Captain Don Gentile in Shangri-La sized up the situation. Instead of the sixteen fighters sent to meet a flight of B-17's on a bombing raid, it would be only him and Lieutenant John Godfrey providing cover from the Luftwaffe intercepters. "Good old Johnny he would never let me down," thought Gentile.

Four months earlier Gentile had a touch of vertigo while in thick cloud cover and spun out. With him, on his first mission as wingman, was John Godfrey. After regaining control of his ship at less than 1,500 feet he found Godfrey right with him when he broke through the cloud base.

Congratulated by Gentile on his superb flying, Godfrey just shrugged and walked away. He figured Gentile had just been doing some slick aerobatics.

Both men had separately enlisted in the R.A.F in Canada in 1941. Godfrey came fresh from high school in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, while Gentile already was the terror of Piqua, Ohio's residents with his low level flying antics. He had conned his father into buying him a $1,450 Aero Sports biplane which he ultimately had 300 flight hours in.

The requirements of two years of college demanded by the U.S. Army Air Force, Navy and Marines was waived by the Canadians. A couple of test hops to demonstrate minimum capability was all they needed to be accepted into the personnel-desperate R.A.F.

Number 418 Squadron was formed at Debden, Essex, England on November 15, 1941. It was the RCAF's 14th squadron formed overseas and the only Canadian Intruder squadron formed formed that way.

The unit first flew Bostons and later Mosquito aircraft on day and night intruder operations over Europe and England and claimed 178 enemy aircraft and 79.5 V-1 flying bombs destroyed (I know it sounds wierd, but a V-1 destroyed over England was only counted as a .5 kill). Leading score in the squadron was held by Squadron Leader R. Bannock with 11 aircraft and 18.5 V-1's to his credit.

On November 21, 1944 the unit was transferred to duty providing close support work with the Second Tactical Air Force based in the Netherlands. It was withdrawn from overseas service while based at Volkel, Netherlands on September 7, 1945.

Both men had then flown with the all American, 133 Eagle Squadron. Gentile had scored two victories in a Spitfire there. John had yet to score having been kept flying defensively over England while the action raged over the Continent.

On September 29th, 1942 the Eagles were transferred to the American 8th Air Force, both men ending up in the 4th's 336 Squadron.

Don had longed for the adventure of flying and fighting. He sincerely desired to return to Piqua a hero.

John had a darker catalyst for his hatred of the Germans. His P-51 was named Reggie's Reply for good reason. In 1942 his brother Reggie's ship, the merchant marine Vancouver Isle, was torpedoed off Greenland and lost with all hands.

Often Godfrey flew only as an extra pilot to fill in as needed. By March 7th he had credit for only 3« Germans, while Gentile had racked up 10«. He felt that he'd gotten into the fighting too late to avenge Reggie. By pure chance all that was about to change.

That day 188 B-24's and 351 B-17's would drop 928 tons of bombs on the Ekner ball bearing plant sixteen miles southeast of Berlin using radar through 10/10 cloud. They were escorted by 891 fighters.

November, 1943 debuted the long-range escort fighter, the P-51 Mustang. It was fast at 440 mph with its Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 and it could out-maneuver the German planes. The bombers now had protection all the way to and from the distant targets. At least that's the way it was supposed to work.

After rubbernecking around Gentile found only Godfrey's Mustang in the air with him as forty Messerschmitt Me 109's made a shallow head-on pass at the bombers 1000 feet below. But the bombers were depending on them.

Gentile depressed the button on the end of the throttle to activate his throat mike. "Shall we break 'em up, Johnny?" "You're the boss, Don," came his reply. He was game. With Godfrey guarding his tail, they met five Me's head-on. The 109's broke first and Gentile maneuvered behind two that turned to port.

After several violent, twisting turns Gentile had closed to seventy-five yards. With difficulty Godfrey had kept up. A one second burst from the four .50 caliber Brownings sent white coolant smoke billowing out of the doomed Messerschmitt. The German took to his parachute.

Godfrey was locked on the tail of another 109 as Don said, "I'll cover you." Godfrey hammered the 109 as Gentile called, "Give 'im more Johnny, more!" The enemy exploded and spiraled down. They had broken up the attack on the bombers.

The pair had reformed and climbed back up to 20,000 when Godfrey noticed a group of Me 109's 2,000 feet below. As they bounced them Don called out, "I'll take the port one and you take the starboard one."

Gentile walked his .50's into the cockpit with a two second burst and saw the pilot slump forward. The plane was soon in flames.

Godfrey got strikes on another German which had his belly tank still in place. This one exploded and crashed also.

Lt. Ray Clotfelter happened upon the two P-51's but could not keep up with their choreographed, machine-like gyrations. "Besides they weren't leaving anything for me," he lamented. "I finally went off and shot down a German plane I could call my own."

The bomber channel was alive with frantic chatter. The reason was some eighty enemy fighters at twelve o'clock. The bombers struggled to close up their formations as the olive drab Mustangs mixed into the Germans.

On the tail of a greenish-blue FW 190, Don pressed the button once more. Just then the P-51 yawed to starboard as the two port-side guns jammed. (Later electric ammo feeds would cure this habit.) Grasping the stick in both hands, he compensated for the braking effect of the two working .50's. Several well directed bursts set the 190 on fire. The canopy fluttered off and the pilot tumbled out.

The chute opened but flames spread through it as if it were old parchment. Gentile's remorse was penetrated by Godfrey's voice on the R/T, "You got him, Don! Poor devil."

The bombers unloaded their burdens through the clouds as heavy flak filled the sky.

"Six o'clock high! A single bandit diving on you! Break into him, Johnny!" cried Gentile. "When I say break you go right and I'll go left."

The 109 bored in for what seemed like an eternity. Perfect timing was essential. "Break!" yelled Gentile, as they both hauled the long nosed fighters around. The German followed Godfrey, who gyrated through three turns, giving the enemy pilot only tough deflection shots.

At the end of the third turn Don was in position to give the Me a short burst head-on, but the enemy was experienced and Split-S'ed for the deck. Flak was now coming up from the city below. He closed in and got hits all over the 109. Glycol started streaming out of the damaged cooling system. The Mustang's inertia carried him past the Messerschmitt as he pulled out just above the treetops. The 109 strained around to the left towards Godfrey.

"He's turning your way, Johnny. Nail Him." called Gentile. Godfrey maneuvered onto his tail and registered good hits on the thrashing, blue-gray enemy plane as Gentile's Mustang climbed above to cover. Suddenly John cried, "Finish him, Don, I'm out of ammo."

"Ok, I'll finish him." The last of his shells hit the belly tank and a fire erupted. The German climbed to 1,000 feet and bailed out. His chute opened. He would live to fight another day.

With all their guns run dry and little fuel left, it was time to head home. Climbing west they noticed what they soon realized was a lone B-17 limping home at 15,000 feet fifty miles outbound of Berlin. They closed in cautiously. The bomber gunners often shot at the P-51B's, since they resembled a Messerschmitt at a distance.

The plane was a flying wreck. Jagged holes covered the Fortress. The nose had a large one ripped in it. The right wing had massive damage and the number three engine was dead. Wires and control cables dangled in the slipstream beneaththe cockpit.

"Boy are we glad to see you guys! Have reports of bandits in the area. We have wounded. Don't leave us," the crew pleaded.

Don surveyed the damaged aircraft and wondered if they could make it back. He didn't mention that their own fighters were out of ammunition. The crew had enough to worry about.

"Little friends, bandits at eight o'clock, don't leave us." "Don't worry we won't leave. Let's go John." Throttles pushed forward as the pair of sleek white-nosed, olive-drab hunters bluffed into the Germans, breaking their attacks. Countless times along the way home, the duo slew their mounts around to the Germans' twelve o'clock position, foiling the attempts. It was as if they were testing the pair's vigilance, since none pressed a full bore attack on the crippled Fort.

The B-17 kept pleading for them not to leave. They queried the P-51s' fuel status. Gentile lied that they were in good shape. The bomber had jettisoned everything possible to lighten their load to keep them crawling along, and to cut fuel consumption.

With navigational corrections from Gentile the hulking bomber finally edged out over the North Sea. He'd called Air-Sea Rescue earlier and now opened the R/T channel again.

"Rescue launch below you. We'll be over England in a minute." The bomber crew jumped up and down, cheered, blew kisses and made thumbs-up signs.

"Little friends, thanks very, very, much. We couldn't have made it without you."

"Big friend. Our pleasure." espite 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.

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

Bekker, Cajus
The Luftwaffe War Diaries
Doubleday & Co., Inc.
New York, N.Y.   1968

Freeman, Roger A.
Mustang At War
Roger A. Freeman
U.S.A.  1974

Friedheim, Eric
Fighters Up
Macrae-Smith Co.
Philadelphia, Pa.  1945

Fry, Garry & Jeffery Ethell
Escort To Berlin

Arco Publishing Inc.
New York, N.Y.  1980

Gurney, Gene
Five Down And Glory
G.P Putnam's Sons
New York, N.Y.  1958

Hess, William H.
Fighting Mustang: The Chronicle 
   of The P-51
Doubleday and Company
Garden City, N.Y.  1970

Sol, Martin
The Proud Pair of Fighter Aces 
    Who Racked up 66 Kills 
    Between Them
Men  Vol. 11 No. 7
Zenith Publishing
New York, N.Y. July   1962

Spagnuolo, Mark M.
Don S. Gentile Soldier of
   God and Country
College Press
East Lansing, Mi.  1986


Wolfert, Ira
One-Man Air Force
L.B. Fischer Publishing Corp.
New York, N.Y.  1944