CRIPES A'MIGHTY
Major Preddy's P-51 Cripes A'Mighty 3rd painted by H.F. Copic
This page is in honor of Major George E. Preddy, Jr., top mustang ace. He had the highest number of air victories in a P-51. He was credited with 26.83 aerial plus 5 ground victories. George won his wings five days after Pearl Harbor was attacked. He flew a P-40 near Darwin, Australia for several months. While flying a training mission, he was pretending to be an enemy bomber. Another fighter diving at him caused a mid-air collision, almost killing George and it killed the other pilot. He was in the hospital for some time, ending his Pacific tour of duty. A year later he flew a P-47 Thunderbolt from Bodney, England with the 352nd Fighter Group. The 352nd was feared by the Germans and they were known as "The Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney". During his tour here he saved a B-24, "Lizzie", while facing six-to-one odds and received the Silver Star. He started flying P-51s in the Spring of 1944. On August 6th he dove into a group of 30 plus ME-109s that were heading for the bomber group he was to rendezvous with near Hamburg. He shot down six ME-109s within five minutes. George received the Distinguished Service Cross for his courage. During the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944, George's group flew out of Belgium to assist Allied ground forces. While fighting over Coblenz Christmas Day, he shot down two ME-109s and gave chase to a FW-190. As he and his wingman dove in pursuit Major Preddy was shot down accidentally by American anti-aircraft guns shooting at what they mistakenly thought were ME 109s. He was fatally wounded. Major Preddy received the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Distinguished Flying Cross with eight OLCs, the Air Medal with seven OLCs, and post-humously the Purple Heart and the Belgian Croix de Guere. Information on George Preddy is provided with permission of Joe Noah. If you would like to find out more about Major Preddy please visit the Preddy Memorial Foundation, and support their worthy cause. The co-author of the George Preddy book, Joe Noah, is always friendly and a great source of information of current projects. The video Preddy, the Mustang Ace that Joe appears in is a great story, and I highly recommend getting it. I would like to recognize the Virginia Air National Guard for honoring the 352nd Fighter Group Final Reunion, Joe Noah, and dedicating a building to Major George Preddy Jr.
This page also pays tribute to everyone including
civilians that supported the allied effort during WWII. I will never forget what these
grandparents, fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters sacrificed for my freedom. I try each day
to remember what they did and earn it. It may be hard for someone that never had a parent,
sibling, or friend that fought in WWII to understand what was at stake. I can only imagine
the horror that so many faced. It is my hope that our tributes and memorials to them show at
least some small measure of our appreciation for their selflessness to abolish the
dictatorship that imprisoned so many.
My father
Lynn Luster and his brothers
Phil and Quentin served during the war.
My father was a Army paratrooper with the 11th Airbrorne stationed in Occupied Japan
after the war, but his brothers saw action. |
