events were significant to the outcome to the war .
I read Gen . Doolittle ’ s book after the war and he wrote about the first time he went to visit the 8th Air Force Fighter Command . He brought in a totally different philosophy of warfare at that time . He walked in and there was a big sign over the door that said something like , “ the mission of the 8th Fighter Command is to bring the bombers back safely .” It might not have been exactly those words , but something similar . After reading the sign , Gen . Doolittle turned to General Kepner , the 8th Fighter Command general at that time , and he said , “ Who put that up there ?” Gen . Kepner said , “ I don ’ t know . It was there when I got here .” Gen . Doolittle responded by saying , “ Well , take it down . The mission of the 8th Fighter Command is to destroy the Luftwaffe .” This represented a significant change in tactics . From now on , fighter pilots were ordered to engage the enemy , take them to the ground , and kill them . Coincidentally , I think most historians will agree that the spring of 1944 is when we broke the back of the Luftwaffe . We didn ’ t do it by the classic method of beating them on the ground , destroying the factories , air fields , and destroying the fuel facilities . We broke the back of the Luftwaffe by killing their experienced pilots in aerial combat . It was pursue and destroy .
I was credited with shooting down 16 and a quarter enemy aircraft during my two tours of combat . I quickly learned that you get the hand you ’ re dealt up there . You never know if you ’ re going to be staring down the Red Baron or the last man in the formation .
To really understand what it was like to be up there , it ’ s important to understand some of the ins and outs of how dogfighting plays out on a mission .
On May 27 , 1944 , just before the invasion , I was still flying the P-51 Bravo model with four guns and a Malcolm hood type canopy . We flew in a finger four , which was a formation invented by the Germans involving a pair of flight leaders and two wingmen . This method was effective because when you broke up in combat you had a shooter and a wingman , the basic unit of a flight . We heard on the radio that the long column of bombers was being attacked ahead of us . These columns at times were hundreds of miles long with as many as 800 to 1,000 bombers and maybe 600 or 700 fighters escorting them . We had to make a steep turn to fly to the front of the column . During this steep turn , I thought it might be a good time to look around behind us . Just as I looked back , my wingman called out that we had four bogies coming at us from five o ’ clock high . They were coming up on our tail and getting after us , no question about it .
The Germans were flying in a string formation , with one , two , three , four planes in trail behind us . We turned into them , to break the attack . We went through them head on . As we broke up their attack , they started a left circle . I thought they might go on through and try to hit the bombers , but their maneuver suggested that they wanted to dogfight . They were attacking us and we were in a vulnerable spot , but after two turns , we started to gain on the last aircraft in the strong formation .
These enemy planes were Messerschmitt 109G ’ s , Germany ’ s best high altitude fighter . They probably had confidence in their aircraft and so they rolled out and flew level , trying to outrun us . The number four ME-109 started to climb and I didn ’ t want him to get above us in a position to attack as we chased the other three Germans . I sent two of my guys to after him and they shot him down , rejoining us later . So now we had three German M-109s and our two Mustangs facing them .
When you want to shoot somebody down , you ’ d try and come right up the stern , get as close as you could , to about
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