December 2018 FLYPAST 41escorted them to the target where
all hell broke loose and we were
involved in a huge dogfight with
the Luftwaffe. During this massive
air battle, we shot down six of their
aircraft and lost five of ours, three
from the 354th.”
During this combat, which was
probably against Messerschmitts
from JG 53, 2d Lt Gilbert
Patterson, flying P-51B 43-6885/
WR-X, collided with 43-24824/
WR-H flown by Lt Garlyn
Hoffman. Both Mustangs crashed.
Hoffman managed to bale out
and evaded the enemy for a while,
but was later captured near the
Swiss border, but Patterson died in
the accident. The third pilot lost
was Capt Robert Kurtz who crash-landed in P-51D 44-14001/WR-A.
He also became a PoW.
Warren Peglar was also closely
engaged, as he explained: “About
ten Me 109s came in from seven
o’clock. The ‘bounce’ blew us apart,
so far as maintaining a co-ordinated
escort was concerned.
“I identified an Me 109 about
1,000ft below me. I recall it very
clearly. I wound up turning onto an
Me 109 attacking a Fortress. He’d
pulled up alongside the Fort and I
was above him [but] coming down.
“I came up behind him too fast
and almost overshot him, and I
actually saw his face for an instant.
I’d throttled back and was fairly
close when I opened fire and hit all
over the cockpit. He turned down
and I followed him and saw the
canopy come off.
“Eventually he went in with no
’chute opening. That kind of shook
me up but there were bombers to
get back to, so up I went. I joined
four other P-51s and we climbed
back to 22,000ft and positioned
ourselves half a mile from a box of
B-17s, which were five miles out
from the target.
“I was flying on the extreme left
nearest the B-17s when I noticed
an untidy gaggle coming in on the
rear B-17s at six o’clock. The whole
flight came down and I broke over
to the right and followed ‘balls out’.
One pulled up to about 21,000ft
and I came up dead behind him.
I identified an Fw 190 in rusty
brown camouflage with a long-
range attachment on his belly.Above
One of the 354th FS
P-51Bs fl own by Flt Lt
Warren Peglar was 42-
106950/WR-P ‘The Iowa
Beaut’, the usual mount
of his roommate Lt Bob
Hulderman. Peglar fi rst
fl ew it on an escort to
Munich on July 31, 1944
and lastly to Berlin on
August 27.Left
Pages of Warren
Peglar’s logbook
showing his missions
with the USAAF.