More than 50,000 American fighter pilots saw air combat in World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Of that number, some 1,447 pilots were officially credited with shooting down five enemy aircraft, therein becoming fighter aces. Forty-four of those aces hailed from Wisconsin and hence could be termed ‘Badger Aces.’
Before relating some of the exploits of those 44 aces, one question comes to mind. Why those 44? What skills, factors, or circumstances enabled those pilots to join the ranks of that elite group? What led them to ‘five down and glory?’
Many factors played a role in their success.
GUNNERY skills were paramount. Someone can be the most skillful pilot in the world but if he hadn’t mastered the art and science of aerial gunnery, he wouldn’t score kills. Badger Aces like Dick Bong, Greg Weissenberger, and Earl May who had hunted as youths held an advantage before they even climbed into the cockpit of a fighter. They had already mastered the art of deflection shooting, i.e., leading a target. Air combat was deflection shooting but in three dimensions with the added complication of the human element.
PILOTING SKILLS did contribute to victories. Pilots who had mastered their aircraft—whether it was a Sopwith Dolphin, P-51 Mustang, or F-86 Sabre—could fly their aircraft to its maximum, utilizing its strengths to achieve a kill.
KNOWLEDGE of your aircraft’s strengths and weaknesses—and your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses—helped determine success or failure. For example, American pilots in the Pacific like James Gray, Marv Grant, and Ed Shaw learned to never dogfight a Mitsubishi Zero, arguably the most maneuverable fighter of the early war years. Instead, they devised dive-and-zoom tactics to defeat the Zero.
Possessing SITUATIONAL AWARENESS was a key factor in air combat. Situational awareness equated to being aware of what was happening in your particular combat situation, having a mental picture of the evolving situation – location, altitude, unit strength, weather conditions, number, and location of enemy aircraft, attack options, etc. Aces like George Doersch, Mark Hubbard, and Louis Menard thrived and survived because they possessed SA.
Yet, the world’s most skillful fighter pilot couldn’t achieve success if he didn’t have the OPPORTUNITY to engage enemy aircraft. If you were a P-38 pilot assigned to the Aleutian Islands, for example, your chances of engaging Japanese aircraft were just about nil. Fighter combat in all theaters wasn’t a daily occurrence. During his combat tour, a typical American fighter pilot might engage enemy aircraft periodically or once in a blue moon or not at all. But when the opportunity presented itself, those 44 Badger Aces were quick to seize the moment and bring all their skills and talents to bear.
The exploits of those Badger Aces were as varied as their origins. Some came from small villages such as Amery, Bloomer, Delafield, East Troy, Fifield, Plymouth, and Wilson. Others hailed from towns like Green Bay, La Crosse, Oshkosh, and Wausau. Lastly, almost a dozen Badger Aces came from the ‘big cities’ of Madison and Milwaukee.
Born in Manitowoc, Frederic Lord was the first Badger Ace. Though World War I broke out in 1914, America did not enter the fighting until late 1917. Anxious to join the fight, Lord journeyed to Canada in May 1917 with a doctored birth certificate to enlist in the Royal Air Force. Eventually flying combat with 79 Squadron, he racked up 12 victories. Like other Badger Aces, flying was in Lord’s blood. He subsequently flew combat in the 1917-1922 Russian Civil War, was a barnstormer in the United States, served as an advisor to the Mexican Air Force, flew combat in the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War, and was a ferry pilot in World War II.
Thirty-nine of the 44 Badger Aces ‘grabbed the golden ring’ in World War II. They served in Army Air Force, Navy, and Marine units and two—Fritz Wolf and Bob Smith—flew in the civilian American Volunteer Group, the legendary Flying Tigers. To help defend China from Japanese air attacks, the AVG hired serving Army Air Force and Navy pilots like Smith and Wolf to pilot Curtiss P-40 Tomahawks. Some like Shawano native Wolf joined out of altruism. Smith, from Eagle River, was more lighthearted. He told a reporter: “What did I have to lose? I was young.”
America’s all-time, top-scoring ace was born in Poplar. P-38 driver Richard Bong was credited with 40 Japanese aircraft downed between December 1942 and December 1944. He received every major American award for bravery and was feted as a national hero. Bong exemplified the successful fighter ace – a skillful, aggressive pilot with gunnery skills dating back to his boyhood days in Poplar combined with an analytical approach to combat that inflicted maximum damage on his Japanese opponents with minimum risk to himself. Though hailed as a hero, he always modestly replied he “was just doing my job.”
Chris Hanseman, from Mondovi, was probably Bong’s opposite. Bong was an analytical fighter pilot; Hanseman was a scrapper. During the mid-war years, the services realized they needed more pilots and dropped their prewar requirement that candidates for flight school needed two years of college. Beginning in 1943, they decided high school graduates could apply. As a result of this policy change, Chris Hanseman was flying combat with the 8th Air Force when he was 19 years old and made ace before his 20th birthday! Sadly, he was killed during a strafing attack on a German airfield four days before he turned 20.
Chris Hanseman was one of the youngest American aces of all time. The roster of Badger Aces also included one of the oldest American fighter aces: James Flatley. The fighter pilot business was a young man’s business. Most WWII fighter aces were in their early 20s. If you were 25 or over, you started to get long in the tooth. If you were 30 and still flying combat, you were ancient. Jimmy Flatley was 36(!) when he made ace in 1942. A Green Bay native, he had been a prewar Navy pilot. When war broke out on December 7th, the Navy and Army Air Force needed all the experienced leaders they could muster. Consequently, Flatley, widely respected as a leader, tactician and aerial gunner, was kept in squadron command positions. And went on to become an ace.
As mentioned, a fighter pilot might complete a whole combat tour without many combats or kills to his credit. Normally it could take months to run up five victories. For example, Walter Starck, an 8th Air Force P-51 pilot, scored his first kill on February 10, 1944, and notched up his ace-making fifth kill on November 27th. Hailing from Milwaukee, Starck made one unique claim to fame. As he was downing his latest kill on November 27, he accidentally came too close to his Luftwaffe target. The Messerschmitt 109 exploded. Wreckage from the fighter hit Starck’s Mustang, damaging it so severely he had to bail out.
In later years, when asked about details of his shootdown, Starck always proudly exclaimed: “I was not shot down. I shot myself down.” Incidentally, according to family history, Starck had proclaimed he wanted to be a pilot at age three!
Other Badger Aces were luckier when it came to downing enemy aircraft. Three Badger Aces, all Navy F6F Hellcat pilots, took part in such hellacious air battles that they scored five victories in one day or, even more spectacularly, in one mission.
On June 24, 1944, ‘Connie’ Hargreaves, an Eagle River resident flying with VF-2, downed four Japanese fighters in a swirling air battle over Iwo Jima. Several hours later, he flew another mission, scored a fifth kill and thus became an ’ace-in-a-day.’
The first Badger Ace to become an ace-in-one mission was William Collins. Born in Watertown, Collins graduated from the Naval Academy in 1934 and was a prewar fighter pilot. By 1944, the 32-year-old was commanding officer of VF-8 aboard USS Bunker Hill. On October 12, 1944 his squadron and other USN fighter units engaged 50-75 enemy aircraft over Formosa. Collins downed four enemy fighters and a bomber, earning a Navy Cross. He ended the war as VF-8’s top-scoring ace.
Lastly, on December 19, 1944, Eau Claire native Bob Anderson became the second Wisconsin ace-in-one-mission. Flying with VF-80, Anderson knocked down five Japanese fighters, earning a Navy Cross. Finishing the war with eight-and-a-half kills, Anderson was killed in a stateside training accident in June 1945.
Stevens Point’s Conrad Mattson probably set a record for longest interval in making ace. Mattson flew P-51 Mustangs in the Pacific in World War II. He scored a single kill in July 1945. Staying in the Air Force after the war, Mattson eventually flew combat during the Korean War. In the spring of 1952, he downed four North Korean MiG-15 fighters, the last falling on April 30, 1952. So, one WWII kill plus four Korean War kills, equals five. It had taken Conrad Mattson almost seven years but he was finally an ace!
For some Badger Aces, the adventure didn’t die with war’s end. Roger Conant, from Marinette, rang up six victories while flying Vought Corsairs with VMF-215 in the Solomons. Conant later flew combat in the Korean War, his WWII and Korean War service resulting in five Distinguished Flying Crosses. Staying in the Naval Reserves, Conant then found employment with Douglas Aircraft. One of his projects was testing the newly introduced AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile against remotely piloted bombers and fighters. During this project, he shot down five B-17 drone aircraft, making him the only American fighter ace to ever shoot down American aircraft!
Wherever they served and whatever they flew, the Badger Aces compiled a service record second to none.
The complete story of the Badger Aces can be found in the author’s Badger Aces, Wisconsin Fighter Aces 1917 to 1972.
