I always want to be a fighter pilot and I'm not sure where that came from
probably in watching the Battle of Britain films and seeing dogfights and
things like that. I thought you know if I was in a single-engine - single-pilot
airplane, I'd be in control of my environment. When my time came up
they said well no no you but Anderson you you you all you guys are gonna go to
a brand new fighter group that's gonna train here in the United States and then
go fight the war. Then February somewhere in there, that's when we got signed to
this new you know original category of this new fighter group. Then we got on
the Queen Elizabeth one of the two largest ocean liners in the world and sailed
to England. We would become the first unit in the eighth Air Force you know
the strategic when doing a strategic bombing and in Europe. What that
meant was we're flying a new airplane that was a tremendous airplane and it
kind of saved the air war in Europe. In the very early days we had these new bombers
we were building the 17 Flying Fortress you know fight its way in, and fight its
way out, flying in these large formations during daylight so we could use the
Norden bombsight to go after military targets and destroy the
war-making capability in Germany. Well it didn't work that way. By the mid-1943
strategic bombing of Germany was very much in doubt. Where everyone lost
so sixty to eighty airplanes and when they lose that many bombers you know
that's ten member crew. I said okay we gotta have gotta have the
fighter escort. We had the Pioneer Mustang group that was in
Europe signed to the 9th Air Force waiting for the invasion so to speak. It
was gonna be the first ground support unit for the invasion. We got over there
in 1943 November through 54th really good outfit their Mustang was in nine
and they didn't make the news so to speak. So they were the 8th Air Force average combat
mission was about four and a half hour. The longest mission I ever flew was
six hours and 55 minutes on D-Day. The 8th Air Force was run by bomber
pilots.And the people that believed in strategic warfare and things like that and they
told us how to escort and they wanted us to be close - to want us to stay close to
him - they want us surrounding them you know and when the enemy came in you were
supposed to drive them away and come back. Luftwaffe had to be defeated before
we could invade Europe. It was mandatory and we had to never share superiority. We
had to shut down them you know make it impossible for the left off to put up
a major effort to stop the invasion. The arrival of the Mustang and the change of
command who live to take a charge. I think the significant factor in the
air war in Europe. He said, "The 8th Fighter Command is
to destroy the Luftwaffe." And he changed the tactics he says, "from now on you
fighter pilots when you engage the enemy, take them to the ground and hold them.
I think most historians will agree that the spring of 1944 was when we broke the
back of the Luftwaffe. We destroyed it by killing their experienced pilots.
it's called pursue and destroy.