WORLD WAR 2 EIGHTH AIR FORCE

tours in the 78th FG, which was one

of the three 1942 ‘pioneer’ USAAF

outfits in England. He got off to

a good start by volunteering for

any extra flying that was available.

This resulted in finishing his first,

69-mission tour of 270 combat

hours on August 11, in record time.

Fred loved to fly fighters and

applying his mechanical engineer’s

mind to combat problems.

Down in a fi eld

In the late afternoon of August

28, a second mission – at group

strength, 47 aircraft – took off

from Duxford at 16:49 hours. Led

by Major William H Julian, of the

83rd Fighter Squadron (FS), it was

a fighter-bomber sweep of targets

behind the lines in the Aulnoye and

D

ating back to the mid-16th

century, Sawston Hall in

Cambridgeshire had been

transformed into the headquarters

of the USAAF’s 66th Fighter

Wing. From within these historic

walls 2nd Lt Frederic ‘Fred’ Edwin

Bolgert was sent news of his first

combat assignment in 1944 and

he was delighted with it. He was

destined for the 78th Fighter Group

(FG) at

Jet

Kill

Duxford, less than three miles

southwest of Sawston Hall.

Station 357 – the USAAF name

for RAF Duxford – was not your

ordinary muddy Eighth Air Force

fighter field with prefab wood

and iron shacks thrown up by

recent construction in East

Anglia. Known as ‘DX’, it was

a beautiful, manicured pre-war

permanent RAF Sector Station

which had become famous for

the part it had played in the Battle

of Britain. Pilots lived in brick-built

steam-heated officers’ club rooms

and dined on linen-covered tables. If

one had to fight a war, this was the

best way to do it in England.

Bolgert arrived on June 24 as

a replacement for the pilots

ending their first combat

G ry L Fry examines both sides of

the story of the fi rst Mess schmitt

Me 262 to be brought down

by the USAAF

Thunderbolt ‘MX-E’ being fl own by Major Richard Hewitt in July 1944. On the August 28, 1944 mission,

it was piloted by 2nd Lt Howard S Scholz. GEORGE LETZTER COLLECTION

Looking southeast from the location of the present-day Imperial War Museum, Thunderbolts of the 82nd FS

taking off en masse from Duxford’s grass.

Below

Major Joseph Myers,

leader of ‘Surtax Blue’

fl ight on August 28, 1944

and credited with the fi rst

Me 262 victory.

54 FLYPAST January 2018