Richard Ira "Dick" Bong......ace of aces

[Guest Maj Millard]

I was recently flicking through a street directory in Townsville and noticed that we now have a "Richard I Bong bridge". It is in the suburb of Annandale next to the large Lavarack Barracks, Australias' largest army base.

 

I had previously heard of Mr Bong and his exploits in the Lockheed P-38 Lightning during WW2, so I dug up his profile on Wikipedia, some of which is below :

 

Richard Ira "Dick" Bong was of Swedish assent from Poplar Wisconson, where he is now buried.

 

He enlisted as a pilot in 1938 in the Army Air Corps Aviation cadet program, and also took private pilot lessons.

 

He found himself later in Northern California posted to Hamilton Field north of San Francisco, where he transitioned to the then new twin-boomed Lockheed P-38 Lightning, as a fighter pilot, and gunnery instructor.

 

It appears he was severly grounded shortly after for: 1. Flying at low level down Market St in downtown San Francisco.(try that now) 2. Looping with three others around the Golden Gate bridge, and 3. Buzzing a house so low that he blew washing off a clothsline !. (that's low !)

 

His squadron left shortly after for Europe, leaving him behind as he was still grounded. He was then posted to the SouthWest pacific and ended up with the 49th Fighter group based in Darwin, awaiting delivery of the new and then scarce Lockheed P-38s.

 

During the next two years in and around the New Guinea area, he was accredited with 40+ kills and surpassed the legendary Eddie Rickenbackers' record of 26 accredited victorys in WWI, whilst he flew with the famous Lafayette Escadrille.

 

Bong was also awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star (2),Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Air Medal. He was later awarded the US Congressional Medal of Honor awarded personally by Gen MacArthur in a special ceromony in 1944.

 

The majority of his service in the Pacific was while he was a high ranking gunnery instructor, and he was not required to actually fly in combat. He ignored this and flew in a normal four aircraft combat formation, mostly as flight leader.

 

During one of his leave visits to the US he met (and later married) his wife Marge. On return to combat he named his P-38 'Marge' and painted her photo on the nose.

 

He said he wasn't the worlds best shot, and because of this he always shot from closer in. He often flew through the debris of his victims, and on one occasion actually colided with one of them.

 

He survived the war and was posted to the Lochheed Burbank plant in LA, where he test flew the new P-80 'Shooting Star".

 

Unfortunatly he was killed on one of these flights after the engine flamed out, when he neglected to turn on an auxiliary fuel boost pump. He stepped out of the doomed aircraft for a short skydive, but failed to get his parachute deployed in time, and died in a field in nearby North Hollywood.

 

He shared the national newspaper headlines next day with the first atomic bomb dropped on Japan (Hiroshima), which occurred the same day he was killed. He was a highly respected Major and only 24 years old.

 

When I get time I shall seek out the 'Richard I Bong' bridge in Townsville and have a look.

 

Moral of the story : Fly well and often, but don't forget to turn on the aux fuel pump when required !......

 

 

 

 

[Guest Walter Buschor]

Interesting read!!

 

But Ace of Aces? Some other names spring to mind like Erich Hartmann, Gert Barkhorn, Gunter Rall, Hans Joachim Marseille .... the list goes on.

 

A fantastic pilot he was though there's no doubt.

 

Fly safe

 

Walter

 

 

[johnm]

ace of aces in a P38 ? not a 109, 190 or a 262 ?

 

jm

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

The term "Ace of Aces" was given to him by the yanks and referred to his tally in reference to US pilots. I don't believe the yanks had any respect for any German aces at that time, having just cleared the skys over Europe of the Luftwaffe in toto.

 

Even so, the P-38 is a big aircraft and was known more for it's speed and nose armourment, more than it's manouverability. Plus it even has a steering wheel (yoke), not a stick. Not a bad effort throwing one of them around the sky against more nimble single-engined fighters, when it had to have weighed in at least twice as much weight-wise.The Jap pilots came to fear the P-38 naming it the 'twin-tail devil'...................................................................................Maj...

 

 

[fly_tornado]

I thought the trick with a P38 fighting a zero was to "shoot and scoot" use your speed to outrun your enemy. Which is why P38 was withdrawn from Europe once the Germans got BMW power in their planes...

 

 

[farri]

Ross, my first engine failure occured almost 25 years ago when I was changing from one fuel tank to the other in my Chinook which had a fuel tank on each wing strut and a tap for each tank.

 

The fuel never flowed out evenly from each tank and as the tanks had a clear section so that the fuel level could be observed,I would turn one tap off and allow the tanks to ballance out.I simply put my hand down and turned the wrong tap,shuting the fuel off.

 

I was only at 500` AGL as that was all we could go then and my only focus was to get on the ground safely,which I did on one of the local cane farmers paddocks.Two feet high cane on it but no harm done to either cane or AC.

 

Worked out what happened,started it up,taxied it out of the paddock,left it there over night then flew it out the next morning.

 

Frank.

 

Ps,Hope you don`t mind it`s a bit off topic.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Tornado, Shoot and scoot wasn't a bad manouver if you had the aircraft with the speed to do it. At least that way you still had the aircraft to fight another day. The P-38 wasn't withdrawn from combat in Europe, they just moved it aside to ground attack to give the Mustangs and Spitfires a better shot at the german machines, as they were more suited. There was always a shortage of good P-38 pilots.

 

Frank, Good story. Thats why all canefields are like golf courses, just emergency landing fields anyway when you need them !!....................................Maj...