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T-BOLT KILL
by COL Burt MacDowell,
United States Air Force (Retired)
One of the more unusual characteristics of Fred Hillis' flying career
was that he was one of only a handful of pilots in the Army Air Forces to
score a legitimate aerial victory against an Allied aircraft -- in
this case, another P-47 Thunderbolt.
One of Fred's closest friends, Colonel Burt MacDowell, recounts the
story surrounding this almost unbelievable event in his memoirs ...
AND AN AMERICAN FLAG??
In August 1944, I went overseas with a
good friend of mine, the late Fred Hillis, originally
from Brosley, Missouri. He came to Eglin Field, Florida,
in November 1942 right out of pilot training school,
with a beautiful new bride, Mary,
Fred was a large man about six feet three inches as I recall, and
weighed more than two hundred pounds. He was a medium bomber test pilot
at Eglin Field in the Proving Ground Group of the Proving Ground Command
assigned to the Medium Bombardment Section and flew the North American
B-25 twin engine bomber and the Martin B-26 twin engine bomber. Plus
anything else he could find to fly,
Fred loved flying and used to come over to our Fighter Section and "bum"
fighter time. Eventually, he flew every fighter we had. He desperately
wanted to fly the Bell P-39 "Airacobra" but was too large to fit in the
cockpit with a parachute so he flew around the traffic pattern without
one, just to say he had flown the P-39. That was the kind of guy Fred
was. Everyone liked him for he had a marvelous personality, a wide grin
and a very good sense of humor.
In England he was assigned to the 9th Air Force in France to a Republic
P-47 "Thunderbolt" fighter group. When the war ended, there were five
emblems designating five aerial victories painted on the cockpit canopy
of Fred's P-47: four German swastikas and one American flag, so
that meant he was an “Ace” ... he had shot down five aircraft in combat
- four German planes and one American plane.
But it was not what you are thinking. The American flag representing the
P-47 Fred had shot down was unmarked and flown by a German pilot, who
had just shot down Fred’s squadron commander! The German ducked into a
cloud and Fred went around the cloud and nailed him as he emerged on the
other side. So it was a legitimate claim after all!
You would have to know Fred to appreciate this display of his sense of
humor. He died in 1972 after a successful career as a businessman.
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As it turned out, during the desperate last days of the war, the
Luftwaffe had repaired and refitted a number of lightly-damaged Allied
aircraft which had come down in German-controlled areas. While
several different aircraft types were used, P-47s and P-51s were
considered especially valuable. Their ability to easily infiltrate
almost any kind of Allied formation without raising suspicions enabled
them to fly along -- often for several minutes -- selecting the most
lucrative targets to engage at will. By the time the confused
victims realized what was happening to them, the intruder was usually well
on his way back to base.
Such was the case with Hillis' fifth and final "aerial
kill;" except that this particular Jagdflieger tangled
with the wrong P-47 driver. Initially, the feint was successful,
though Hillis was quick to realize what was afoot. Before
the German could line up on a second target, the hunter had
become the hunted. Though it is difficult to say for certain,
it seems likely that on that day Fred Hillis became the only
USAAF pilot of the war to make "Ace" by downing an
aircraft of the same mission type, design and series as his
own machine.
Watson's Whizzers at Melun, France
(Hillis at right)
Cookie VII is the first aircraft in the background.
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