Quince Brown, Bristow's WWII Fighter Ace

Narrator: George Krumme (GK)

Narrator: Bob Ebee (BE)

Other Persons: Quince Brown

Date of Narration: January 1987

Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma

Transcriber: Riley Wilson

Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc.

Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-0003-V Brown, Quince

Abstract: This DVD contains films from the cockpit of Fighter Groups flying during World War II from the years 1942-1944. Among the pilots was Quince Brown, a Bristow native, who was named the leading ace in the 78th fighter group with more than 130 combat missions. Quince remained the leading ace throughout the remainder of the war and after his death.

Preface: The following oral history testimony is the result of a cassette tape interview and is part of the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.'s collection of oral histories. The interview was transcribed and processed by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc., with financial assistance from the Montfort Jones & Allie Brown Jones Foundation. Rights to the material are held exclusively by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.

The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. Insofar as possible, this transcript tries to represent the spoken word. Thus, it should be read as a personal memoir and not as either a researched monograph or edited account.

To the extent possible, the spelling of place names, foreign words, and personal names have been verified, either by reference resources or directly by the interviewee. In some cases, a footnote has been added to the transcript in order to provide more information and/or to clarify a statement. Some uncertainties will inevitably remain regarding some words and their spellings. In these scenarios, a (ph) follows a word or name that is spelled phonetically. The notation [indecipherable] is used when the transcriber has not been able to comprehend the word or phrase being spoken. The notation [inaudible] is used where there is more mumbling than words, or when interference on the tape has made transcription impossible.

GK: My name is George Krumme and I was a Bristow boy. Quince Brown1 was a slightly older Bristow boy, who became an ace fighter pilot in World War II before he was shot down and killed over in Germany 3 months after D-Day. When I learned that his nephew, Rusty Brown, had a video showing clips of Quince's fighter group, I thought it appropriate that a shortened video be made from it for those of us who have an interest in the history of World War II with a particular emphasis on Quince's outstanding record. So, here it is!

BE: This is Bob Ebee speaking on this January day in 1987 the 16-millimeter film on this videotape was shot in 1943 and 1944 at the Duxford airbase located 10 miles South of Cambridge, England. The 78th fighter group arrived in England in November of 1942 and flew their first combat mission from Duxford on April 13, 00:01:001943 (Pause in Narration) This is Col. Armond(ph.) Peterson, the first group commander of the 78th. He served from May 1942 until his loss on a combat mission July 1st, 1943. Lt. Harry Dayhuff was the first 82nd squadron commanding officer who served until August of 1943.

This is Col. Jim Stone, the first 83rd squadron CO until promoted to group commander in August 1943. Gene Roberts was first 84 squadron commanding officer later group exec. and still later group commanding officer of the 364th fighter group. Major McBay, the group intelligence officer, and his staff are preparing 00:02:00the briefing room map for a combat mission briefing. The weather officer is advising the cloud formations and winds to be expected in route to the rendezvousing with the bombers and on the way home. (Pause in Narration) Jake Oberhansley(ph.) is advising key details of the mission as he is the group leader of the simulated mission briefing which was staged for the benefit of the photographer. (Pause in Narration) The pilots leaving the briefing room are in a somewhat more jovial mood than would be normal for a real briefing. (Pause in Narration) This is the control tower from where all instructions (Pause in 00:03:00Narration) landings at the Duxford field. Duxford was a grass field which had some advantages and some disadvantages. Only 2 fighter planes could take off together on paved runways we could take off 8 at a time which saved precious fuel circling the field waiting to form up after the takeoff. Note the belly tanks, for extending the range on this mission. The group leader would fly out for 2 and 1/2 minutes and then make a slow wide turn to come back over the field. All 48 planes plus spares would be in formation and on course to the target or rendezvous area by the time the lead plane was back to the field.

(Pause in Narration)

BE: This shows the group formation for-for climbing out to the combat area where the flights and squadrons would then spread out to combat formation. (Pause in Narration) This is the first of about 15 minutes of selected 78th group combat film. Note that the title gives the pilot's name, the squadron, the date and the target. Note also the English gives the day first and the month second thus 30 dash 7 means July 30th. You note the pieces of the German plane flying by. (Pause in Narration) This isn't very clear, but those big object in the 00:05:00background are our b-17 bombers. The mission of July 30th, 1943 held the record for first in the 78th combat history. It was the first belly tank mission and extended the P-47 range to permit crossing the border of Germany for the first time. Major Gene Roberts shot down 3 German planes to become the first U.S pilot to get a triple air victory on one mission. Charlie Linden(ph.) shot down his fourth and fifth planes to become the first U.S ace in the European theater. (Pause in Narration) Jack Price had a total of five air victories. We lost our 00:06:00second group commander on this July 30th mission, when Lt. Col. Melvin McNickle was shot down on his first mission and became a prisoner of war. Flak in the lower left. (Pause in Narration) The final first on July 7th -er July 30th, 1943 00:07:00is shown here when Quine Brown dropped down to the deck on his return from escorting the bombers (Pause in Narration) to become the first us fighter pilot to shoot up a ground target in a European theater. (Pause in Narration) Lt. Col. Gene Roberts CO of the 84th had the third-highest number of air victories for the 78th group with a total of nine. (Pause in Narration) Pete Pompetti was 00:08:00another leader in air victories with six. He was shot down in early 1944 and was a prisoner of war. (Pause in Narration) Good hits. It's too bad the exposure isn't better. Unfortunately, a lot of the combat film I have was not originals and some clarity is always lost in making copies and then more clarity is lost in converting 16 millimeter to video. This is a little better being able to see 00:09:00the clouds, and this is-this is one of the more clear of the series. (Pause in Narration) John Hockery was the fifth leader in air victories with seven. This is another fairly clear exposure compared to many of them. He's getting good hits there's pieces of the German plane flying by. (Pause in Narration) This 00:10:00film was used to convert-confirm victories for the pilot. Quince Brown was the leading ace of the 78th with 13 victories before he was lost on a strafing run. (Pause in Narration) There's are good hits for being at greater than 300-yard range. (Pause in Narration) Again you can see the B-7 bomber in their combat 00:11:00formation in the background.

BE: Very good hits for that range. Hell, that German pilot has put his wheels down perhaps to slow down so the American pilot will overrun him. Grant Turley had six air victories before not returning from a combat mission. He's going to get proof positive of a victory as you see the German pilot beel(ph.) out in a moment. (Pause in Narration) There he is. He's not shooting at the pilot, he's- 00:12:00there's a switch to put the camera on only. Ground strafing was very exciting but much more hazardous than aerial combat the higher loss ratio resulted from intense ground fire. Direct hits from ground fire was not too common for fighter planes at high altitudes. (Pause in Narration) Planes lined up in a row like on this last film and on this one resulted in heavy losses for the Germans. The 78th group set the record for the European Theater when they destroyed 135 00:13:00planes on the ground on their mission of April 16th, 1945. The 78th flew a total of 450 combat missions from April 13th, 1943 to April 25th, 1945. The group destroyed three hundred thirty-eight and 1/2 German planes in the air and three hundred fifty-eight and 1/2 on the ground for a total of six hundred ninety-seven German planes destroyed for a loss of 167 P-47's and P-51's. This is a ratio of four German planes lost for one U.S plane lost. A P-47 cost $104,260 in 1943 and today a modern jet fighter cost several million dollars in comparison. The 78th group flew P-38's in 1942 while in the States and while 00:14:00training for combat in England. Priorities in North Africa in late 1942 resulted in all our P-38's and all but fifteen or sixteen pilots being transferred to North Africa. We received P-47's in early Jan of 1943 and flew them for two years when they were replaced by P-51's in early 1945. The 78th was the only group to fly all three of the first-line air force fighter planes. One of the most spectacular ground strafing explosion is on this series of Doug Munson. His is a very unusual combat film as it includes air to air, a larger number of planes being shot on the ground plus -uh shooting up a locomotive and other ground targets. (Pause in Narration) Isn't that spectacular! Look at those 00:15:00pieces flying, he has to fly through. Doesn't show up yet but he has a German plane trying to land before getting shot down. There it's coming into view. I don't recall whether Doug caused that plane to crash, or whether it landed 00:16:00before he was out of control. Jim Wilkins was credited with shooting down 7 and 1/2 German planes before being lost 2 days before D-Day on a strafing run in England. When the steam comes out of the locomotives like that you know you've destroyed a lot of the boiler tubes. (Pause in Narration) I edited out -uh -uh seemed like quite a 20 or 30 seconds Willy Mays chasing this plane for what seems like long enough to run out of ammunition, but in a few seconds, you will see one of the most spectacular shots of a German plane being shot down as he shoots the left-wing of here in a few moments. (Pause in Narration) There it 00:17:00goes. Alex Juchhiem was our second leading ace with 11 air victories. An interesting statics is four of our top seven aces were lost. A total of 11 of the 78th pilots became aces while flying with our group. They had a total of 79 and 1/2 air victories of or 23% of the 338 and ½ air victories for the group. I think the pilot is going to beel out of this one in a moment. There he comes. I 00:18:00selected these 23 mission combat films for not only being some of the most spectacular examples but also because the original exposure was far better than normal. A lot of clarity is lost in converting this 43-year-old film to video and much of the group combat film was far from being a good exposure when taken.

(Pause in Narration)

BE: Here I am. You can see I'm a major now, so it's sometime in mid-1944 and I must be out of pipe Tabaco, as the only time I smoke cigarettes is when my supply of mixture 79 was en route from the States. This is the first of my 3 P-47's, named for my daughter Vivian Gaile(ph.). Gaile was 2 months old when I left her and [indecipherable] in California and took a troop train to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, and the Queen Elizabeth troopship to Scotland. This plane was shot down on a mission with another pilot flying it in February of 1944. I was hit by ground fire 3 times while flying and had to leave the second V. Gaile on an emergency field in France 2 weeks after D-Day with 2 or 3 cylinder heads shot off and leaking oil quite rapidly. The cockpit of the P-47 was very roomy, 00:20:00the spitfire pilots claimed that to take evasive action in combat, the yanks just loosened their seatbelts and ran around the cockpit. I flew spitfires for a month and the cockpit were very cramped by comparison The vest I am wearing is for floatation emergencies if you found yourself in the water for whatever reason. It was dubbed a May West for reasons which were more obvious when it was inflated, today I suspect it might be called a Dolly Parton. This is Bill Vicory(ph.), assistant crew chief of the V. Gaile, and the other man is Harold Zonn(ph.), the radio maintenance man for my flight. Note the 50 caliber gun sticking out the leading edge of the wing. And this is Sgt. John Harris crew chief for all three of the V. Gailes. The [indecipherable] man is servicing the 00:21:00four 50 caliber in each wing, this was standard procedure each time the gun was fired. Ground personnel were highly competent and were dedicated to keeping their planes in perfect condition with no regard to long hours often required to get a plane to combat readiness.

BE: I took this picture of a bridge before releasing two 5oo pound bombs on this skip bombing-bombing mission. I had spotted two locomotives on my approach and got the first shots at them, the first one coming up here. There's normal procedure for everyone in the flight to follow in trail on these strafing 00:22:00missions like this. (Pause in Narration) I got hit in the windshield by ground fire while strafing this marshaling yard, the bulletproof glass in front of my face deflected the bullet out the top of the canopy. This is strafing -uh supply train. Another train. (Pause in Narration) There's a locomotive, -uh that is the target on this -uh run. More supply trains. (Pause in Narration) Still more 00:23:00supply trains. We'd usually work our way back along the railroad track when returning on the deck from a mission. There's a German truck trying to hide in this row of trees. You can see him moving right there. He didn't make it, he had something burning, made a pretty good fire. Barges also carried supplies, I would think it would take a lot of 50 caliber bullets to do too much damage to them. This is an ME 109 -uh on the ground -uh, not at an airfield. He probably 00:24:00had to make an emergency landing. This supply train is burning pretty good. Another German vehicle. Another truck trying to hide in the trees. Note the broad pattern of the 850 caliber guns. This trucks on fire. Another truck. We hit something explosive on this dive-bombing mission. Less than half of my combat film turned out good enough to transfer to video because of bad underexposure. (Pause in Narration)

GK: This is George Krumme again, we've come to the end of the commentary by Bob Ebee, but for those of us interested on Quine Brown and the Bristow connection here are some additional comments. Quince was born in 1917, he graduated from Bristow High school and attended Bristow Junior College and Oklahoma A & M college briefly, before earning his air-core wings at Kelly Field on April 25th, 1941, 7 months before the beginning of World War II. He severed as a flight instructor at Randolph, Kelly, and Majors airfields in Texas and taught a year at the Enid army flying school. He then applied for operations and after advanced training at Dale Mayberry field in Florida in April of 1943 he joined 00:26:00the 78th fighter group at the Duxford airbase, south of London England. The plane the group used was a republic P-47 thunderbolt, a heavy fighter with unusual four-bladed propellers. The P-47 were excellent strafing fighters because they could take considerable punishment and still return home. The word strafe was coined by the Germans from their world war I slogan "Gott strafe England!", that is God punish England. And the Thunderbolt could certainly punish, strafing with eight machine guns at up to 450 miles per hour at an altitude at times less than 100 feet above the ground. But piloting a fighter plane was dangerous, particularly while strafing. The 78th fighter group with a normal flying compliment of 36-48 planes lost 167 of its aircraft during two 00:27:00years of action and 93 of its pilots were killed. In this scene, you can see a pilot pull his plane up as he suddenly saw an electric line in his path. Watch carefully as he approaches the hanger and you may be able to see the wires. Quince's crew chief told Rusty Brown that occasionally planes would come back with wire and tree branches stuck to the wing, on one occasion Quince even returned with bent propeller tips. At 27 Quince was one of the older pilots, but was renowned for his keen eyesight and his flying skills. He was officially credited with 12 and 1/3 air to air victories and with two planes destroyed on the ground. After a year of service in mid-1944, Quince came back to the States for a couple of months and led war bond drives across the nation. He returned to combat duty in August. Less than a month later on September 6th, 1944 while 00:28:00strafing a German airfield, Quince's plane was struck by anti-aircraft fire. Unable to continue he parachuted and was seen to land safely, gather his parachute, and disappear into the woods. It was presumed that his name would soon appear on the prisoner of war list, but after several fruitless months, it was determined that he had apparently been turned over to civilians only to be executed by the local S.S representative, who, after the war was identified and tried for murder. Quince flew more than 130 combat missions and was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross with four Oak Leaf Clusters, the Air Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters, and the French Croix de Guerre. Quince has been inducted into the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame and into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame. Moreover, the Quince L. Brown Parkway serves as 00:29:00the entry into the Vance Airbase in Enid, where Quince instructed air cadets for a year. Even though the war continued for eight months after he was killed, Quince remained the leading ace of his fighter group. When the war ended, Quince's remains were eventually transferred to Bristow where he was buried with full military honors in the family burial plots.

GK: I hope you've enjoyed this brief look backward in time.