1st American jet-to-jet killer

[comrade harps]

Lockheed P-80A Shooting Star
356th Fighter Squadron, 354th Pioneer Mustang Fighter Group
#655, personal mount of Captain Michael Bradley
Daegu, southern Korea
21 December, 1945


In December 1943, the 354th Fighter Group was the first to take the P-51B into combat and two years later, in October 1945, it was also the first to take the P-80A on a combat mission. After the Separate Peace/Great Betrayal of August 1944 which saw the end of fighting on the Western Front, the 354th remained at airfield A-31 in Gael, France, for two months before returning Stateside, where they were disbanded in December. In January, 1945, the 354th stood up again, initially with P-51Ds but then, as they became available from the production line, the new turbojet-powered Lockheed P-80A Shooting Star.




After extensive training, the three flying units of the 354th Fighter Group (the 353rd, 355th and 356th Fighter Squadrons) moved to the Philippines in October, 1945, and from there deployed to southern Korea via Okinawa in November. At the time, Allied ships and positions in and around southern Korea were subject to occasional tip-and-run attacks from Rikugun Ki-89 Itsumade-Kai Floyd jet bombers. Prepared for jet-to-jet combat, the pilots of the 354th were frustrated to discover over the coming weeks that the Japanese had ceased all offensive jet missions near the Korean Peninsula from the very day that the first Shooting Stars landed there. Assigned daylight top cover air defence duties, the jets pilots could only look on as Allied pilots in piston-engined fighters intercepted the occasional propeller-driven, low-altitude dawn and dusk raider. Fearing that their jet pilots were getting bored, Allied air commanders sent them on offensive missions over the Japanese Home Islands from mid-November, but the Japanese jets rarely appeared and only prop kills were made.




On 21 December, 1945, the Japanese jet pilots responded to a series of bomber strikes made across the Home Islands. However, it wasn't the bombers who were targeted by the jets, but the opposing jets of the 354th who were flying top cover for a a series of strikes against targets in central Honshu. From 10.45 hrs, elements of the 356th Fighter Squadron encountered Fuji Kaiken – Kai Terry jets from the Habu Sentai, a woman-only air defence unit; the 353rd and 355th also engaged with Terrys from other units. In the ensuing battles, the American pilots claimed 7 Terry kills, with 2 damaged and 3 probables, although the Japanese recorded 3 jet combat losses and 2 losses to other causes. The Japanese claimed 4 jet kills, 3 damaged and 5 probables, but American records confirm 2 Shooting Stars lost in air combat against Japanese jets that day.




Captain Michael Brady is credited with the first American jet-to-jet kill, piloting his P-80A #655 to a victory over a Terry at about 10.47. This kill matches Japanese accounts of a <a href="http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php?topic=37883.0">Terry</a> piloted by Lt. Aya Miyama, shot down by a Shooting Star south of Mt Daisen. This was Brady's 6th kill in the war against Japan, having joined the 356th after two tours of duty in the Pacific war. The fact that pilot who was shot down was a woman remained a closely guarded secret (even from Brady) for several years after the war; only when Lt. Aya Miyama's story was told in a Japanese newspaper in 1961 did this fact become public knowledge. Brady would go on to score 9 more air-to-air kills, including 7 in two days during the invasion of Honshu in March, 1946.

His first 3 kills were two Betty bombers and a Zero fighter whilst flying P-39Ds in defence of Port Morseby. After a rest and some time spent as an instructor, he returned to the South West Pacific theatre, racking up another two kills (both <a href="http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,37952.0.html/">Oscars</a>) before returning to the States and joining the 354th in their conversion to the Shooting Star.



As depicted, P-80A #655 Zombie/The jinx has 6 kill markings, the model being based on photographs taken as the 6th kill marking was added. Brady can be seen being congratulated by pilots and ground crew as the fresh kill marking is applied.

[The Rat]

Nicely done, and a great back story! Is that the venerable Airfix kit? Got one on the bench at the moment, hopefully will be finished as a Tuskegee mount.

[Captain Canada]

Love it. Big fan of the P-80 !

[NARSES2]

model and backstory 

[b29r]

Well done, great article about a great jet.  I need to try one of these sometime, you are providing some nice inspiration 

[comrade harps]

Nicely done, and a great back story! Is that the venerable Airfix kit? Got one on the bench at the moment, hopefully will be finished as a Tuskegee mount.

That is indeed the Airfix 1:72nd scale kit. A bargain at $5 AUD from the Melbourne Model expo this June, the kit being so old that even the instructions had gone from white paper, past yellow to a deep sepia. The decals were binned.

Not a bad kit overall, but I can see that anyone more fastidious than me would want to use or make thinner wheel well covers. Damn, they are think.

[Librarian]

Love it. Big fan of the P-80 !

The same. LOOKS like a pioneer jet, whilst the 262 always looked too advanced too quickly .