In One Week

Seldom has the Army Air Forces had to announce three such tragic losses as it made public last week:

P: Brigadier General Frederick W. Castle, who continued combat flying even after he got his star, was piloting a Flying Fortress on a mission over Belgium when seven Messerschmitts attacked. Bullets ignited an oxygen tank, which threatened to explode the Fortress' bomb load. Lean, young (36) General Castle refused to jettison the load, because U.S. troops were underneath. With two engines afire, he leveled out, and stayed at the controls while his crew bailed out. He was still in the plane when a fuel tank exploded, sent plane and pilot to the ground in flames.

P: On Christmas Day Major George E. Preddy Jr., son of a freight conductor and top U.S. ace in the European Theater, was shot down by his own comrades. Shy, stocky George Preddy, P-51 fighter pilot, had 25 1/2 enemy planes to his credit (plus five destroyed on the ground) when he climbed into the skies over Belgium that day and tangled with two German fighters. He knocked them both down and took off after a Focke-Wulf 190. U.S. troops on the ground opened up with ack-ack, trying to get the 190. Instead they shot down 25-year-old Major Freddy.

P: Two weeks later Major Thomas B. McGuire Jr., top-scoring active ace* in the Pacific (38 Jap planes), died as a result of accident and enemy action. McGuire made a fast turn to go to the rescue of his wingman, who was being attacked, when his P-38 stalled at 200 feet and crashed into the sea. To McGuire's wife Lieut. General George Kenney wrote: "The word that Tommy has been shot down brought me one of the worst of a number of bad moments I have had to face since the war began."

* Major Richard Ira Bong (40 planes) has returned from battle and is now in the U.S.

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