1st Lt. Albert Dexter was a pilot in the 566th Bomb Squadron, 389th Bomb Group, 2nd Air Division of the 8th Air Force during WWII, completing 35 missions flying out of the former RAF Hethel airfield. After the war he worked for many years as the PA announcer for the Minnesota North Stars hockey team, was one of the local fixtures of the Minnesota 8th Air Force Historical Society, and until his passing in 2003 was a key figure in getting the Collings Foundation bombers to stop by the Twin Cities on their annual tours each summer. At the tour stops in the Twin Cities is where I met him, as he would volunteer his time to be the guide/docent for the Collings B-24J. He was a neighbor and friend to my grandmother for about the last decade of his life I believe, both of them sharing a common interest and different backgrounds in vintage military aircraft. From their correspondence, which got passed along to me after my grandmother's passing, I was interested in learning more about his service and the aircraft that he flew, named 'Pugnacious Princess Pat'.
Al's combat tour with the 566th Bomb Squadron began in July 1944. In a presentation he would give about his service he spoke a lot about the shear amount of luck, as he put it, involved in surviving the war. On July 7, 1944, he was to take a "dollar ride" with a crew out on a mission for his first experience of combat, but lost a coin flip at the last minute to another pilot that had also been booked to go - that airplane and crew didn't come back from that mission. Through their first few missions, Al and his crew flew a B-24 that was a shared deal with another crew, and after the fourth mission, while Al and his crew were away on a two-day pass, the plane and its other crew were lost on a mission. It was around this time that he and a pilot buddy of his got together to brainstorm what the heck they could do to try and improve their chances to survive the war. The result was two things - one was to always fly good, tight formation, as the Luftwaffe tended to attack the groups/elements that were not so closely joined together, and the other was to fly the high right element. He noticed early on that when the flak was missing, it missed low and to the rear of the formations, so he requested early on to fly the high right element, where he would remain, and which he credited the most for keeping him and his crew out of the most danger. He said the only downside to that was that he always had to be flying the aircraft all of the time, as the co-pilot would never be able to sight the lead aircraft he would be flying off of.
After the loss of the aircraft he and his crew had been sharing on their first four missions, Al was given a brand new B-24J-65-CF, serial number 44-10579, that had been manufactured by the Consolidated factory in Fort Worth, Texas. This aircraft had gone through the Louisville-based Convair modification center to receive final Theatre modifications and Tech Order improvements prior to delivery overseas. At the Convair mod center the aircraft was marked with a small processing number on each side of the nose, reading '35-45'. '35' was the modification batch number and '45' was the sequencing number, it being the 45th Liberator of that particular batch received/processed at the mod center (you can see the same thing on the Flight Replicas' RAF Liberator GR.VI model/textures, with an earlier Louisville modification batch number of '26'). There were a total of 5 modification centers around the US where freshly manufactured B-24's were flown to and processed, where they received the latest upgrades and special modifications required for their individual assignments. This allowed the main factories to continue producing B-24's at peak pace and not get bogged down.
As it was a brand new aircraft, Al was able to name it and he did so by naming it after his wife, Pat. He initially had the name 'Princess Pat' applied to the nose, along with the nose art, inspired by a Vargas pinup, but that night his crew chief, John Gantus, came back and added the word 'Pugnacious' above it, as he felt that then the aircraft had a real fighting name. One never to argue with his crew chief, Al went with it. Al and his crew, twice, had the incredible experience of having their required mission tally increased. When they began flying combat missions in July 1944, the requirement was still set at 25 missions and they'd be able to go home. After Al's 14th mission, the requirement was raised to 30. Then, just after he got back from his 29th mission, just one away from being done with it all, the requirement was raised again to 35. His nerves were so shot by that time, due to the stresses of combat, that the base Chaplain, not telling Al, actually sought out and received permission the next morning for him to be able to be done and to go home right then and there. Al refused, however, as he didn't want his family to know he quit, and he flew the remaining missions.
This is the complete mission roster that I have from Al for each of the 35 missions he and his crew flew, from July 11 to November 2, 1944. The worst missions he recalled were the two where he was sent to Hamburg, due to the amount and concentration of anti-aircraft guns/flak.
7/11 - Munich, Germany
7/12 - Munich, Germany
7/16 - Saarbrücken, Germany
7/17 - Belfort, France
7/20 - Freidburg, Germany
7/23 - La-Couronne, France
7/24 - Saint Lo, France
7/25 - Saint Lo, France
7/28 - Paris, France
7/29 - Bremen, Germany
8/1 - Nogent-sur-Marne, France
8/2 - Nogent-sur-Marne, France
8/6 - Harburg, Germany
8/9 - Saarbrücken, Germany
8/11 - Strasbourg, Germany
8/13 - Saint Malo, France
8/15 - Zwischenahn, Germany
8/18 - Metz, Germany
8/24 - Brunswick, Germany
8/25 - Wismar, Germany
8/26 - Emmerich, Germany
9/8 - Karlsruhe, Germany
9/10 - Ulm, Germany
9/26 - Hamm, Germany
9/27 - Kassel, Germany
9/30 - Hamm, Germany
10/3 - Speyer, Germany
10/6 - Hamburg, Germany
10/7 - Kassel, Germany
10/12 - Osnabrück, Germany
10/19 - Mainz, Germany
10/22 - Hamm, Germany
10/26 - Münster, Germany
10/30 - Hamburg, Germany
11/2 - Bielefeld, Germany
The crew of 'Pugnacious Princess Pat' through these 35 missions consisted of:
Al Dexter - Pilot
John Foster - Co-Pilot
Warren Denny - Radio Operator
Harry McGowen - Engineer/Top Turret (according to Al, there were other engineers that also flew with him during a time when McGowen fell ill)
Carl Ganapini - Navigator (some missions)
Emmet Hall - Navigator (some missions)
John Joyce - Bombardier
Harold Morris - Right Waist
Francis Van Hine - Left Waist
Carrol Smith - Nose Turret
Jaffrey Taibi - Tail Turret
The following information comes in part from articles in the 2nd Air Division Journal and Minnesota 8th Air Force Historical Society flyers, from the books The Hidden Places of WWII by Jerome M. O'Connor and Over Here by Steve Snelling, and a Eastern Daily Press article by Steve Snelling, as told by David Hastings, MBE:
During the war at Hethel, Al Dexter and his crew befriended a local English boy by the name of David Hastings, who came out to the perimeter fence one day to watch the B-24's return from a mission and happened to be near the revetment where 'Pugnacious Princess Pat' would be parked. There, waiting for the Liberators to return, was crew chief John "Pop" Gantus (25 years of age, but older than the rest of the crew by 2 years), who introduced himself and the rest of the ground crew to David, and as 'Pugnacious Pricess Pat' rolled into its revetment and its engines shut down, told the crew of his meeting the boy. Al went straight to the fence, introduced himself as the pilot, and lifted David up over the fence. Immediately an MP showed up demanding that the boy would need to leave, but Al told the MP he had one of three choices - "You can shoot me, which I doubt, get me confined to barracks, which means no more missions, or you can get the hell out of here". The MP quickly left and Al introduced David to his crew and began what would become a ritual of walking David around his B-24 after each mission, arm around his shoulder, counting the bullet holes. With every passing mission David became a sort of good luck charm to the crew of 'Pugnacious Princess Pat', and a needed distraction from the war. When not flying, David was allowed to climb inside the aircraft and play out his childhood fantasies of flying a B-24. Following the completion of the crew's 35th and final mission, David Hastings' family hosted the entire crew at their home for a final farewell.
Following the last mission for Al and his crew, his crew chief on the ground, John "Pop" Gantus, volunteered to extend his tour of duty and re-mustered to aircrew. Al, upon hearing this, insisted to Gantus that he stay on the ground where it's safe, and that the war wouldn't last much longer anyway, but Gantus felt he still had a destiny to fulfill in the air. John Gantus was killed in action on March 23, 1945 on a raid to Munster, Germany, where he was serving as an engineer/top turret gunner on the B-24 "Yankee Doodle Dandy".
Years after the war, David Hastings became a multi-engine rated pilot and would serve as chairman and vice-chairman of the 2nd Air Division Memorial Trust in Norwich for 28 years. Making a number of attempts to track down Al Dexter, David was finally successful in 1990, receiving a phone call from Al after he had read about David's inquiry in an edition of the 2nd Air Division Journal. At the 2nd Air Division reunion held at Norwich that year, David and Al reunited for the first time in 46 years. Then, in 1992, David and the 2nd Air Division Memorial arranged to pay for a B-24 to fly across the Atlantic and participate in that year's 2nd Air Division reunion in Norwich and other events in the UK commemorating the 50th anniversary of the US flyers coming to England. The Collings Foundation initially accepted but then had to decline due to the nature of the Atlantic crossing. The Confederate Air Force, however, agreed and their B-24 'Diamond Lil' was flown over to England that summer of 1992, with David Hastings as co-pilot (within the CAF, this has become known as "Diamond Lil's Greatest Flight"). Both David and Al Dexter flew together on 'Diamond Lil' and Al was able to take the controls of a Liberator once again - in David's words, "He hadn't lost his skill".
After Al and his crew's last mission, a second crew took over 'Pugnacious Princess Pat'. Tragically, however, only a few weeks later the aircraft was shot down by flak on a raid to Bieleford/Misburg, Germany on November 26, 1944 resulting in the deaths of 6 of the 10 crewmen. Although I became interested in depicting this aircraft because of Al Dexter, it is also just as much a remembrance of the lives that were lost from that second crew. The crew on that mission were:
Robert Hicks (POW) - Pilot
Harry Alexander (KIA) - Co-Pilot
Kenneth Wylie (KIA) - Radio Operator
Eugene Lanze (KIA) - Engineer/Top Turret
Wayne Buhrmann (POW) - Navigator
Alfred Fromm (POW) - Right Waist
John Fithen (POW) - Left Waist
Henry McCormack (KIA) - Nose Turret
Richard Sagers (KIA) - Tail Gunner
Paul Garrett (KIA) - Command Pilot/Observer
A few years ago, family members of those crew members raised the money to produce a plaque memorial that is now located in the town of Altwarmbüchen, near Hannover, Germany, where the aircraft came down. The plaque reads:
"The families of the brave men aboard the United States Army Air Forces B-24 “Pugnacious Princess Pat” dedicate this memorial to the compassionate people of Altwarmbüchen, Germany, who respectfully buried our men who died in the crash and who tended the wounded navigator, 2nd Lt. Wayne Buhrmann on November 26, 1944. Special thanks to Margrit Berkelmann Dietterle, only 7 years old at the time, who courageously brought Wayne a cup of water to drink. We also extend our appreciation to the German people beyond Altwarmbüchen who attended to 1st Lt. Robert Hicks, S/Sgt. John Fithen and S/Sgt. Alfred Fromm."
When making this repaint, I only had two photos to work from, both showing just the left side of the nose. In adding the factory-applied stars & bars, which changed and differed a lot throughout B-24 production, I referenced other B-24J-65-CF's, one of which was only a few serial numbers away, to make sure it is right for that particular airframe. Fortunately I knew what individual call letter Al's aircraft had, that being 'D+' (confirmed with 389th BG records), as seen on the rear fuselage and tail fins, and all of the 566th BS/389th BG aircraft had a very specific way in which the markings were applied, so I could reference photos of other B-24's of the 566th to properly recreate the squadron markings (including aligning an original wartime overhead photo of a 566th BS B-24 to the wing textures, to get the 'circle-C' in the right place and drawn correctly). In one of the two photos I was able to use showing the nose of the aircraft, the nose art writing of 'Pugnacious Princess Pat' is clearly lighter than any of the other writing, and lighter than the red of the fire extinguisher panel, so I concluded that the writing had likely been done in blue and looks nice that way. I could also just make out through both photos that Al had "Pat 'N' Sandy" written underneath his pilot's window, and I was able to confirm that Sandy was the name of his first child.
I had to make some concessions in the placement of the nose art writing, due to the difference in the size/shape of the navigator's windows between that of the model variant I used from the Flight Replicas product compared to the variant and mods of the original aircraft. There were an incredible amount of different nose configurations throughout B-24 production, that it would be unrealistic to have covered them all. One of the other of the Flight Replicas J-models does have the earlier, oval-shaped navigator's windows, and the side armor by the cockpit, like 'Pat' had, but the nose turret is different and it doesn't have the side bombardier windows that 'Pat' had (installed as part of the Louisville modifications). Also, in the original two photos I had of the nose there were only 11 bomb symbols painted on the aircraft at the time, but I decided to increase it to 35, as recognition of the 35 missions flown by Al and his crew.
The name "Gany" was applied under the left Navigator's window, just above the 'Pugnacious Princess Pat' writing, and I've read that this was another of the nicknames of crew chief John "Pop" Gantus. However, as one of Al's navigators was named Carl Ganapini, I have wondered if perhaps that was his nickname instead. I'm sure there were similar type names by each of the crew stations all around the aircraft, either nicknames or wives or girlfriend's names, and although I know the names of all of the crew members, I don't know what any of those guys would have had by their crew stations. Where the name "Spike" came from, written on the nose turret, I don't know. It's featured in the painting of 'Pugnacious Princess Pat' by artist Clive Brooks, and may be connected to the aircraft's second crew, rather than Al's crew. I liked it and made sure to include it - the nose gunner in Al's crew was Carrol Smith, and the nose gunner in the second crew was Henry McCormack.
These following screenshots, taken in P3Dv5 over the course of a few different flights, feature the Flight Replicas B-24J with my repaint of 'Pugnacious Princess Pat', flying out of and around the city of Norwich, England, central to the 2nd Air Division, and paying a visit to Hethel, the old stomping grounds of the original 'Pat' (using the ORBX True Earth Great Britain South scenery).
Hethel in sight, approaching from the north.
High atop the old Hethel airfield.
Making a "miss approach" over the old east/west runway, now lined with shrubbery.
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Originally Posted by thunderstreak
One question, it seems TE is a bit less garish in v5, is that your observation too?
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