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Any other 78th FG pilots who were
involved evidently returned to Goxhill
after completing their ferry flights.
Another mystery surrounds
P-38G-10-LO 42-12882, which
was ferried in to Goxhill by 2nd Lt.
James H. Sullivan of the 82nd FS on
20 December. While flying it on 13
January, Capt. Richard H. Wells of the
1st FG’s 71st FS was killed in a mid-
air collision near Great Sampford,
England. The mystery is why a pilot of
the 1st FG, then based in Algeria, was
in England flying a 78th Group P-38.
Had he gone there to ferry it back to
his unit in North Africa?
Ten days later yet another 78th
FG Lightning experienced a mishapincluded the pioneering movement of
USAAF air units and planes across the
Atlantic Ocean. It is not known why
it evidently did not go to Algeria with
the 1st FG in November or how it
ended up with the 78th FG.
These P-38s were first flown
to Portreath (USAAF Station
504) in Cornwall, near England’s
southwestern tip. Lieutenant Beals
was one of 14 pilots who took off
from there on 26 January; he then
disappeared en route to Africa. Two
of the others also disappeared, about
which no details could be found by
this writer, nor any records identifying
the other pilots on this mission or
any of the other participating aircraft.experienced its first overseas aircraft
accident. On 29 December, 2nd Lt.
Stephan L. White of the 82nd FS
crashed P-38F-15-LO 43-2078 while
landing it there. The plane was written
off as salvage.
Everything was proceeding well for
the Group as of 12 January, when its
CO, Col. Arman Peterson, announced
to his men that it would soon become
operational. The next day, 20 pilots
and P-38s and their ground crews
were sent to Chelveston, just south
of Goxhill. This was the base for the
B-17s of the 305th Bomb Group,
with which the 78th’s pilots then flew
training missions for the next ten
days, practicing escort procedures. On
23 January, they were about to takeoff
for their first actual combat mission,
escorting the Flying Fortresses to sub-
marine pens on the coast of France,
when a teletype message arrived
canceling the escort as the P-38s were
suddenly needed elsewhere — namely,
North Africa!
Meanwhile, a Lightning formation
had departed from Goxhill two days
earlier. Second Lieutenant Donald
S. Beals of the 83rd FS was one of
16 pilots who took off from Station
345 to ferry these P-38s to North
Africa, part of what was called the
“Torch Movement,” referring to the
aforementioned operation. Beals was
flying P-38F-15-LO 41-7576, which
was one of the 1st FG Lightnings that
had been flown to England from the
US the previous summer as part of
Operation Bolero, codename for the
build-up of US forces in Britain that
Lightnings await assembly at Langford Lodge.A P-38 is secured onto its flatbed trailer by Irish civilian LAC employees and American
servicemen on the very narrow road between Belfast and Langford Lodge. Note the heavy
waterproof tape covering the seams on its nose and engine cowlings. This was to prevent
moisture from seeping into its inner workings during the aircraft’s long ocean voyage on
the deck of a ship.