Stephens’ “KILLER!”
North American, P-51D-(5)?-NA (Mustang), Serial number (44-13780)?
355th Fighter Squadron, 354th Fighter Group “Pioneer Mustang Group”, 9th Air Force, Gael (A-31), France, August-September 1944.
Flown by Maj. Robert(Bob) Winston Stephens, C.O. of the 355th FS. (An ace with 13 air victories + 1 damaged)
“KILLER!” P-51D as it looked in mid August 1944 around the time Stephens began flying this airplane. The airplane is marked with 10 aerial victories scored in Stephen’s P-51Bs
Note the blue checkered pattern on the nose of the airplane, this was the identity marking of the 355th FS between spring and autumn of 1944.
The “flying ace” emblem displayed just behind the exhaust stack is an apt choice of iconography for a pilot with so many aerial victories.
Note that the canopy might have been replaced for the “second version Inglewood” canopy, though the lock hatch on it is still the same as on the “early Inglewood” canopy.
P-51D “KILLER!” was the last and the only ‘bubble top’ Mustang assigned to the commanding officer of the 355th fighter squadron, the 22 y/o Maj Bob Stephens. He flew it from August of 1944 until his tour expired in September. Maj Stephens scored 3 air victories in this machine in late August, taking his final aerial victory tally to 13. His previous 10 victories were scored from behind the controls of his previous mustangs(he flew four of them), all of which were P-51Bs and all were also branded with the nickname “Killer”. The nickname is a reference to young Stephens’ reputation in the boxing ring. He participated in the sport as an amateur boxer while growing up and he usually won his matches, often by TKOs (technical knockout), prompting a friend of his father to nickname Bob “Killer”. Later, Bob’s father suggested that this should be the nickname painted on Bob’s airplanes, a suggestion which Bob followed.
The first of Bob’s victories scored in his P-51D “KILLER!” occurred on the morning of August 25th when he led the first fighter sweep of the day, heading for Beauvais and Épernay. Just north of Reims the Mustangs were attacked by some 20 Bf 109s and Fw 190s and Maj. Stephens quickly shot down two of the Focke-Wulfs.
Aug 25, 2 x FW-190, near Rethel (France)
The last victory in “KILLER!”, Bob’s last victory overall, happened on August 28th. On that day Maj. Stephens was leading a patrol in the vicinity of Châlons, Reims and Soisson when his Mustangs were bounced by about 50 Fw 190s and BF 109 over Épernay. The encounter resulted with Stephens being credited with a victory over a Bf-109. Interestingly, this happened even though Stephens didn’t even fire a shot! Here is how he described this encounter:
‘The Jerry had made the mistake of trying to turn with our Lufbery. In doing this he lost his speed advantage and couldn’t get away. I got on his tail and had him in my sights when he half rolled. I rolled after him. Then, before I fired a shot, he bailed out’.
Aug 28, 1 x Bf-109, over Épernay (France)
“KILLER!” P-51D as it looked in early September 1944. Note the addition of 3 extra swastikas to represent Stephens’ 3 new victories, his last.
The top and bottom views of Stephens’ P-51D.
After Maj Robert Stephens returned back to USA in September 1944, P-51D “KILLER!” was passed on to Raymond P. Bain who flew around 30 missions in it (according to Bain). If this was indeed airplane with a serial number 44-13780 then according to some sources[1] it later belonged to the 9th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, 9th AF and was lost from unknown cause over Germany on Jan 30, 1945. Its pilot was MIA and presumed dead.
The QUESTIOnable serial number and Type of P-51D
It is difficult to know the exact serial number and type of airplane that Stephens’ “KILLER!” P-51D was. The only P-51Ds that 354th FG would have been equipped with in August 1944 are P-51D-5s and P-51D-10s. 354th FG received quite a few D-5s but D-10 seems to be a rare variant in this group. Presuming that Stephens “KILLER!” was most likely a P-51D-5, its serial number would be somewhere in the range between 44-13253 and 44-14052. We have evidence that Stephens P-51D’s serial number ended in 780, as can be seen in the photo fragment below, therefore if this plane was a P-51D-5 then the serial number would have been 44-13780
References Used
‘354th Fighter Group’, by William N. Hess, published by Osprey Publishing in 2002, PDF e-book ISBN:978 1 78200 894 1
“Stars & Bars” by Frank Olynyk, published by Grub Street in 1995, p.573., ISBN 1-898697-17-5
https://supersabresociety.com/biography/stephens-robert-w-k-i-a/
SUMMARY OF LINKS TO THE REFERENCE IMAGES AND VIDEOS
https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/media/media-16986jpeg
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