George Welch’s birth
certificate lists his last name as Schwartz. After WWI, ethnic hatred continued
toward Germans. To protect their son's promising future, his parents legally
changed his to Welsh.
Son of a wealthy
family, George attended private schools and he excelled at sports. His academic
abilities were remarkable . . without his putting out any more personal effort
than required. He moved on to Purdue to study mechanical engineering.
But smitten by
aviation, George stayed at Purdue for the necessary two years needed to be
accepted for Air Corp pilot training.
In slightly over a
year, Welch was commissioned, got his wings . . then really ' lucked out '
by receiving a
dream fighter
pilot assignment to the 47th Fighter Squadron near Pearl
Harbor.
Arriving in February
1941, George was startled to see antique Boeing P-26 fighters. This vulnerable '
Gee Bee ' looking bird
was little more than an airborne target
.. . for the more powerful . . faster enemy fighters.
To have flown
the ' Pea Shooter ' in air combat against a modern air force was considered
suicidal . . and that was soon demonstrated in the Philippines. But his
discomfort was assuaged when promised the ' Pea Shooters ' would soon be
replaced
by a slightly better Curtiss P-36 . .
and . . factory-new P-40s .
Welch settled into
the easy pace of a pre-war Hawaii. There was an abundance of time off. And
parties were a favorite pastime, frequently lasting from sunset to dawn. George
smoothly integrated into the social life with his typical self-confidence.
And life
was pretty good for the 24-year-old
fighter pilot.
The P-40B fighters
arrived. As long as its pilot did NOT try to out turn the Zero in a dogfight,
and instead took advantage
of its dive acceleration . . and a tiny
handful of additional strengths . . it would fight . . fairly well against
Japanese fighters IF
the aircraft was able to achieve a
strategic advantage.
The party and poker
game started shortly after 21:00 hours. It continued strong until the sky had
become brighter as
the sun neared horizon on December 7th,
1941.
Welch and fellow
pilot, Ken Taylor crawled into their beds at Wheeler Airfield, expecting to
sleep in that Sunday morning.
But two hours into their ' party
stupored slumber ' a loud outdoors rumble caused them to leap straight out of
their beds.
Through his B.O.Q.'s
windows, Welch was surprised to see oily smoke rising from the burning airplanes
on Wheeler air
field's flight line. Then . . just
outside . . a ' red meat ball '. . blurred past his bedroom
window.
J-A-P-A-N-E-S-E
!
Pulling his rumpled party clothes back
on . . George raced down the hall . . as Taylor burst out of his
door.
Both them had flown
their assigned P-40B fighters over to a smaller Haleiwa airfield 16 miles away
from Honolulu, as part
of an effort to disperse the squadron’s
fighters, in case of attack.
Welsh phoned Haleiwa's aircfield's duty
number, ordering the duty sergeant to make sure both their fighters were fueled
and armed . . warmed up. And that . . immediately . . he and Taylor were
jumping into their car . . and be on their way.
They piled in
Taylor's car . . And as they sped through the base gate . . as a Japanese
dive-bomber's bullets gouged the sandy dirt of their tire marks.
Once outside the
base, Taylor pushed the car to several times . . touch 100 mph . . during 16
hill-winding miles. Then in a cloud of sand . . Taylor jammed on his
brakes very close to their warmed up . . armed
P-40s.
Lifting a
party-suited leg into his fighter's cockpit, Welch angrily listened to the crew
chief tell him :
" S-T-O-P,
sir
!
We just got word that you are
NOT going. Just
' hide
away ' your airplanes ! "
Welch instantly shouted
:
" G-E-T
O-F-F MY
WING ! "
The crew chief slid
off. George added throttle and fast taxied to the narrow grass runway.
Ignoring any formal checklist, he slammed on full power and roared down the turf
.. . with fighter pilot Ken Taylor . . couple of minutes behind him.
There had been no 50
caliber bullets available. But Welch ' yanked ' on the charger handles for
the wing-mounted [ deer rifle sized ] .30 caliber bullets.
At the same time, he
spotted a large formation of Japanese about to attack a nearby Marine airfield.
With his P-40's throttle
pushed hard against its stop, Welch
raced in with destruction and revenge on his mind.
George did NOT bother to
count them.
He did not care HOW many enemy he was
attacking.
Very close in, Welch
lined up on a dive-bomber . . opened fire. And although one of his wing
gun's jammed, an elliptical-
winged, one-engined Japanese bomber
exploded in flames . . nosed straight into the
ground.
Pulling away . . Welch felt his P-40
fighter take some ' hits ' from a Japanese bomber's rear gunner, flying nearby.
Temporarily moving
out of shooting range, George began his improvised and incredible career as a
test pilot as he ' felt
out ' his enemy re-designed
fighter.
After determining
that it was still flyable, he headed back just as his buddy ' flamed ' a
red meatball
emblazoned
bomber.
Zooming in after a
Japanese Val bomber, interrupting its victorious return to its
carrier. Welch . . closed to point-blank
range . . fired his un-jammed 30 cal.
guns . . and sent the bomber tumbling down.
Meanwhile, Taylor
latched on to another Japanese Val—fired point blank—and sent the Val down to
smack the beach at
tourists' favorite Barber’s
Point.
As suddenly as it began . . the Hawaiian
sky was void of Japanese aircraft.
Temporarily void.
Both pilots touched
down at Wheeler Field, to jink around dozens of bomb craters in the runway
.. . before taxiing in to replenish their nearly exhausted ammo.
Fortunately, one of the gas trucks had
survived the attack.
And while Welch and
Taylor remained in their cockpits quafing down water as their planes were fueled
and armed . . to
include the crew's finding .50 caliber
ammo for the P-40's machine guns mounted just above their engines.
Armorers could not
able to clear George’s wing gun jam in time for the turn-around. Time for
the turn around was nearly
too slow . . as it was. But the
..50 calibers would more than substitute for a ' deer rifle.
'
Another formation of
Japanese aircraft arrowed in to strike Pearl. Welch saw them and waved the
ground crew away . .
started the Allison . . goosed it back
to the runway and roared away . . while behind him, Taylor zoomed off using an
alternative runway.
When Welch began
retracting his wheels, he saw a Japanese fighter firing at Taylor on his
take-off roll . . while other Japanese fighters began strafing Welch.
With wheels not quite
up, Welsh rolled into a steep left turn . . finessing a stall's edge, in
an attempt to shoot at Taylor's attacker. As Welsh felt his landing gear
click into place . . this brilliant and natural pilot had already pointed and
fired his 50's
at the Zero.
Welsh's guns exploded the lightly
armored Zero’s fuel tanks. It became a fire ball . . then slammed into the
airfield's edge.
Minutes later, Welch spotted a lone dive
bomber headed for its home aircraft carrier.
At full power it
didn’t take long for the P-40 to overhaul it. And under Welsh's decimating .50
caliber fire power . . his
fourth victim smacked the sea.
Low on ammo, George returned to
Honolulu.
After shutting down
his engine he discovered that Taylor had been shot in the arm—in one side . .
out the other—by the
same Japanese Zero Welch had shot off
his tail . . during take-off. Courageously . . the gutsy Taylor had torn
off some of his
' party togs . . plugged up the bloody
holes . . then continued shooting at
Japanese.
Taylor had shot into
several Japanese aircraft. On the other hand, he was too busy to see them
crash, so he claimed only two probables . . and he confirmed at least two
aircraft falling . . before Welch's guns.
The exhausted
pilots refueled, re-armed and took-off on a third sortie. By this time
however, the Japanese carriers had
defensively turned away.
For their bravery, both
Welch and Taylor were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross—certainly less
than they deserved.
Hap Arnold later
stated he was ready to approve the Medal of Honor for Welch. However,
their disgruntled squadron commander successfully argued . . both fighter pilots
had defied his orders. So any higher honor was
squashed.
Nine Japanese first
wave aircraft, were shot down by anti-aircraft. However, during the second
attack wave, nearly one-half
of the twenty Japanese aircraft
destroyed were shot down by vengeful fighter pilots.
Japanese Admiral
Nagumo, who had already decided two attack waves were all he could afford to
risk . . and he did not want
to gift the unanchored reminder of U.S.
Naval fleet a better chance to located his now depleted force . . and pulled
away.
During December,
Welch continued to fly combat patrols around Hawaii. But, the electrifying news
of his confirmed victories had been released. He was ordered back to the
States.
The country was badly in need of a
hero.
Welch absolutely
fit.
After several hectic months of War Bond
speeches, Welch reported to the 8th Fighter Group in New Guinea.
The good news was
that his new squadron had been seeing some combat. The bad news : was that
the 8th was flying a
hopelessly inferior fighter
aircraft . . the Bell P-39 Airacobra.
Largely due to the
aircraft's poor ' air-to-air combat performance ' . . and limited round-trip
range, Welch mostly flew it in ground support . . where the
Airacobra's 37mm cannon was useful. But its Allison engine lacked a
two-stage supercharger . .
making it an absolute ' flying iron pig
.. . especially at higher altitudes.
Welch had arrived in New Guinea with four confirmed Pearl Harbor aerial
victories. And he added three more air-to-air
kills by the following December 7th.
The Airacobra's lack
of performance at altitude was not its only key sin. The other was .
.. limited combat radius . .because the majority of air-to-air fighter conflicts
were way beyond their ' iron pigs ' reach.
He despised the ' iron pig ' and he
repeatedly requested a transfer to a P-38 squadron.
Once George cornered
his Group Commander. He asked when they could expect to get P-38s.
The Commander had and interesting response. And it had unique
possibilities :
“ We will get them . . when we run out of
P-39s Airacobras !”
Hearing the Commander's reply . . was
all . . Welch and the other squadron mates needed . . as they decided to give a
' shove '. . toward the almost worthless ' iron pigs ' demise
!
From that point
forward, most real . . or imaginary . . Airacobra problems during flight .
.. would result in
its pilot unfastening his safety belt
.. . then hitting the silk. [ Note : I'll bet you can visualize
yourself using your
D-ring and dingy!
]
But even as Welsh he
cooperated to ' run his squadron out of ' Iron
Pigs,' he was
able to finagle his transfer
across to the jungle strip's other side
.. . to fly the 80th Squadron's P-38s.
The P-38 aircraft became an integral
part of George Welch's shoulder blades . . he was the P-38
Lightning.
In a handful of engagements . .. George
shot down nine ( 9 ) more Japanese aircraft.
One day in June 1943,
he destroyed two Zeros over Lae Island. Then, two months later, George downed
three
powerfully-engined ' Tony 'Ki-61
fighters near Wewak Island.
However, his biggest
day since, Pearl came on Sept. 2, 1943, when he destroyed three more Japanese
Zeros along
with a ' twin-engine fighter nick-named
' Dinah.
The startling thing about Welch’s
victories is that they all came . . in multiples.
Virtually every time he found himself in
air combat, he would shoot down two or more of the
enemy.
During those weeks,
George Welch's endemic and lingering malaria had grown far worse. He
was ordered to a
Sydney hospital, where doctors were
shocked at his physical condition.
They decided he
had seen enough combat, so with sixteen ( 16 ) air-to-air confirmed kills,
George was sent home . . Unfortunately, in terms of combat dog fighting,
his squadron's opportunities continued to increase.
Without his having contracted a
debilitating malaria, George Welch may have surpassed multiple Ace Bong's and
McGuire's totals.
[ abridged from several sources
]
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