | MiG-21 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F-4C | AIM-7 Sparrow | 4 | 0 | 10 | 14 |
| AIM-9 Sidewinder | 12 | 0 | 10 | 22 | |
| 20 mm gun | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |
| Maneuvering tactics | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| F-4D | AIM-4 Falcon | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| AIM-7 Sparrow | 4 | 2 | 20 | 26 | |
| AIM-9 Sidewinder | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | |
| 20 mm gun | 4 | 0 | 2 | 6 | |
| Maneuvering tactics | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| F-4E | AIM-7 Sparrow | 0 | 2 | 8 | 10 |
| AIM-9 Sidewinder | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | |
| AIM-9/20 mm gun | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 20 mm gun | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | |
| Maneuvering tactics | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Vermont Garrison was born in Mount Victory, Kentucky, on 29 October 1915. During his career, he flew combat missions in three different wars.
Raised in the Appalachians, he farmed and worked in timber while in high school and then earned a teaching certificate in college. After teaching in one-room schools for 5 years, he decided to join the Army Air Corps and was accepted for pilot training. Just short of completing the course, he left the Air Corps and joined the Royal Air Force where he not only completed the training, but also soon instructed air-to-air gunnery in British P-51 Mustang. While an Eagle Squadron pilot, he flew Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes.
After rejoining the US Army Air Forces in July 1943, he flew P-47 Thunderbolts and later P-51 Mustangs in combat with the famed 4th Fighter Group. 1Lt. Garrison was assigned to the 336th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group, and flew Republic P-47Ds and North American P-51Bs. He got his first combat victory on Dec. 16, 1943, when he shared the shoot down of a Junkers Ju 88 with two other pilots. 1Lt. Garrison became an ace by scoring his fifth victory on Feb. 9, 1944with three FW 190s and two Me-109s to his credit. On March 3, his aircraft was severely damaged in a battle over Germany. He bailed out over the coast of France, was captured, and spent the rest of the war held as a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft I. During WWII, 1Lt. Garrison accumulated a total of 7.33 aerial victories.
Upon return to the States, Capt. Garrison completed jet fighter training and went on to lead the winning team in the worldwide aerial gunnery meet held at Nellis AFB in 1948. After leading the 4th Fighter Group’s aerobatic team flying P-80 Shooting Stars, and later F-86 Sabres, he attended gunnery school at Nellis AFB. Maj. Garrison commanded the 3596th Training Squadron at Nellis until November 1952.
Maj. Garrison returned to combat by rejoining the 4th Fighter Group as commander of the 335th Fighter Squadron. He shot down his first MiG-15 on Feb. 21, 1953. He achieved Korean War ace status on June 5, 1953, by shooting down his fifth and sixth MiG-15s.
On 5 June 1953, earned a Distinguished Service Cross for valor in combat. Garrison led a flight of four F-86Fs on a fighter sweep over MiG Alley. At 45,000 feet over Feng Cheng Airfield, Manchuria, he spotted 30 to 40 MiGs taking off. Diving through nearly 20 MiGs flying aircover, he dropped to just 500 feet and, approaching Mach 1, closed quickly with and then gunned down a MiG-15, his fifth of the war, then scored a second MiG-15 kill later that day.
Maj. Garrison became a double ace by shooting down his tenth MiG-15 on July 19, 1953, just eight days before the armistice was signed ending the Korean War and earned his place among America’s most elite group of aces, the "inner seven" an ace in two wars.
Following numerous staff assignments in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he returned to combat in 1966. Flying F-4C Phantom IIs, he led missions over North Vietnam as Vice Commander of the legendary 8th Tactical Fighter Wing.
Returning to the States, he flew F-101 Voodoos and served as Commander, 408th Fighter Group at Kingsley Field, Oregon, and then as Vice Commander, 26th Air Division, Adair AFS, Oregon. His final tour was as Base Commander at Hamilton AFB, California. Colonel Garrison retired from active duty in March 1973.
[edit] Linebacker kills
| Dates | Service | MiG-21 | MiG-19 | MiG-17 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Apr—9 May | USAF | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| USN | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | |
| 10 May—23 Oct | USAF | 30 | 7 | 0 | 37 |
| USN | 3 | 2 | 11 | 16 | |
| USMC | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| VPAF Total | 40 | 10 | 13 | 63 |
[edit] Witold Lanowski
Witold Lanowski in the cockpit of a "Spitfire" of Polish RAF Squadron No 317. In the text you will find a photo of ground crew from the 61st FS 56th FG in front of Lanowski's P-47. Please note the pilot's highly visible personal insignia - in the foreground, the knight arm crushing a Luftwaffe fighter with the Polish white-red chessboard in the background .
Witold Lanowski was born in 1915 in the city of Lwow. Soon after he was born, his family moved to Zakopane, where his father worked as a bank director. After graduating from ground school, Lanowski continued to learn in the IX (9th) Mathematic-Nature Gymnasium in Lwow. Here he began his first aeroclub flights. In 1935 Witold joined the Cadet Military Aviation School in Deblin. When Lanowski graduated, he remained at the school as a flying instructor.
Lanowski was not in a frontline fighter unit during the blitzkrieg of September 1939, but he did fly one operational sortie in defense of the Deblin airbase. To avoid capture by the Germans, the Deblin staff (cadets, instructors, mechanics) was evacuated to southern Poland. On 17 September, a few hours before crossing the Romanian border, his unit was captured by Soviet cavalry. Lanowski and a few of his friends escaped from the column of POW's and on 27 September he arrived in Romania. A month later he started the trip to France, where new Polish units were being organized.
Unfortunately, Lanowski was unable to fight against the Luftwaffe in Napoleon's homeland. He dared to criticize the French military command, and for that was imprisoned in May of 1940. He escaped, this time from a prisoner's transport, in the midst of the chaos of the invasion of France, and in July of1940 finally landed in Great Britain.
Lanowski started retraining on British planes in April of 1941. In November he was posted to 308 Polish Fighter Squadron, "City of Krakow". In January of 1941 he was moved to 317 Fighter Squadron, "City of Wilno" and finally in December of 1942 he landed in 302 FS, "City of Poznan", where became leader of Flight A. His personality trait of challenging authority again got him in trouble - after quarrelling with a VIP of the Polish goverment in London, Lanowski was 'grounded'.
The 'winds of war', in effect, directed him to the U.S. Army Air Force in early March 1944. A special kind of asylum for more restless Polish pilots such as Boleslaw Gladych and Stefan Laszkiwicz had developed within the USAAF, and Lanowski joined the group. By this time, Lanowski had flown 98 sorties with the Polish Air Force, without any aerial victories. Lanowski's first 9th Air Force Assignment was with the 335th Reconn Squadron, 354th Fighter Group, based in Boxted, England. As the first fighter group to fly P-51 "Mustangs", the 354th was known as the "Pioneer Mustangs". Here he got the nickname 'Lanny' from American friends. Soon, Lanowski was ordered to the 8th Air Force, 61st Fighter Squadron, 56th Fighter Group, where he flew P-47 "Thunderbolt" fighters in combat. In 1944 he scored 4 aerial victories. The first kill was recorded on 22 May 1944, a FW 190. One month later, on 27 June, he downed a Bf 109. On 5 July, in combat over the French town of Conches, he shot down another Bf 109. For his fourth kill, again a Bf 109, he had to wait till 18 November 1944. Lanowski flew his last mission of WWII, sortie number 179, on 19 April 1945.
After the war Lanowski served in an RAF ferry unit. On 13 May 1955, flying a "Venom" jet, he crashed on the Fassburg airfield in Germany. His injuries required eleven months of hospitalization and plastic surgery on his face. Lanowski then returned to the RAF for a final two years of duty.
In 1962, Lanowski decided to take part in the civil war in Katanga (province rebel against Zair) - with a mercenary unit organised by Jan Zumbach. He flew two years of highly dangerous duty, and after the Katanga Air Force was destroyed he returned via Angola to Great Britain. Even though he had been hired as a mercenary, Lanowski never received any payment for his combat efforts in Africa. Lanowski currently lives in Essex, Great Britan.
It is interesting to note that official Polish victory statistics credit Lanowski with only two victories, reflecting that during his absence from the Polish Air Forces his kills with the USAAF were not added to his previous victories.
[edit] working
victories over German Luftwaffe fighters occured on September 28, 1944 over Arnheim, Holland. Following the action of September 28, Lt. Wainwright was personally recommended by Ninth Air Force Commander, Major General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, for the Distinguish Service Cross (DSC), our nation's second hightest award for valor. The decoration was approved by the European air commander, General Carl Spaatz, in General Order Number 4, dated Janurary 8, 1945 which reads in part: “ ... while participating in a fighter sweep over enemy territory, the formation in which (Wainwright) was flying was attacked by a superior force of enemy fighters. Without support and completely dis-regarding the heavy odds against him, (he) attacked three enemy fighters that were making a determined attack on his flight leader and destroyed one of them. Thrown into a spin by the explosion of the enemy fighter, he regained control of his plane and brought down three more enemy aircraft. By this time, completely separated from his formation, he encountered two more enemy planes, outmaneuvered them, and as he was getting into position to fire, the enemy aircraft collided and were destroyed..." In seeking an explaination as to why the victories had been officially listed as "Unconfirmed," Wainwright's wartime collegues discovered that the reason was that no copy of General Order No. 4 could be located in any government archive. And that an original copy of that order was needed to confirm the victories. In recent weeks that problem was resolved when Captain Andrew Wilson, the officer who had prepared the 404th Fighter Group history located a copy in his "dusty" files. "We are amending our official list of USAAF aerial victory credits," wrote the chief of the Research Division at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, on October 13, 1998. "We will also add (General Order No 4) to our collection," he noted in thanking Captain Wilson. On becoming an officially confirmed "ace in one day," P-47 Thunderbolt pilot Wainwright preceeds by two weeks a similar achievment of a P-51 Mustang Pilot named Charles "Chuck" Yeager. On October 12, 1944, the legendary post-war test pilot destroyed five Nazi fighters near Hanover, Germany. In addition to being awarded the DSC, Wainwright received a Silver Star, a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and the Air Medal with 15 Oak Leaf Clusters. He also was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries received when anti-aircraft fire riddled his cockpit with fragments during the same action on March 3, 1945 for which he received the Silver Star. On July 7, 1945, two months after his last combat mission, Captain Wainwright was killed in a routine training flight when his aircraft crashed on take-off near Stuttgart, Germany. He was 21. Wainwright, the son of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Wainwright of Marshall, Texas, entered service October 28, 1942. He was commissioned a 2nd Lt. and rated a pilot on November 3, 1943 at Napier Field, Alabama. At the time of his death he had two brothers in service, Lieutenant Alfred A. Wainwright and Sergeant Walter D. Wainwright. Information regarding any surviving relative should be directed to : 'Robert Williams, 600 Valley Forge Rd. E., Neptune Beach, FL 32266-3783. The 404th Fighter Group, equipped with P-47 Thunderbolt fighters affectionately called the "jug," became operational in European conflict on May 1, 1944. In 12 months of combat operations 30,346 combat hours were flown. In addition to 77 enemy aircraft claimed destroyed, 35 were destroyed and 69 damaged on the ground. Primarily used for close air support for advancing Allied ground forces, the 404th destroyed or damaged hundreds of enemy tanks, armored cars, motor vehicles, locomotives and railway cars. The officers and men wear their individual and group decorations proudly, the latter including a Distinguish6d Unit Citation, French Croix de Guerre with Palm, and the Belgian Fourragere. All this, however, came at high cost: 20 men were killed in action; 37 missing (of whom eight evaded capture and nine became prisoners); four died of wounds, and 11 (including Captain John Wainwright) lost through accidents. Since 1987, veterans of the 404th FG have held reunions every other year with the next scheduled for May 6-9, 1999 in Abilene, Texas. For further information contact Jack Conner (915) 692-7424. Additional information may be obtained from: Robert Huddleston (717) 328 5504
| Schweinfurt mission organization | |||||
| Prov. Wing | Group | UK Base | Sent | Losses | |
| (first task force) | |||||
| 201st PCBW | 91st Bomb Group | Bassingbourn | 18 | 7 | |
| 101st Composite Group | 19 | 6 | |||
| 381st Bomb Group | Ridgewell | 20 | 9 | ||
| 202d PCBW | 351st Bomb Group | Polebrook | 21 | 1 | |
| 102d Composite Group | 20 | 0 | |||
| 384th Bomb Group | Grafton Underwood | 18 | 5 | ||
| (second task force) | |||||
| 203d PCBW | 306th Bomb Group | Thurleigh | 21 | 0 | |
| 305th Bomb Group | Chelveston | 20 | 2 | ||
| 92d Bomb Group | Alconbury | 20 | 2 | ||
| 204th PCBW | 379th Bomb Group | Kimbolton | 18 | 0 | |
| 103rd Composite Group | 17 | 4 | |||
| 303rd Bomb Group | Molesworth | 18 | 0 | ||
SOURCE: Decision Over Schweinfurt
[edit] Wainwright
World War II veterans of the 404th Fighter Group, Ninth Air Force have been informed by the United State Air Force that six aerial victories claimed by a deceased member of their unit, John W. Wainwright, would be officially changed from “Destroyed-Unconfirmed” to “Confirmed.” These aerial victories over German Luftwaffe fighters occured on September 28, 1944 over Arnhem, Holland.
Following the action of September 28, Lt. Wainwright was personally recommended by Ninth Air Force Commander, Major General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, for the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC), our nation's second hightest award for valor. The decoration was approved by the European air commander, General Carl Spaatz, in General Order Number 4, dated Janurary 8, 1945 which reads in part:
“ ... while participating in a fighter sweep over enemy territory, the formation in which (Wainwright) was flying was attacked by a superior force of enemy fighters. Without support and completely dis-regarding the heavy odds against him, (he) attacked three enemy fighters that were making a determined attack on his flight leader and destroyed one of them. Thrown into a spin by the explosion of the enemy fighter, he regained control of his plane and brought down three more enemy aircraft. By this time, completely separated from his formation, he encountered two more enemy planes, outmaneuvered them, and as he was getting into position to fire, the enemy aircraft collided and were destroyed..."
In seeking an explaination as to why the victories had been officially listed as "Unconfirmed," Wainwright's wartime collegues discovered that the reason was that no copy of General Order No. 4 could be located in any government archive. And that an original copy of that order was needed to confirm the victories. In recent weeks that problem was resolved when Captain Andrew Wilson, the officer who had prepared the 404th Fighter Group history located a copy in his "dusty" files. "We are amending our official list of USAAF aerial victory credits," wrote the chief of the Research Division at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, on October 13, 1998. "We will also add (General Order No 4) to our collection," he noted in thanking Captain Wilson.
On becoming an officially confirmed "ace in one day," P-47 Thunderbolt pilot Wainwright preceeds by two weeks a similar achievment of a P-51 Mustang Pilot named Charles "Chuck" Yeager. On October 12, 1944, the legendary post-war test pilot destroyed five Nazi fighters near Hanover, Germany.
In addition to being awarded the DSC, Wainwright received a Silver Star, a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and the Air Medal with 15 Oak Leaf Clusters. He also was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries received when anti-aircraft fire riddled his cockpit with fragments during the same action on March 3, 1945 for which he received the Silver Star.
On July 7, 1945, two months after his last combat mission, Captain Wainwright was killed in a routine training flight when his aircraft crashed on take-off near Stuttgart, Germany. He was 21.
Wainwright, the son of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Wainwright of Marshall, Texas, entered service October 28, 1942. He was commissioned a 2nd Lt. and rated a pilot on November 3, 1943 at Napier Field, Alabama. At the time of his death he had two brothers in service, Lieutenant Alfred A. Wainwright and Sergeant Walter D. Wainwright. Information regarding any surviving relative should be directed to : 'Robert Williams, 600 Valley Forge Rd. E., Neptune Beach, FL 32266-3783.
The 404th Fighter Group, equipped with P-47 Thunderbolt fighters affectionately called the "jug," became operational in European conflict on May 1, 1944. In 12 months of combat operations 30,346 combat hours were flown. In addition to 77 enemy aircraft claimed destroyed, 35 were destroyed and 69 damaged on the ground. Primarily used for close air support for advancing Allied ground forces, the 404th destroyed or damaged hundreds of enemy tanks, armored cars, motor vehicles, locomotives and railway cars. The officers and men wear their individual and group decorations proudly, the latter including a Distinguish6d Unit Citation, French Croix de Guerre with Palm, and the Belgian Fourragere. All this, however, came at high cost: 20 men were killed in action; 37 missing (of whom eight evaded capture and nine became prisoners); four died of wounds, and 11 (including Captain John Wainwright) lost through accidents.
Since 1987, veterans of the 404th FG have held reunions every other year with the next scheduled for May 6-9, 1999 in Abilene, Texas. For further information contact Jack Conner (915) 692-7424.
Additional information may be obtained from: Robert Huddleston (717) 328 5504
