Hell Hawks examine German plane up close instead of in combat

“Each plane carried a 108-gallon belly tank of high-octane gas, a pair of thousand-pound bombs slung under the wings, and eight heavy .50-caliber machine guns, commonly called ‘fifties.’ The P-47, believed the Hell Hawks pilots, was a flying tank.” (Hell Hawks!: The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler’s Wehrmacht)

The Hell Hawks consisted of the 385th, 386th, 387th, and 388th fighter groups during WWII and gained their recognition through bombing missions surrounding D-Day. Flying the P-47 (or more affectionately called the “Jug”), they were the first to break through German forces and clear the way for infantry to move in. Their missions mainly consisted of low-flying bombing assignments, meaning 25 to 35 feet or so above ground, and then circling back with their machine guns to make sure the area was completely destroyed and ready for ground troops. The missions needed to be precise, without any fault by pilot or bomb, but many times situations turned deadly.

Missing Air Crew Report for Lt. McKnight of the Hell Hawks

Second Lt. Jack J. Martell also paid the price of a malfunctioning fuse when he dropped his bombs. The fuses detonated too quickly and sent shrapnel into Martell’s P-47. First Lt. Zell Smith later reported that he watched Martell take the hit and proceed to fly “full throttle into the ground,” (Hell Hawks!).

Smith reports the death of Martell in the Missing Air Crew Report

Lt. William S. Lucas had almost completed his bombing mission but misjudged a hill in his flying path. He couldn’t pull up quickly enough, and “the aircraft exploded and broke apart, and the engine burned.”

Missing Air Crew Report regarding Lt. Lucas's terrible crash

Despite the many accidents, the Hell Hawks were not only invaluable but successful. They demolished their given targets, and did well in making way for Allied troops. One such pilot was Lt. Col. Donald E. Hillman, who flew three missions on D-Day.

Lt. Col. Donald E. Hillman (right) being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross

For his last mission of the day, Hillman was asked to destroy a German gunboat. “Diving through heavy flak, he silenced the gunboat with his guns and one of his bombs. He then lofted the second one over toward the antiaircraft guns which had been firing at him.” A few weeks later the territory Hillman bombed in that mission had become an Allied base. One evening he was dining with a Frenchman in the area, who served him wine, lobster, and an unusually large serving of beef. When Hillman asked how the Frenchman fared on D-Day, he responded that “it all went well until late in the day when a crazy P-47 pilot bombed a German gunboat, then lofted his second bomb into his field and killed his cow, which was being served at that very moment!” (Official site of the Hell Hawks)

Hillman flew 145 missions before being taken as a prisoner of war, from which he escaped with the help of a fellow pilot and a German guard. Hillman was reunited with his wife and family on VE day.

Another victorious pilot was 2nd Lt. Joseph R. “Dick” Miller, who on his mission the day after D-Day happened to be flying the Turnip Termite—a P-47 that wasn’t his. It belonged to Capt. Arlo C. Henry Jr. Miller was flying near Omaha Beach, when enemy fire caused his propeller to overspeed, forcing him to land. He crash-landed the plane on the beach, yards away from a minefield that engineers were working hard to clear. Although circumstances weren’t ideal, Miller still became “the first American pilot to safely land on liberated French soil.” As for the plane, well, “I think he never forgave me—a second lieutenant—for getting his ‘personal’ airplane shot down.” But Henry may have been appeased by the fact that he got a new plane built with salvaged parts from the original and called itTurnip Termite II. (Hell Hawks!)

The Turnip Termite being loaded onto a trailer to be transported and then stripped for parts to build the Turnip Termite II

Find more information about the Hell Hawks by searching Fold3’s Missing Air Crew Reports, visiting the Hell Hawks official website, or reading Hell Hawks!: The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler’s Wehrmacht.

Hell Hawks and Jugs