WORLD WAR TWO PILOT MEMOIRE
44 FLYPAST December 2018
WORLD WAR TWO PILOT MEMOIR
“The Hun pilot went into a
very skilled display of low flying,
combined with good evasive skidding
and slipping. I finally got fed up with
this and closed to about 50 yards and
waited for him to straighten out. He
did, and I let him have a six-second
burst and got strikes on the wings
and cockpit area.
“Then the canopy came off, along
with pieces of the airframe. He
pulled up to approximately 50ft and
baled out over a town. The ’109
[crashed] into the centre of the town
and the pilot followed right behind.
His ’chute failed to open.”It had been a successful day for the
354th FS, as Peglar’s CO, Maj Bert
Marshall, also claimed two kills while
1/Lts Royce Priest, Floyd Shulz and
Henry Brown each reported one.
There was an even more memorable
mission a few days later...EASTWARD BOUND
“On September 15 we were to escort
bombers to Russia, but this trip had
to be aborted due to bad weather,”
recalled Peglar. “I had to return early
because one of my long-range tanks
was malfunctioning and I ended up
belly anding at Manston.
“However, on September 18, this
time we went to Russia! This was
the last of the ‘shuttle’ raids and we
escorted about 110 B-17s to drop
supplies outside Warsaw in support
of the Polish Home Army, who were
fighting the Germans in the city to
hold them until the Russian army
could get in to help them.
“I was flying No.3 to the
wing leader, Bert Marshall. My
roommate, Bob Hulderman, was my
wingman. We were jumped by ’109s
near Warsaw, but our wing drove
them off. Then a flight of Russian
Yak fighters came in to help.
“We were airborne for eight hours
in total and finally landed, near dusk,
at an airdrome outside Piryatin, nearKiev. We lost two pilots and scored
four enemy aircraft.
“After we all had landed and had
something to eat, we were briefed
by a resident US Army Air Force
intelligence officer. He told us the
Russians did not like having an
American military presence in their
country and, therefore, we were
going to leave for Italy the next day.
“As our flight from Warsaw to Kiev
was uneventful we were able to get
an idea of how vast this country was,
and we were only in a small western
part of Russia. I gave an older
Russian woman a bar of Palmolivesoap, and I left her just staring at
[it] as if it was made of gold.
Our 56 P-51s were airborne
at approximately 1000hrs and
proceeded on a southwest course
to pick up the B-17s to cross the
Carpathian Mountains, then
over Czechoslovakia, Rumania
and Hungary and finally across
Yugoslavia and the Adriatic to Italy.
“While we were over the
Carpathians at 20,000ft, Bob
Hulderman called to me on the
radio: ‘Peg, you’re trailing white
smoke.’ I called him back to tell
him I had some trouble but got no
response. I signalled that I was going
to leave the formation and head
down, where there would not be as
much strain on an engine losing its
coolant.
“I took the P-51 down to just above
the mountains and proceeded on a
course that would eventually take me
to San Severo airdrome in Italy.
“The flight was going okay until
I crossed into Rumania, where
I suddenly saw a flight of three
aircraft heading straight at me. They
went right over the top of me –
three Me 109s! I guessed they were
on a training mission because they
continued and so did I.
“Eventually I saw the Adriatic in
the distance and was able to headfor San Severo. By weaving, I could
see I was still trailing smoke, a little
blacker by then, and the engine
began cutting. I went straight into
the airdrome where there was an
aircraft wreck on the runway, still
burning, but I had no choice but to
get my plane down.
“The rest of the squadron arrived
later and were all happy to see I’d
made it safely. We stayed there
for two days and I was assigned
a replacement P-51, which was
at another field in the area, that I
picked up and flew back to England
by myself, though on the way I went
low flying and crossed over Paris –
and that was a great experience.
“I was the first pilot back from the
shuttle raid, so I was quizzed closely
by the intelligence officers.
“I made one more trip with
the 355th, on September 25th,
a B-24 escort to Koblenz, which
was uneventful.
“I had already been informed
the RAF had dropped the idea of
a daylight bombing force and theUS Eighth Air Force advised me I
would be awarded the US DFC,
and US Air Medal and could wear
the ribbons [henceforth]. These
decorations were published in the
US Services magazine and The Stars
and Stripes a few months later.
“The next day I received a
telephone call from Sqn Ldr
Barnett asking me if I would like
to join 274 Squadron, which had
re-equipped with Tempest Mk.Vs
and was assigned to the 2nd Tactical
Air Force. So, on September 26, I
re-joined the RAF.”
Warren Peglar left the RCAF
after the war, having been awarded
the British DFC to go with his
US medals. The most successful
Commonwealth pilot to fly with the
Eighth Air Force, he passed away
peacefully at his home in Canada
aged 93, on May 19, 2014.Yugoslavia and the Adriatic to Italy.US Eighth Air Force advised me I
would be awarded the US DFC,Right
After a fi ghter-bomber
mission on August
18, 1944, led by Capt
Lenfest, Warren Peglar
strafed the airfi eld
at Dole-Tavaux,
destroying a Ju 52
transport.Right
Warren Peglar during
his retirement in
Canada, in 1995.