Heller’s “Hell-Er-Bust”
North American, P-51D-15NA (Mustang), Serial number 44-14696
486th Fighter Squadron, 352nd Fighter Group, 8th Air Force. Bodney, England, Asch (Y-29) and Chievres (Y84), Belgium. November 1944 - end of WW2.
Flown by Capt. Edwin Lewis Heller
14696 as it looked around the end of 1944 and the beginning of 1945, while the 352nd FG was based in Bodney, England, as well as Asch(Y-29) and Chievres(Y-84), Belgium. Note the 12 swastikas painted in front of the canopy. Though there are some discrepancies about Heller’s exact number of victories, it appears that the 12 markings in this early paint scheme represented Heller’s 4.5 enemy aircraft destroyed in the air and 7.5 on the ground, all of which occurred before Heller began flying this airplane. The illustration is based on a photo in a book “352nd Fighter Group” by Thomas G.Ivie, as well as this photo.
P-51D with a serial number 44-14696 was the second Mustang assigned to Capt. Heller. Like his first (a P-51B), it was also named HELL-ER-BUST. By the time Heller started to fly his P-51D in November 1944, he already had 4.5 aerial and 7.5 strafing victories to his name, as well as 14 locomotives and a shared E-boat destroyed. Seven of his strafing victories, apart from his half share in the destruction of a Ju-52[1], were all scored in one day during various strafing attacks on April 24th, 1944. In addition to the 7 aircraft destroyed, Heller also damaged 5 that day, but all these strafing victories were scored in Heller’s previous airplane.
While flying his HELL-ER-BUST, P-51D, Heller went on to claim one more aerial victory, his 5th, thus becoming an ace. This aerial victory occurred on March 2nd, 1945, when the Eighth Air Force was tasked with striking petroleum facilities in Germany. Numerous dogfights occurred during this mission, the first of which was when Capt. Heller led a flight of six P-51s into a pack of fifteen Fw-190s. The Mustangs destroyed 7 of the enemy aircraft, 5 of which were confirmed and 2 were probables, plus damaged two. Capt. Heller claimed one of the confirmed destroyed and one of the damaged.
March 2. 1 x FW-190 30m south-east of Leipzig (Germany)
March 2. 1 x FW-190 (damaged) 30m south-east of Leipzig (Germany) [2]
The illustration above shows what 44-14696 looked like soon after Heller’s 5th aerial victory which occurred on March 2nd, 1945 while 352nd FG was based at Chievres airfield, Belgium (AAF Station Y-84). Note that the earlier victories represented by the 12 swastikas have been erased and replaced by 13 red crosses under the canopy. The 13th cross presumably representing Heller’s 5th aerial victory and his first while flying 44-14696. The profile artwork is based on this photo.
Heller’s luck at strafing the enemy was repeated again on April 24th, 1945, when he managed to destroy another seven enemy aircraft on the ground! This act propelled Heller into the undefeated position of 352nd FG’s leading strafing ace. On that day, after escorting the bombers of the 1st Air Division through their target area, half of 352nd FG’s Mustangs broke off escort and started looking for enemy airfields. They found one over the base at Gonecker, containing around 70 aircraft. First, the Mustangs neutralised the flak guns protecting the airfield and then proceeded to unleash hell on the airfield itself. In a period of about 30 minutes, the ‘Bluenosers’ destroyed a total of 40 aircraft and damaged 27. The 486th FS claimed 24 of these, of which 7 were claimed by Heller in his HELL-ER-BUST.
14696 as it looked at the end of the war, by which time the 352nd FG was based back in Bodney, England, again. Note Heller’s seven strafing victories added in a new row under the previous row of thirteen. Presumably, these now represented all of Heller’s WW2 victories, which consisted of 5.5 aerial and 14.5 strafing kills (20 in total). It’s worth noting that various sources disagree about how many strafing victories Heller had, these range from 14 to 16.5. The illustration is based on this photo.
Heller flew this airplane until the end of the war, ending WW2 with 5.5 aerial and 14-16.5 (depending on the source) ground victories.
Footnotes
[1] Based on the information on this page http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/URG/heller.html
[2] The details about the aerial victories are based on the book by Frank Olynyk called “Stars & Bars”, published by Grub Street in 1995, p.331.
Much of the other information based on the book “352nd Fighter Group”, by Thomas G. Ivie, published by Osprey Publishing in 2002, PDF e-book iSBN: 978 1 84603 755 9
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