24 AIR CLASSICS/August 2022
return with their carousing behavior.”
Earlier that day 1st Lt. Jack R.
Brown (82nd FS) had a landing
accident while returning to Goxhill
in P-38F-15-LO 43-2135, which was
repaired and later ferried to North
Africa. He then flew F-13-LO 43-2042
to Langford Lodge.
It had been assumed initially that
the P-38s sent to Africa would be
replaced, that the 78th’s pilots would
return to Goxhill from their ferry
missions, and that the Group would
then commence Lightning combat
missions with the 8th AF as originally
planned. By the end of January reality
was beginning to bite, however,
especially when four Republic P-47
Thunderbolts arrived at Goxhill on
the 29th. When 83rd Squadron pilot
Capt. Charles P. London saw them
his first thought was, “Thank God we
don’t have to fly those things!” But
he was one of the Group’s 15 senior
pilots who were not subsequently
transferred out and he did fly them
— and while doing so became the 8th
AF’s first ace.
Things finally came to a head on
7 February, when Col. Peterson paid
a visit to VIII Fighter Command HQ.
When he returned to Goxhill later that
day all the officers were assembled in
the Briefing Room. The colonel then
informed them that all the pilots ex-
cept for those in Group Headquarters,
the squadron commanders, and most
of the flight leaders would be sent tolanded back at
Goxhill, and still
later when we
took off. It was
heavy overcast —
we had about a
1000-foot ceiling.
We knew we
would be landing on a black night,
and we were going to be in weather
all the way there.”
According Garry L. Fry in his 78th
FG history Eagles of Duxford, “It
was a saddened group of 43 pilots
who landed at Langford Lodge that
evening with this latest misfortune to
comprehend. Small wonder then, that
when they had drowned their gloom
in the pubs of Belfast, the MPs chased
them out of the city with orders not toof the 83rd Squadron, and G-10-LO
42-12928, by the 82nd Squadron’s 2nd
Lt. Stephan White (see sidebar for more
details). White had survived his first
crash a month earlier, but not this one.
Another participant in that flight,
83rd FS pilot 1st Lt. William J. “Greg”
Gregory, was one of the Group’s
pilots at Chelveston who had flown
to Station 345 from there earlier that
day. He remembered later that, “It
was late in the afternoon when we
Second Lieutenant Frederick J. Bitter transferred from the 83rd
FS to the 49th FS in North Africa. He was credited with probably
destroying one Bf 109 and damaging another over Italy on 29
August 1943, shortly before completing his combat tour.
P-38G-10-LO 42-12942 was flown to Langford Lodge on 26 January
1943 by 83rd FS pilot Fred Bitter. In North Africa it joined the 1st
FG’s 27th FS and was coded HV*A. It was assigned to the Group’s
Executive Officer, Major John W. Weltman, previously the 27th
FS CO. In early May 1943 Weltman, now a lieutenant colonel,
was given command of the 82nd FG and took 42-12942 with him.
According to the photo’s official USAF caption, these ground
crewmen are “bouncing up and down on the tail of plane to get
compass set at right angle for swinging the compass.”These three 78th FG pilots were reassigned to the 48th FS in North Africa. From left to
right, Joe Miller (82nd FS), William G. Broome (83rd FS), and Sidney Weatherford (82nd
FS). Miller and Weatherford both became aces.