Last but not least: Target of Opportunity - by Richard "Dick" Hewitt. I knew Dick (RIP). Even at the ripe old age of 88 when I met him, he was still a "Fighter Pilot", smart, cocky and full of life. He shared many first had accounts of flying combat in Europe and was one of only a few pilots who did three combat tours and who fought and scored in both P47's and P51's. While he as always careful not to rag on one or the other, I always got the impression that he liked the big Jug the best. "Big Dick" was painted on his P47 by his crew chief. His wingman at the time was also named Dick and was therefore dubbed forever to be known as "Lil Dick". Gotta love it. He told a story of once having a V2 rocket fly past his wing so close that he could hear it over the roar of the engine in his fighter, I think this was sometime in 1944? I have an autographed copy of Dick's book and consider his friendship to be a great treasure. Sadly we lost him in 2014 at the age of 92. He and most of his colleagues are gone but to history now. We should all remember what special young men they were to fly across the Channel to do battle with the most fearsome airforce of all time in 1943/44 the Luftwaffe. One on one the German aces were damn tough to handle. Fortunately for us the allies out numbered the Luftwaffe by about 10:1 most of the time. If you have ever looked at a P51 beside of a Messerschmitt, the little German fighter is about 3/4 the size of its American opponent. Smaller, lighter, highly maneuverable and possessing either a 20mm or 30mm cannon in its nose, made the Bf109G/K models formidable weapons. I once sat in a FW190A5 that was being restored in Florida. Armed with 4-20mm cannon and a radial engine almost as powerful at the one in the P47, the FW190 was a hot ride. Fast, and well armed, it shot down more B17's than any other fighter. Up to 25,000 ft it could out climb the P51. We designed and built the F8F Grumman Bearcat to counter it since it could out perform all of our other aircraft. The Bearcat was basically a Hellcat scaled down to 3/4 scale and armed with four 20mm cannon like the Focke-Wulf. They were too late to see combat in WWII but did serve in Korea. My Dad was with a Navy Squadron on the USS Boxer who flew Bearcats. I have witnessed Bearcats flying side by side with FW190's, P47's, P51's, Corsairs and Hellcats, among others and the F8F out performs all of the other prop driven fighters of its day.
Irish