Doersch’s “Ole’ Goat”
NORTH AMERICAN, (Possibly) P-51D-10NT (MUSTANG), SERIAL NUMBER 44-12067*
368th Fighter Squadron, 359th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, East Wretham, Norfolk, April 1945.
Flown by (future) Maj. George A. ‘Pop’ Doersch
The image above shows 44-12067 as it appears in a photo presumably before the name “Ole’ Goat” was painted on it.
With his 10.5 aerial and 1.5 ground kills (plus a share in the destruction of 13 locomotives), Maj. (who was still a Capt. when he flew Ole’Goat) George Doersch was one of 359 FG’s highest-scoring aces, second only to Maj. Ray Wetmore. Most of these victories however were scored by George during his first tour of duty and as part of the 370th FS. His second tour of duty, serving with the 368th FS from March 1945, saw him score 0.5 aerial kill and this was while flying a Mustang coded CV-G (serial number 44-72406) which wasn’t his assigned airplane. His assigned airplane around that time was a P-51 coded CV-R (serial number 44-12067*) christened Ole’ Goat in which Maj. Doersch is believed to have scored 1.5 ground kills on the 9th of April, 1945.
Plane 44-12067 as it might have looked on the 9th of April when it crash landed.
On that day about 50 Mustangs took off on a mission to escort and assist B-17s with striking the jet airfield of Obershleischeim and others near Munich. The battle action commenced at about 1535 hrs. as the Mustangs of the 359th, following the bombing attacks by the B-17s, began strafing the airfields as well as intercepting enemy Me-262 jets which attempted to destroy the bombers. At 1700hrs, after the B-17s dropped some of their bombs onto the enemy airfield at Germering, west of Munich, Capt. ‘Pop’ Doersch and his wingman proceeded down to strafe the airfield. On their first pass Capt. Doersch blew up a FW-190. On his second strafing pass Doersch pulled up so close to the ground that he was unable to aim properly, but he fired Ole’Goat’s guns anyway. However, being too close to the ground his propeller struck the parked He-111 bomber as the ace tried to pull up. To make matters worse, it happened just as a delayed-action bomb exploded on the ground in front of him with the debris hitting Ole’Goat in the nose. The debris struck and dented the Mustang’s spinner, cracked the armour-glass windscreen and tore the rear-view mirror off the canopy. There was other damage to the plane too as was evidenced by the machine’s rising coolant temperature. George opened both radiator shutters to the maximum in an attempt to cool and save his machine, but this proved to be futile. 50 miles west of Frankfurt the Mustang’s engine overheated and caught fire, forcing Doersch to make an emergency landing. After belly landing his airplane behind enemy lines, Doersch made it back to friendly territory and then to his unit. Only a few days after belly landing his fighter, the ace was back in action again flying yet another Mustang into battle. [1]
Noteworthy Visual Characteristics
1) Note that the plane was fitted with an ‘Aeroproducts’ propeller.
2) The name “Ole’ Goat” was the name given to Doersch’s airplane.
3) The green nose was the identification marking of the 359th Fighter Squadron.
4) The top of the nose was painted with non-glare Olive Drab or possibly black colour. I have used this photo as reference for the colour.
5) The black swastikas in a red rectangle represent Doersch’s victories. Doersch scored 10.5 aerial victories. The 11 markings most likely represent his total tally of 10.5 rounded off to 11.
6) “CV” was the identification code of the 368’s Fighter Squadron.
7) The antenna appears to be painted. It’s difficult to know what colour, possibly the same non-glare paint as the top of the nose.
8) “R” was the identification code of Doersch’s plane. This code also appeared on plane 44-15618 which was lost on 15th of Feb, 1945 [2].
9) 412067 indicates the serial number of the airplane (44-12067). The style of the writing seems to be consistent with the planes built at the Dallas factory.
10) The yellow rudder was an identification marking of the 368th Fighter Squadron.
11) On Patreon.
12) On Patreon.
13) Note that the antena wires seem to be absent.
14) Note the mirror enclosed in a clear ‘blister’ on top of the moving part of the canopy.
Possible Evolution of External appearance
1) The canopy in the available photo reference appears to be that of the (second) Inglewood style and might have been retrofitted onto Ole’Goat. If 44-12067 was the plane’s correct serial number that would imply that the plane was built at the Dallas plant, which would suggest that it is likely it was originally fitted with the ‘Dallas style’ canopy. In addition to this, there is also a photo of plane with the code CV-R (possibly even ‘Ole Goat’?) whose canopy frame is painted (most likely yellow). This hints at the possibility that 44-12067’s canopy frame might have also been painted yellow at some stage.
Please note that the first of the four liveries above is hypothetical.
2) There is a photo of this airplane where the name Ole’ Goat appears to be dark with a light outline (possibly red with a white outline) and a photo where the name appears to be the reverse of that - light with a dark outline (possibly yellow with a black outline). It’s difficult to understand why there are two versions of the name and to know which came first. It might be possible that a different photo film was used for the two photos, but apart from that the simplest assumption of course is that for some reason the name was actually repainted. Based on the observation that parts of the plane in the first photo seem less “aged” (the black stripe on the leading edge of the wing seems to be less ‘chipped’ for example) it makes sense to hypothesise that the name might have been painted ‘dark with a light outline’ first and later was repainted as ‘light with a dark outline’.
FOOTNOTES
* Note that some reputable sources claim (possibly mistakingly) that this was an airplane with a serial number 44-72067. Which would imply that it was an Inglewood (California) manufactured P-51D-20NA. Other sources however say that this plane had a serial number 44-12067, implying that it was a Dallas (Texas) manufactured P-51K-10NT. We have photo reference proving that the serial number was indeed 44-12067 and the style of the writing of the serial number is consistent with being produced at the Dallas plant.
[1] Mostly based on the information from the book ‘359th Fighter Group’, by Jack H. Smith, published by Osprey Publishing in 2002, pages 114, PDF e-book ISBN:978 1 78200 571 1
[2] Based on http://www.littlefriends.co.uk/359th-fighter-group/
SUMMARY OF LINKS TO THE REFERENCE IMAGES AND VIDEOs
https://www.facebook.com/WisconsinVeteransMuseum/photos/a.403367530972/10157877723640973/?type=3
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10157130647315973&set=pcb.10157130648350973
All the work presented on this page is subject to updates and revisions in the light of new information which might present itself. If you have any new information relevant to this page or disagree with anything that's presented here, then please contact me through the Planes in Profile Facebook page to help make the content of this page more accurate. Thanks:)
