Duxford Eagles and the P51 Mustang

Juggernaut to War Horse

How the 78^th Fighter Group broke in the P51 Mustang

On a winter’s day in December, 80 years ago, the 78^th Fighter Group at Duxford Airfield saw the first of its North American P-51D Mustangs fly in and line up outside the control tower.

The P-51 Mustang had already been proving successful with other Fighter Groups in the ETO with its long range capabilities and high performance. However, despite this, the pilots of 78^th Fighter Group were sceptical of receiving these new mounts.

“Fighter pilots are creatures of habit, and mostly everyone in the 78^th agreed they wouldn’t give up the P-47 for anything in the world.” 1Lt Frank Oiler recalls.

The 78^th had been operating their faithful P-47 Thunderbolts for two years – a juggernaut of a fighter as it was known. It was in fact the smaller size of the Mustang and its comparatively more delicate liquid cooled engine that put a lot off the pilots of operating these aircraft. The 78^th had flown a number of low level ‘flak busting’ missions since arriving at Duxford in 1943 and the P-47 proved itself time and time again with its high flak tolerance.

However, the change was out of necessity. With mission objectives now going further into Europe the 78th needed the long range capabilities of the Mustang – pilots would go on to log over six hours on a single mission.

The announcement was made in November 1944 that the base would be reequipping with the P-51 Mustang the following month. To begin this transition several war weary P-51B and P-51C models were delivered to Duxford for pilot training. The ground crew also studied how to work on a completely different aircraft type – going from the radial air cooled Pratt & Whitney to the inline liquid cooled Packard/Rolls Royce V-12 Merlin.

During this time the heavy rain had made the grass runway at Duxford too soft and muddy for flight operations. The group were temporarily moved to Bassingbourn whilst the army engineers began to lay down the 3,500 x 150ft pierced-steeled-plank main runway. The 78^th continued operations from Bassingbourn until the 11^th December when they brought their Thunderbolts back to Duxford.

Five days later on the 16^th December 1944, the aforementioned P-51D Mustangs arrived at Duxford – thirty-three of them in fact. The 82^nd Fighter Squadron were the first to be allocated these new Mustangs and the hangar crew wasted no time getting them combat ready before turning them over to the crew chiefs. Some of these tasks included: fitting wing tank pressurisation kits, setting boost pressure to +35, fitting K-14 gunsights, fitting G-suit hook ups, packing dinghies and B-8 parachutes – 98 silk pilot scarfs were also sewn up.

The aircraft also arrived with no group or squadron markings. The nose of each aircraft was painted in the renowned white and black check of the 78^th Fighter Group. The spinners were also painted black and white to create a dazzling flickering effect. The 82^nd Fighter Squadron markings of MX were applied to the fuselages and the rudders painted red.

The first show for these combat ready Mustangs was to be on the 25^th December 1944. The 78^th FG were tasked to fly a maximum effort by Eighth Air Force HQ to support the allied fighting in the Ardennes Forest – The Battle of the Bulge. However, a heavy fog had settled across East Anglia preventing the 78^th from getting airborne.

Duxford was weathered in for most of the week with pilots trying to squeeze in as much local flying as the weather would allow to acquaint themselves with the new aircraft.

By the 29^th December, things had finally improved enough for the 78^th to launch. The outfit comprised of thirty-two Thunderbolts of the 84^th FS and thirty-three Mustangs of the 82^nd and 83^rd FS – who had now received their new Mustangs as well.

Huie Lamb arrived with the 82^nd Fighter Squadron in August 1944, a few months later he claimed the group’s first jet – an ME262 and was now taking part the group’s first Mustang operation.

At 10:30 Huie set off with the squadron in his new Mustang ‘Etta Jeane’ named after his sister back home in Texas. The Mustangs escorted bombers to Frankfurt and Aschaffenburg rail yards turning for home at 14:13. All was going well until around 12 miles out at 20,000ft over the North Sea, Huie’s Mustang lost its coolant.

“My first thought was to stretch my glide and try to make it back to the English coast, but I was dropping too fast. I saw the whitecaps coming up at me. Somehow, I was able to point the nose into wind, drop my flaps, and stall out just above the surface. I tried to hit the water as slow as possible. The water was freezing cold. I pulled the strings to inflate my Mae West and dinghy, but I couldn’t get into the dinghy, so I just hung on for dear life.”

Lambs’ wingman John Childs, despite not having any radio comms, managed to lead a Fleet Air Arms Supermarine Walrus to the site of Lambs dingy with him clinging onto the side of it. Lamb was picked up and taken to hospital with a cut lip, broken tooth and hypothermia. He was fit and flying again after ten days

By 5^th January 1945 the 78^th had fully converted to Mustangs. Later that month on the 14^th the 78^th had a particularly successful day claiming 14 aerial victories, with this the Duxford pilots began to warm to their Mustangs. They would continue their role from Duxford Airfield as ‘Little Friends’ escorting bombers of the 8^th Air Force into Europe as well as ground attack support.