357th Fighter Group


The 357th Fighter Group was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. The 357th operated P-51 Mustang aircraft as part of the U.S. Eighth Air Force and its members were known unofficially as the Yoxford Boys after the village of Yoxford near their base in the UK.
Its victory totals in air-to-air combat are the most of any P-51 group in the Eighth Air Force and third among all groups fighting in Europe.
The 357th flew 313 combat missions between 11 February 1944 and 25 April 1945. It is officially credited by the U.S. Air Force with having destroyed 595.5 German airplanes in the air and 106.5 on the ground. The 357th as such existed as a USAAF unit only during World War II; postwar, the group’s history, lineage and honors were bestowed on an Ohio Air National Guard group which considers itself a direct descendant of the 357th FG.

History

Lineage

Squadron commanders

Three fighter squadrons were constituted 16 December 1942, and assigned to the group.
362d Fighter SquadronDates of commandCasualty Status
Lt.Col. Hubert I. Egnes16 December 1942 – 10 March 1944Killed in action
Major Joseph E. Broadhead10 March 1944 – 25 August 1944
Major John B. England25 August 1944 – 8 April 1945
Major Leonard K. Carson8 April 1945 – 1 November 1945
Captain Robert D. Brown1 November 1945–
363d Fighter SquadronDates of commandCasualty Status
Capt. Stuart R. Lauler8 January 1943 – 20 May 1943
Capt. Clay R. Davis20 May 1943 – 7 July 1943Killed in training accident
Major Donald W. Graham−27 September 1943
1st Lt. Wesley S. Mink27 September 1943 – November 1943
Capt. Joseph H. Giltner, Jr.Nov 1943–25 January 1944Prisoner of war
Major Montgomery H. Throop, Jr.25 January 1944 – June 1944
Major Edwin W. HiroJun 1944–20 September 1944Killed in action
Lt.Col. Guernsey I. Carlisle20 September 1944 – January 1945
Major Donald C. McGeeJanuary 1945 – February 1945
Major Donald H. BochkayFeb 1945–
364th Fighter SquadronDates of commandCasualty Status
Capt. Varian K. White16 December 1942 – 18 May 1943Killed in training accident
Major Thomas L. Hayes, Jr.22 May 1943 – 14 August 1944
Major John A. Storch14 August 1944 – May 1945
Major Donald C. McGeeMay 1945–
Major Richard A. Peterson14 August 1944 – 8 April 1945

Non-component support organizations

  • 50th Service Group headquarters and detachment
  • 469th Service Squadron
  • 70th Station Complement
  • 1177th Quartermaster Company
  • 1076th Signal Company
  • 1260th Military Police Company
  • 1600th Ordnance Company
  • 18th Weather Squadron
  • 2121st Engineering Firefighting Platoon
SOURCES: Commanders, AFHRA website and Maurer Maurer; other staff and support units, Olmsted

Training history and movement overseas

The 357th remained at Hamilton Field, while its squadrons were activated and personnel and equipment acquired. Cadre for the new group were drawn from the 328th Fighter Group, already at Hamilton. Two of the three designated squadron commanders had served in the Philippines during the first days of the war, Major Hubert Egnes with the 17th Pursuit Squadron, and Captain Varian White with the 20th Pursuit Squadron, and both had air-to-air victories over Japanese aircraft.
On 3 March 1943, the group moved by rail to Tonopah, Nevada, where it remained until 3 June. At Tonopah the members lived in and worked under primitive conditions, described as "tar-paper shacks", and without enclosed hangar maintenance facilities. They inherited much-used P-39 Airacobra fighters from the 354th Fighter Group, training at Tonopah preceding them, and immediately began a regimen of six-day work weeks with six sorties a day practicing air-to-air combat, bombing, and strafing maneuvers. While adequately powered at low altitudes and suited for close support operations, the P-39 was prone to stalls at higher altitudes. Three pilots and a flight surgeon died in training accidents while at Tonopah, including Captain White, who was replaced by Major Thomas Hayes, another veteran of the early Pacific campaign.
In June the group entered its next training phase, changing stations to Santa Rosa Army Air Field, California. There the group continued training on P-39s, flying bomber escort and coastal patrol practice missions. On 7 July 1943, a mid-air collision occurred between two P-39s, killing both pilots including Captain Clay Davis, commander of the 363 FS. On the same date the group commander, Lt.Col. Stetson, relinquished command, and sources who were present at the time are contradictory about a possible connection: Olmsted states that Stetson was sent overseas to command a fighter group; Chuck Yeager said he was relieved of command for the high death rate in training. Thirteen pilots and a flight surgeon died in P-39 training accidents in the United States, and numerous aircraft were lost or heavily damaged in non-fatal accidents.
The 357th received an influx of 60 new pilots and moved again, to bases at Oroville and Marysville, California in August 1943. It entered its final phase of training on 28 September with the squadrons redeploying to Second Air Force bases at Pocatello, Idaho; Casper, Wyoming; and Ainsworth, Nebraska, respectively, where they engaged in large-formation mock interceptor missions against bomber groups in training. On 24 October after a final tactical inspection, the group was declared ready for overseas deployment. Beginning 3 November, the 357th turned in its P-39s and entrained for Camp Shanks, New York, where the entire group staged for embarkation aboard the, departing New York City on 23 November 1943. Debarking at Greenock, Scotland, on 29 November, the group immediately moved by train to its base in Suffolk.

Combat operations and tactics

All mission dates, targets, and details from Roger Freeman, Mighty Eighth War Diary, by date of mission. German unit identifications are from Merle Olmsted.

Ninth Air Force

The 357th had been allocated to the Ninth Air Force as a P-51 tactical air support unit. It moved into its base at RAF Raydon on 30 November 1943. It had no aircraft until 19 December, when the it received a former Mustang III of RAF Fighter Command, hastily repainted in U.S. olive drab. By the end of the year the 357th received 15 Mustangs, severely restricting conversion training for the pilots, and some made the transition by ferrying in new aircraft. All but a handful gained flying experience in the new aircraft only by flying combat operations.
This handful, consisting of group and squadron commanders and proposed flight leaders, made approximately a dozen sorties on escort missions with the 354th Fighter Group, which had been flying combat only since 1 December. Pilots from both units learned that the P-51s still had maintenance flaws to be worked out, primarily in guns that jammed in maneuvering and engines that overheated from loss of coolant, and the commanding officer of the 363 FS was shot down on a mission while flying with the 354th Fighter Group on 25 January 1944.
The need for a long-range escort fighter had resulted in a decision to give the Eighth Air Force a priority for the Mustang, reversing the earlier allocation of these groups to the Ninth for tactical support of Allied ground operations in France. The 357th was reassigned to VIII Fighter Command in exchange for a P-47 group that had already begun combat operations, and at the end of January, changed bases with the 358th Fighter Group, moving to its permanent base at RAF Leiston on 31 January.

VIII Fighter Command, Eighth Air Force

Initial operations

Assigned to the 66th Fighter Wing, the 357th was the first P-51 Mustang Group of the Eighth Air Force. Between its move to Leiston and 11 February, when it flew its first combat mission, the group received a full inventory of P-51B fighters. On 8 February six pilots flew a final mission with the 354th, a deep penetration bomber escort to Frankfurt, Germany, and lost a pilot killed in action.
The first group mission, led by Medal of Honor-recipient Major James H. Howard of the 354th FG, was an escort mission for B-24's bombing V-1 sites in the Pas de Calais. The new commander of the 4th Fighter Group, Lt.Col. Don Blakeslee, led two similar missions on 12 and 13 February, with the first combat loss occurring on 13 February. The 357th changed commanders on 17 February, its former commander Col. Chickering moving up to a staff position in the Ninth Air Force, and its new CO Col. Spicer the former executive officer of the 66th Fighter Wing.
The groups' fourth combat mission was its first over Germany, at the start of the coordinated strategic bombing attacks against the Luftwaffe and the German aircraft industry that came to be called the "Big Week." The 357th flew all five days, losing eight Mustangs in combat but recording its first 22 aerial victories. Attacks intensified as Berlin was bombed by the USAAF for the first time in March, with the group shooting down 20 fighters during the first major raid on 6 March. The 364th Fighter Squadron led the group in aerial victories, with 32 by the end of March, and with two pilots claiming ace status on 16 March.
In its first month of operations, the 357th flew 15 missions, losing 14 P-51s but credited with 59 kills. On an escort mission to Bordeaux, France, on 5 March, the 357th lost two aircraft. Group commander Col. Henry Spicer was captured while the French Resistance aided Flight Officer Charles E. Yeager in evading capture for 25 days. He successfully escaped to Spain, where he remained six weeks before being returned to Allied control.