Here's
some pics of my almost completed Trumpeter P-51D in 1/24 scale. I
used the CAM Decals set for Louis Curdes- 4th FS (C), 3rd ACG in China, 1945- quite an interesting
character. I
need to cut brass tubing for the exhaust stacks and weather a bit more and it
will be done...you may be wondering how he got the American Flag kill
marking....well here's the rest of the story....
P-51D-20
44-63272 "BAD ANGEL" of Lt. Louis E Curdes, 4th FS(C),3rd ACG, Laoag,
August 1945. A
YANK FOR GOOD MEASURE Lt.
Curdes was circling low over one of his P-51 pilots who was bobbing in his
dinghy just off Jap field Batan Island. Another pilot whose plane had the lowest
gas in his tanks headed for home. A fourth plane was circling at 20,000 feet
sending out a distress signal. It had been a fairly good day, as fighter Mission
days over Formosa go. Curdes' flight had knocked down two planes over the
target, Curdes getting his first Nip since he came to the Pacific from the MTO
last December. They had blasted three more on the ground at Batan before flak
caught one of his flight. Curdes looked down to the tossing dinghy and figured
the chances of a Catalina coming in for a rescue before dark. It was getting
along towards mid- afternoon, and the nights come fairly early off northern
Luzon in the middle of February. Suddenly, Curdes noticed a black speck coming
from the southwest toward a Jap landing strip at Batan. Then the speck became a
dead ringer for a C-47. And, as the wheels came down on the transport, Curdes
saw the American markings. "Those damned Japs have patched up one of our
buggies and didn't even have the grace to take the markings off" Curdes
figured as he wheeled about to give the visitor a closer look. Then he read a
familiar number on the tail. It was the number of one of the "Jungle
Skippers." At this point, the Jap ack-ack, opened up - at Curdes’ P-51
but not at the transport. A quick run of thinking convinced Curdes there was
only one thing to do since the plane would be Jap property as soon as it landed,
if it was not already. The P-51 banked steeply, head on into the flak, and
opened up with its fifties on the C-47’s right engine. As the transport headed
out to sea, with one engine gone, Curdes made a 180 degree turn and cut loose on
the other engine. The C-47 settled into the water within yards of the downed
fighter pilot's dinghy. Curdes dived in to do a little strafing after all
occupants of the transport climbed aboard life rafts, but he observed in time
that the survivors were white. So he went back to his low level circling. His
water bound charges had grown from one to thirteen. When darkness fell and still
no help had arrived, Curdes figured all would
be safe until dawn and returned to his base.
The next morning before daylight, he and his wingman took off. And they were circling over the survivors when a rescue Catalina arrived to pick them up. Back at base, Curdes learned that the C-47 had been American manned with 12 occupants including two Army nurses. The pilot had become lost during a flight from Art island in the southern Philippines and had been forced to head for the nearest visible strip because of a fuel shortage. Curdes gave a start and a shout when he glanced at the names of the survivors. One of the nurses was the "date" he had been with the night before at Lingayen. "Jeepers," lie exclaimed, "seven 109's and one Macci in North Africa, one Jap, and one Yank in the Pacific -- and to top it, I have to go out and shoot down the girl friend." A few weeks' later, Captain Louis E. Curdes of the 4th Fighter Squadron. Third Air Commando Group was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for shooting down a C-47. Captain Louis E. Curdes was assigned to the 95th Fighter Squadron, 82nd Fighter Group. He was reassigned to the 4th Fighter Squadron, 3rd Air Commando Group (1945) where he flew the P-51), "BAD ANGEL". A Jap flag and U.S. flag were added to the seven German and one Italian markings on the fuselage of his Mustang. Curdes made a wheels up forced landing on a beach South of Naples, Italy in August, 1943 when lie ran low on fuel trying to return to N. Africa. He was interned as a Prisoner of War until October, 1943. He escaped twice and evaded capture for about eight months before returning through enemy lines on May 27, 1944. He received the DFC for shooting down a C-47, becoming the only flyer ever to be decorated for shooting down another American plane in combat. Len Roberto |
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Photos and text © by Len Roberto