Mustang ACE of ACES - MAJOR GEORGE E. PREDDY

Squadron Leader Clive Rowley MBE RAF (Ret.), a former Royal Air Force fighter pilot, tells the story of USAAF fighter pilot and top-scoring Mustang ace George E. Preddy.

- CLIVE ROWLEY

P-40s in the Pacific

When the U.S. entered WW II after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, George Preddy was completing his flying training with the USAAF at Elgin Field, Florida. He graduated as a qualified pilot five days later. He was assigned to the 9th Pursuit Squadron of the 49th Pursuit Group and on January 11, 1942, the unit sailed from San Francisco on a troopship bound for Australia, where the squadron began training on the Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk.

Meanwhile, the Japanese onslaught in the Pacific was gaining momentum. On February 19, the Japanese bombed Darwin in northern Australia for the first time, before invading Timor the following day, actions which were precursors to the battle of the Java Sea and the subsequent invasion of Java. In these dire circumstances, the training of the USAAF pilots for operations had to be rapid and on March 9, Preddy was declared a fully-fledged combat pilot. Along with the rest of his unit, he flew to the remote and austere Bachelor Field, near Darwin, in Australia’s Northern Territory. Barely three months after graduating from flight school, Preddy and his colleagues in their P-40s soon found themselves engaged in a life and death struggle against the Japanese, almost always fighting against superior odds. On March 30, Preddy and seven of his fellow pilots in their P-40s were attacked by a large number of Japanese Zeros escorting bombers. Preddy was lucky to escape unscathed; three of the other P-40s were riddled with enemy bullets and one pilot had to bail out. With an increasing number of contacts with enemy aircraft, Preddy was gaining valuable combat experience. On April 27, he damaged a Zero and a Mitsubishi bomber, but he could not get killing shots against either in an encounter where the P-40s were once again outnumbered by Zeros.