TRIPLE-ACE PILOT “ BUD ” ANDERSON WITH HIS TRUSTY PARTNER , THE P-51 “ OLD CROW .”
to conducting our large formation flights in daylight bombing raids and we suffered tremendous losses . Still , we were Americans , and we were determined to continue our mission as long as we were needed to help win the war . By the middle of 1943 , the strategic bombing of Germany was very much in doubt . We targeted several German ball bearing factories , where we lost as much as sixty to eighty planes . To put that number in perspective , that ’ s ten men per crew , so 600 or 800 men .
Fortunately , another big break for Bud Anderson came when my group joined the 8th Air Force Command as an escort unit for our bombers . They wanted us to surround the bombers , and when the enemy came in we were supposed to drive them away and then return to close escort . You could chase enemy aircraft to 18,000 feet then you had to break off the attack and return to the bombers . The Luftwaffe had to be defeated before we could invade Europe . It was mandatory . We had to establish air superiority and make it impossible for the Luftwaffe to stop the invasion . So we had a change in command when General Doolittle was put in charge of the 8th Air Force . This occurred about the same time as when the Mustangs arrived . I think those two
12 AMERICAN VALOR QUARTERLY