When Legend, Major
Jim Herbert, flew a P-51 for the first time, there was
one thing missing; the training. Standard operating procedure
required a pilot several hours of cockpit time in a P-38,
or P-51 before being permitted to even start a plane. When
Herbert returned from a three day pass after flying his
last mission in a P-38, his operations officer asked, “Herb,
are you checked out in a P-51?”
“I’ve seen one at a distance,” Herbert responded, “but
I’ve never been close to one.”
“You’d better check out in one,” he said, “You’re
flying out in one tomorrow morning.”
After an hour and a half training session, and a one shot
landing, Jim Herbert flew in his first combat mission in
a P-51.
Jim was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina and graduated
from Princeton University in 1940. After farming for a year,
he requested active duty in 1941 and became a fighter pilot
in the 77th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group, flying
fourteen combat missions in P-38s and forty-three in P-51s.
Herbert arrived at the 77th Fighter Squadron a few days after
the D-Day invasion. He considers himself lucky to have been
assigned to Captain Jim, “Slick” Morris’s
flight flying P-38s. From Morris, Herbert adopted the
much appreciated practice of turning around on a journey
home to escort a crippled bomber calling for help.
 Herbert recalls one such mission in P-51. He was escorting
one bomber back when another called for help. Realizing the
second bomber was ahead of the first, he remained with the
first, but soon learned the second bomber was throwing everything
out of their plane to make it lighter. Herbert convinced
them to throw out their radio too, and if he hadn’t,
they may not have even made it to their emergency landing
in field on the English coast. Herbert stayed with them for
half an hour after they ditched and called for ‘Dumbo.’ He
then buzzed them, did a slow roll and headed for home. He
ran into the crew a few days following in a London pub, and
he spent no money on drinks that evening.
On a mission, August 12th, 1944, Herbert and his flight,
led by 1st Lieutenant Alvin Clark, spotted a long, well-camouflaged
train. They first shot up the engine, and then the box cars. Clark’s
plane was badly damaged, but both Herbert and Clark believed
he’d be able to make it home. Herbert stayed with him,
but Clark’s engine caught fire. Herbert called him
to bail out and Clark complied, landing safely and taking
cover in a small clump of trees. Herbert’s plan was
to land the plane in a nearby field, but a ditch ruined the
possibility. He had to fly home without Clark.
When he returned to the base, he was ridiculed, and asked what he was going to
do with Clark. Herbert’s plan was to throw out his dinghy and parachute,
and sit in Clark’s lap to fly out. Clark was rescued eventually, after
having spent several weeks in the attic of a French family.
One week later, Herbert read where a Captain Bert Marshall, one of his roommates
on the England bound SS Argentina, earned some high decoration for doing just
as Herbert had planned to do with Clark.
Herbert could add many tales to the above, and for his heroism, he was awarded
the Air Medal with five Oak Leaf Clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross
and retired with the rank of Major.
He married his wife Betty in 1948 and they have three sons,
two daughters and nine grandchildren. |
