|
The
Star Spangled 75th
The
75TH FIGHTER SQUADRON
23rd Fighter Squadron
14th Air Force
by: Major Myron D.
Levy, USAF, Retired 75th FS Adjutant, 1943-45 -
Updated and revised by DK Miller, Major, USAF, Retired - Pilot
Born on the battlefield on July 4th,
1942! Could a Fighter Squadron be activated more significantly? Thus was
the origin of the 75th Fighter Squadron of the 23rd
Fighter Group, China Air Task Force.
The 75th Fighter Squadron
was the highest-scoring squadron in the China-Burma-India Theater of
Operations in World War II. It was one of the trio of squadrons that
comprised the 23rd Fighter Group. This group evolved from the
famed Flying Tigers - the American Volunteer Group - under the
leadership and command of Gen. Claire Lee Chennault.
The 75th Fighter Squadron
was activated at Hengyang, Hunan Province, China, With a cadre of
American Volunteer Group veterans augmented by a group of Army Air Corps
personnel, some of whom had been serving with the AVG for several months
to learn about P-40 maintenance and operations.
The first aerial victory of the new
American Army Air Corps squadrons in China was scored by the 75th
less than one week later, on 10 July 1942. This was the first of 162
Japanese aircraft destroyed in aerial combat by the 75th.
With another 75 Japanese aircraft probably destroyed. The 75th
was a squadron in which more than a dozen fighter aces served during
World War II.
All through 1942 and 1943, the 75th
fought the Japanese, shooting them out of the skies at Kunming and
Kweilin, at Hengyang and Ling Ling, at Chanyi and wherever else the
Japanese dared to challenge them.
By the end of 1943, the 75th
had less than 125 officers and enlisted men (a normal, stateside,
activated squadron numbered 275-350 people) and was fighting one helluva
war. It spearheaded the Tung-Ting Lakes Campaign in 1943-44, and its
support of the Chinese 74th Army in this crucial campaign
resulted in a Japanese defeat and, for the first time, the Japanese were
denied the rice harvest upon which they had depended during the years of
the occupation of China.
This defeat of the Annual Japanese
Rice-Raid, coupled with the domination of the China air space by the
Americans, resulted in the Ichi-Go Campaign by the Japanese to rid
Southeast Central China of harassment by American air power.
During the 1944 Japanese Ichi-Go
drives through Southeast Central China, the pilots of the 75th,
supported by their ground personnel, performed prodigious tasks. Many
pilots flew multiple sorties every day. They were able to engage the
Japanese in the air and pound his defenses on the ground because of the
skill, expertise, and determination of the ground crews, arising each
day in the pre-dawn dark to ready war-weary P-40s for the next mission.
It became a daily grind of improvisation and hard work, but it got done.
The pilots blasted the Japanese out of
the skies despite heavy odds. They destroyed the Japanese planes in the
air and on the ground. They sank their boats on the lakes and rivers.
They strafed and burned their trucks and blew up their trains. They shot
and bombed and destroyed their troops and cavalry. And they skip-bombed
wicker baskets of ammunition, rice, salt, and meat to beleaguered
Chinese troops.
They did all this, but at no small
loss to the 75th. The Japanese ground fire took a terrible
toll of pilots and planes.
The Japanese eventually prevailed on
the ground. They forced the evacuation of all the 75th’s
air bases in Southeast Central China.
After the loss of Kweilin in the early
fall of 1944, the 75th combat echelon moved to Chihkiang,
where its pilots kept up the pressure on the Japanese until the war
ended with the defeat of the Empire of Japan. The achievements of the 75th
Fighter Squadron and the 23rd Fighter Group were such, during
the fighting in the early spring and summer of 1944, that the president
of the United States recognized them by awarding them the Distinguished
Unit Citation. All this was done by an under-strength squadron,
activated in the field and never properly equipped or adequately
staffed.
During the air base evacuations forced
by the Ichi-Go Campaign, the 75th was the
"defense-of-the-field-squadron" at Hengyang, Ling Ling, and
Kweilin. This took place in the summer and fall of 1944. The 75th
remained in operation at each air base to defend the field while all
other units were evacuated to the west. The 75th would then
leave and the air base destroyed.
The 75th left in echelons.
First to go would be the administrative staff followed by the
engineering and service sections. Last to leave were the planes, pilots,
and ground crews.
Whatever else that could be salvaged
was loaded on convoy of vehicles which departed just ahead of the
advancing Japanese. The 75th would stay as long as possible,
usually until the Japanese were 30 to 50 miles away. That made for
exciting times.
When the 75th convoy left
Kweilin, the base and the city were in flames. The Japanese would find
nothing useful, only scorched earth.
This squadron points with pride to its
combat record and to six of its fighter pilots who became general
officers.
The 75th is proud of the
generals it spawned and salutes them:
John R. (Johnny) Alison - James W.
(Mouse) Carter - David Lee (Tex) Hill - James W. (Poco) Little - Robert
S. (Pete) Peterson - Wiltz P. (Flash) Segura - Witold A. Urbanowicz, The
One Man Polish Air Force.
But this was, and remains, a
remarkable unit with fantastic esprit-de-corps and a fellowship among
officers and men that continues after more than a half-century.
These are the kind of men who are
leaders of men. This is the 75th Fighter Squadron.
|
