Ww2 fighter pilot
Bong radioed to his buddy to bail out, but it was too late. In March 1944, Bong took off on a mission with Lynch in his new silver-aluminum P-38 nicknamed Marge, named after Bong’s longtime love.Īs the pair approached Aitape Harbor in New Guinea, Lynch’s P-38 caught small arms fire in his engines. Both men could fly whenever they wanted to as they didn’t have an affiliation with one fighter group. Even though the captain had his regular duties, he continued to fly combat missions in P-38s.Īlong the way, Captain Dick Bong formed a deep friendship with fellow ace Major Thomas J. As a captain, Richard Bong was put in charge of replacement airplanes in New Guinea at the Fifth Air Force’s headquarters.
The intrepid combat pilot received a promotion to 1st lieutenant April and then to captain in August of 1943. Mere weeks before, in early June, Bong returned to base with a flat tire and his tail riddled with bullets from 7.7 mm rounds. This engagement alone saw Bong take out four planes on his own. He gunned down one plane as it flew towards him before banking and taking out another. Bong missed enemy planes on his first pass, but then he dived his P-38 to gain speed before heading back towards the Japanese planes head-on.
His squadron was over the Markham Valley near Lae, New Guinea, when the men intercepted 20 Japanese planes. The daring pilot never backed down from an air-to-air fight. Throughout 1943, Richard Bong’s exploits continued. He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and an official “ace” designation. In two weeks’ time, Bong downed five enemy planes. A day after downing two fighters, he added another kill to his total. Less than two weeks later, Dick Bong downed two more Japanese planes that were escorting a convoy reinforcing Japanese positions. Wikimedia Commons “Marge,” Dick Bong’s P-38 Lightning now at the Bong Heritage Center in Superior, Wisconsin. His group shot down 12 enemy planes, two of which were credited to Bong. On December 27, 1942, his group of 12 P-38s engaged a group of 40 Japanese fighters protecting a bombing raid headed to New Guinea. In November 1942, he was part of the 39th Squadron of the 35th Fighter Group. He sent him to the Southwest Pacific Theater in Australia under Gen. Bong and told him to put his skills to use in the field. Kenney, the head of the Fourth Air Force, berated 2nd Lt. Bong flew low enough to the ground to disrupt a woman’s drying clothes - the prop wash from the Bong’s twin P-38 engines blew clean laundry off of a clothesline and onto the ground. The daredevil pilot went so far as to buzz homes in Oakland. He flew low enough along Market Street to wave at stenographers and secretaries going about their daily duties. He flew loops over and under the main span of the Golden Gate Bridge. In that year’s time, Richard Bong became both a legend and a nuisance. These twin-engine aircraft were fast, huge, quiet and deadly. He earned his pilot’s wings and started training on Lockheed P-38 Lighting fighters. Hamilton Field near San Francisco was Bong’s next duty station in early 1942 after the United States officially entered the war. The pilot recalled that he could never prevent Bong from getting on his tail, even though Bong flew an AT-6, a very slow airplane.” “But the most important thing came from a P-38 check pilot who said Bong was the finest natural pilot he ever met. “He was a very bright student,” he recalled.
There, Captain Barry Goldwater was Bong’s commanding officer. He went to more advanced training in California and then Luke Field in Arizona. Very quickly, Dick Bong’s career (literally) took off. In early 1941, even before America entered World War II, the accomplished pilot enlisted in the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program. An Instant Success In The AirĪfter high school, Richard Bong enrolled at Superior State Teachers’ College where he earned his civilian pilot’s license. Wikimedia Commons Richard Bong in the cockpit of his P-38 Lighting.īoth the marksmanship and love of flying came in handy in Bong’s later years as he turned into America’s most decorated flying ace.