Dumb But Lucky: Confessions of a P-51 Fighter Pilot in World War II

Dick Curtis went against the odds in World War II. He simply should not have made it through. An older brother was killed in a B-17 Flying Fortress and a younger brother would be killed in Korea, so just how Curtis survived as a P-51 Mustang pilot gnaws at him to this day. Shipping out to Italy in May, 1944, second lieutenant Curtis was part of the ‘hottest’ shipment to leave Newport News for he was one of fifty or so emergency replacement pilots heading for combat with less than thirty hours of flight time in their new high-performance aircraft (the official minimum was three hundred hours before a pilot was considered ready for combat). He would soon realize that he was entering a combat zone where there were more aircraft than pilots to man them. Pilots were flying five to six hour missions every day in a constant state of exhaustion. As one of twelve replacement pilots for the 52nd fighter group, half would be shot down within two weeks of their arrival. Ultimately, Curtis would prove to be the sole survivor. This is his dramatic story.