38 FLYPAST December 2018
WARREN PEGLAR WAS AMONG
COMMONWEALTH PILOTS WHO FLEW WITH
THE US EIGHTH AIR FORCE DURING 1944.
HE SHARED HIS RECOLLECTIONS WITH
ANDREW THOMASAbove
This remarkable photo
is thought to be of
Flt Lt Warren Peglar
positioned off the
left side of a B-17
formation on August
3, 1944, moments
before he engaged Fw
190s – one of which
he shot down to claim
his second victory of
the day.Right
Flt Lt Warren Peglar on
the nose of his 354th
FS P-51C at Steeple
Morden in August- ALL WARREN
PEGLAR UNLESS STATED
WORLD WAR TWO PILOT MEMOIR
A
fter the US Army Air Force
(USAAF) became stationed
in the UK from 1942, its
presence afforded opportunities for
RAF and Commonwealth airmen to
be schooled by their fellow aviators
from ‘across the pond’.
One of them, Warren Peglar, had
been born in Canada in October
1920 and enlisted in the Royal
Canadian Air Force in December- After completing his flying
training, in 1943 he sailed to
England and joined the Spitfire-
equipped 501 Squadron, with
which he completed a full tour of
cross-Channel operations, including
covering the D-Day landings in
June 1944.
His posting ended soon after and
he was called for an interview with
his station commander. Warren
explained: “The wing commander
asked me if I would be interested
in joining the US^ Eighth
Air Force for experience on P-51
fighters. The RAF was interested in
daylight bombing for which they
would need a wing of long-range
fighter squadrons for escort duties.
“I jumped at the offer and was
posted to the 355th Fighter Group’s
354th Fighter Squadron at Steeple
Morden, about 40 miles north of
London. I arrived on July 12 and
began flying the US P-51 Mustang,
a long-range fighter plane used
primarily for escorting Fortresses and
Liberator four-engined bombers.”WITH THE ‘MIGHTY
EIGHTH’
Warren was one of a number of
British and Commonwealth fighter
pilots who, in the summer of 1944,
were seconded to the USAAF for
experience in the long-range bomber
escort role against the Luftwaffe’sformidable
Reichsverteidigung
(Defence of the Reich)
organisation.
Another was Royal New
Zealand Air Force pilot Flt Lt Jack
Cleland, who began flying with the
Leiston, Suffolk-based 357th Fighter
Group’s 363rd Fighter Squadron
on July 15. He was soon allocated a
personal aircraft – P-51D 413573/
B6-V, which he named Isobel III
after his wife, and added two crosses
below the cockpit for his previous
aeriel victories.
Cleland flew on many of the
same operations as Warren Peglar,
including lengthy missions to
Russia, and was the only RNZAF
pilot to fly with the Eighth Air