Despite the gruellingly long mission, Gentile and Godfrey made their victory rolls as they overflew Debden. Gentile's 3« tied him with Duane Beeson at fourteen. And Godfrey's 2« boosted him past ace status with six.

Other groups' P-38's, P-47's and P-51's claimed eighty-six enemy aircraft for a loss of seventeen. Thirty-seven heavy bombers were lost, but their gunners claimed forty-two enemy destroyed, and the total destruction of the Ekner factory.

March 9th they were back in Berlin, but not one German challanged them in the air that day. To keep track of each other in the air, both men had red and white checkerboards painted below the Merlins' exhaust manifolds. The white noses of the 4th's planes were soon painted red as the Debden group's identification.

Shangri-La had the Disney "boxing eagle" inside a pale yellow roundel on the left cowl and above the plane's name in script. A white scroll festooned with black crosses unrolled from the windscreen to the back of the cockpit. "V F" were the 336th's squadron aircraft letters, with "T" being Gentile's plane.

Reggie's Reply carried victory crosses in white forward of the windscreen on the left side. The plane's name was white in all capitals just above them. A painting of Godfrey's dog, Lucky, centered in a horseshoe, was on the left cowling. Godfrey's P-51 bore the aircraft letter "P."

Teaming up whenever possible, their scores mounted. This is not to say that the G-men were inseparable from March 8th on. They were assigned positions with other pilots and still excelled. But they always looked out for one another in the air melees over Germany.

March 23rd on an escort run to Brunswick, Germany Gentile covered squadron leader Major James Goodson who flamed two 109's over Munster. Don then took down two of his own. But there was Godfrey and the teamwork kicked in.

"Johnny, It's your turn. Take the one at six. I'll cover." Godfrey dove on the 109 from 10,000 feet. Instead of fighting the German dove for the clouds. Godfrey closed the distance and fired. The German panicked, rolled, and went straight into the ground.

March 29th, again inbound to Brunswick, Don led Blue Section with John in the number three slot. From 26,000 feet down to 17,000 came the 336th. Eight FW 190's were bounced with Don finally plastering one as the P-51 hit 500 mph. in a shallow dive to 5,000 feet.

Godfrey couldn't keep up with him, as his engine kept cutting out, but when two 190's moved into attack position he warned Gentile to break. One fell to Don's guns. Then, finding himself alone, he climbed to 10,000 where he found another Mustang. Two Me 109's attacked and Don downed one.

April 1st found the pair bound for Ludwigshafen, Germany on each others wing. The fracas that followed when a gaggle of 109's beat up a B-24 group put Gentile in a dive from 19,000 feet on the tail of an Me. Hits registered. The 109 could not pull out and plowed into a field. From 6,000 Don heaved on the speed-stiffened controls and just cleared the trees. One second's delay in the pull-out would have been fatal.

On April 5th, over Berlin's Stehndal Airdrome, the pair shared a ground victory. Gentile got 4« more while Godfrey destroyed one and damaged four.

April 13th was the last time Don Gentile would fire his guns in anger. With twenty-three air and seven ground kills to his credit, he found three inexperienced Germans mushing along, line abreast, over Schweinfurt. These would be easy kills, he thought.

After damaging one though, he instinctively broke off the pursuit to assist a nearby Mustang about to get clobbered. He got hits on one plane from 600 yards as he called for the Mustang to break. The Germans were swallowed up in 10/10 clouds and he lost them. Team spirit always proved stronger than personal glory.

In June of 1944 Godfrey was promoted to Captain and the two went on a U.S. Bond tour across the United States. In less than a month they were more fatigued than they had ever been in combat. While Johnny was allowed to return to England, Don was assigned to flight instructor duty. Don warned John not to take chances with some green kid flying his wing. With the new six-gunned, bubble-canopied P-51D in natural aluminium finish Godfrey bagged four bandits on August 5th and another on the 6th.

Later that month, after destroying eight locomotives and strafe-damaging three aircraft he had but one operational .50 caliber gun left. That didn't stop him from flaming a 109 at 200 feet over the streets of Hanover, Germany.

Then on August 24th, with thirty-two air and ground kills under his belt, he brought a four plane section down near Munich. He left his numbers 3 and 4 to beat up trains while he took Lt. Melvin Dickey over Herzberg Air Base to strafe eight Ju 52's parked there. Flak corruption filled the air. Nearly each pass through the gauntlet netted him a flaming Ju 52.

On his seventh pass Dickey followed him down, since it looked so easy. By now even machine-guns mounted on trucks tried to get lead, firing at them. Three Junkers exploded on the seventh run. He put the final one in his orange sight ring on the eighth pass.

"Pull up, Johnny," Dickey warned. "You're beginning to shimmy." Cursing, he held the bead on the last Ju 52. .50's struck home and it flamed. But pulling back on the stick had little effect on the Mustang. It stumbled up to 1,500 feet and the engine quit. Godfrey bellied in and was taken prisoner.

After liberation at war's end the irony made him laugh when he watched Lt. Dickey's gun camera film. Dickey's shots did hit the seventh Ju 52. But just then there was Godfrey's silver Mustang flying right into the slugs of his wingman. So intent on the eighth plane he was destroying, he didn't notice he was taking hits from the green Dickey.

Captain Godfrey was only awarded four and Lt. Dickey was awarded three, bringing John's total to eighteen air and eighteen ground victories. Capt. Pierce Wiggin, was credited with one Ju 52, having also gotten rounds into one of them. Of course, Godfrey's gun camera film was lost in his crash.

Unlike the more lightly defended airstrips in the Pacific, European ground kills were awarded to pilot's who braved the horrorific ground fire from German airdromes.

The War Department Claims Board re-evaluation of combat accounts has adjusted some pilots' final tallies either up or down. Don Gentile's score has been adjusted to 21.80 air and 6 ground, while John Godfrey now stands at 18 air and 12.60 ground victories.

Not at all detracting from their successes in the 4th Fighter Group, it puts Godfrey first with a total of 30.60 destroyed, Ralph Hofer second with 30.50, James Goodson third with 30.00, and Gentile fourth with 27.80. Numerous "probables" and "damaged" add to the destruction wrought upon the Luftwaffe by these aces.

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Click for larger image.

March 8, 1944 was not only a good day for 8th Air Force bombers along with Gentile's and Godfrey's victories, it was the beginning of new way for U.S. airmen to look at combat tactics. Vics of three, schwarms, and finger four formations would soon make way for the "loose deuce" that is still used. Today aircraft flying line abreast, from 800-1,000 yards apart, with one slightly above, proves to be the best combination of offense and defense in air combat.

Switching wingman positions to cover whoever has the best tactical advantage offers flexible maneuvering positions that cannot be implemented in any other way. Though they didn't invent the tactics, the G-men popularized them.

The Luftwaffe began using the two elements of two planes in a modified schwarm about the same time in the war. British pilots soon found two plane elements more flexible also, while the Japanese stuck with the traditional three plane vic to the end.

Those fateful weeks in which Gentile and Godfrey became the scourge of the Luftwaffe saw victories for both men dramatically increase. Between March 8th and April 13th Gentile went from 10 1/2 to 30 and Godfrey from 2 1/2 to 26. Other 4th pilots like Ralph "Kid" Hofer were amassing skyrocketing totals too. Eisenhower personally decorated Gentile with the Distinguished Flying Cross calling him a "one man air force."

Sir Winston Churchill said of them, "They are the Damon and Pythias of the 20th Century."

General Hap Arnold called them "the greatest combat team of this, or any war."

Even Hermann G”ering paid a dubious tribute to the 4th on radio Berlin saying, "We know where you're based, you Debden air-gangsters."

There were aces before them in WW I. They were contemporary aces in all theaters of WW II. There would be aces after them high over the Yalu River in Korea and above the jungles of Vietnam. But never before had two great fliers teamed up to become an extraordinary team, unrivalled in the annals of air warfare.

Gentile and Godfrey personify the definition of team effort. One never thought he was better without the other. Neither hesitated an instant to put themselves in danger to assist another American.

This turret was one of the first fully powered machine gun turret designs used to equip American aircraft and was used initially on the B-17E "Flying Fortress." It is operated by an electro-hydraulic system which powers both elevation and traverse of the turrets' two .50 caliber M-2 Browning machine guns, and has a rate of fire of 1,400-1,600 rounds per minute.

Turrets of this and later types gradually replaced manually operated machine guns introduced for bomber defense during the first world war, and so made the bomber a more formidable opponent to attacking fighters. This turret was manufactured by the Emerson Electric manufacturing Company to a Sperry Gyroscope company design.

While it is quite popular these days to pay lip service to teamwork in business and sports, one needs only to glance back a mere fifty five years to this twosome's achievements in their deadly business. It is safe to say that their shining example will never be eclipsed.

Due to the fact that a global conflict employing air power in the numbers used during WW II will not occur again, the fighter aces of WW II, and the few made in later engagements, stand unique. When they are gone there will likely be no more.

Dominic "Don" Salvatore Gentile died in a T-33 accident near Andrews AFB January 28, 1951 while flying out of Wright-Patterson AFB. John Trevor Godfrey died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's Disease, on June 12, 1958.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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The Proud Pair of Fighter Aces 
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Men  Vol. 11 No. 7
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One-Man Air Force
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