Leadership, Biblical Style

Well, Sarge sure had a great week, didn't he gang?  6 in a row out of the park,  with a few grand slams amongst them.  All while feeling a bit "puny".

Reading the entire series, left me with the thought of "It was futile, so why?".  I mean Guys climbing out to the trenches to attack literally minutes before the Armistice?  And Dying?  Why?

I'm going to write it off as "Fog of War", and refer to a couple of wars that didn't follow that model.

Fog of war.  You NEVER know what the enemy is thinking.  You may have good intel.  You may have a strong feeling, but you never know for certain.  Is he using the time in between now and the appointed time to bring in Reserves?  Plan a different attack?  Rest and Rearm?

To prevent that, in both WWI and WWII the Allies continued attacks until the official Armistice/Surrender was accomplished.  But we seem to have forgotten that in our "wars" since.

How many bombing halts did that SOB, buried about 20 miles east of me, order to "entice" the North Vietnamese to come to the bargaining table?  What would have happened if he'd continued to attack Hanoi and Haiphong in 1968 rather than halting them?  I doubt it would have been worse than what actually happened.

Essentially the same goes for Korea, Desert Storm, Iraq, Afghanistan.  Different specifics, but we negotiated at any cost rather than negotiated with our knife across there throat.

That however is my opinion.  Unlike some, I encourage disagreement and discussion. It enlightens both sides.

So, having not done one of these posts in a while, I return to my old standby.





Permit me to introduce you to 1LT Raymond L Knight.

Source

Lt Knight was a P-47 Pilot in the Italian Theater in WWII.  It's the 24th of April 1945.  The war is winding down.  In 4 Days, this would be happening in that theater.

Mussolini is second from Left
Source

This event happened in Milan on 28 April 45 and, according to the Wikipedia, the picture was taken at 9AM and the Americans arrived on scene at 2 PM and ordered the bodies taken down. So, the Allies pretty much owned Italy.

The situation for Germany and Italy, is obviously collapsing rapidly, at least in the Italian theater.  (Things aren't going swimmingly in Western and Eastern Front for the Axis powers either.  Japan is still hanging on by a thread, although Okinawa is in progress.)

Even with that encouraging assessment, Lt Knight is assigned to lead a flight of P-47 to strafe Ghendi airfield near Bergamo (about 30 NM ENE of Milan).  It's pretty apparent that the Axis doesn't have a lot of fuel to conduct operations, so why undertake an extremely hazardous operation such as strafing an airfield?

Lt Knight and his crewchief, Sergeant Marvin Childers, with their Jug, "Oh Johnnie".  Look at how big the P47 is!
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Strafing involves very low altitude, meaning you're within the range of virtually any weapon.  It involves near level flight, because jinking low to the ground is difficult as altitude is all above you, and tracking the target is essential to successfully hitting it.  So the only way to minimize the risk is high speed.  However,while high speed minimizes tracking time for the bad guys (good), it also reduces accuracy for the pilot (not so good).

But if the enemy won't come to where you are, you must go to where the enemy is. Ergo, strafing.

Source Google Maps

So, Lt Knight is given this mission of dubious worth to the Allied War Effort.  How does he handle it?

He has the rest of the flight, hold well above the target, out of AAA range while he, the flight lead, dives down and makes a high speed pass to see if there are actually airplanes on the field and where on that field they may be.

Alone.

That pretty much defines Leadership in my book.    He knows there's AAA down there, doesn't know if there are targets.  Isn't going to risk other lives unnecessarily.  So goes down to look see, alone. 

 Leadership.

Finding 8 aircraft on the field, he rejoins his flight and leads the attack, destroying 5 on the ground while his flight destroys 2 that got airborne.

He then returns to base and volunteers to lead another mission to Bergamo, leading a 4 ship.  He again orders the others to remain high as he scouts the field.  As he makes his pass, he discovers another group of aircraft but sustains heavy damage to his P47.    However, he returns with his flight and makes 10 passes destroying 6 twin engine aircraft.

He is able to safely return to base.

The main fuel tank was in this general area.
Source

The next morning, he leads another attack on Bergamo, destroying 3 more twin engine aircraft, but again sustains severe damage from AAA.  Knowing that his wing is short on aircraft, he elects to return to base rather than bail out.

As he is returning to base, his virtually unflyable aircraft  will not gain enough altitude to clear the Apennini Mountains and crashes, killing Lt Knight.

Two things struck me about this.  One was previously discussed.  While of dubious tactical value (the enemy aircraft were mostly unflyable),  the missions were strategically necessary to keep pressure on the enemy until they actually surrendered.

The second thought was, at this point in the War, the Allies still were short on aircraft?  Or was the aircraft important enough to risk your life because of a shortage in THIS theater?  

Somehow, I think the latter.

By the way, his aircraft was named  Oh Johnnie" after his wife.  

The following video, while not very interesting (only 111+ views), does show the rugged terrain that the Lt and his aircraft tried to climb over.

Lt Knight's Citation:

"He piloted a fighter-bomber aircraft in a series of low-level strafing missions, destroying 14 grounded enemy aircraft and leading attacks which wrecked 10 others during a critical period of the Allied drive in northern Italy.

On the morning of 24 April, he volunteered to lead 2 other aircraft against the strongly defended enemy airdrome at Ghedi. Ordering his fellow pilots to remain aloft, he skimmed the ground through a deadly curtain of antiaircraft fire to reconnoiter the field, locating 8 German aircraft hidden beneath heavy camouflage. He rejoined his flight, briefed them by radio, and then led them with consummate skill through the hail of enemy fire in a low-level attack, destroying 5 aircraft, while his flight accounted for 2 others. 

Returning to his base, he volunteered to lead 3 other aircraft in reconnaissance of Bergamo airfield, an enemy base near Ghedi and 1 known to be equally well defended. Again ordering his flight to remain out of range of antiaircraft fire, 1st Lt. Knight flew through an exceptionally intense barrage, which heavily damaged his Thunderbolt, to observe the field at minimum altitude.

He discovered a squadron of enemy aircraft under heavy camouflage and led his flight to the assault. Returning alone after this strafing, he made 10 deliberate passes against the field despite being hit by antiaircraft fire twice more, destroying 6 fully loaded enemy twin-engine aircraft and 2 fighters.

His skillfully led attack enabled his flight to destroy 4 other twin-engine aircraft and a fighter plane. He then returned to his base in his seriously damaged plane.

Early the next morning, when he again attacked Bergamo, he sighted an enemy plane on the runway. Again he led 3 other American pilots in a blistering low-level sweep through vicious antiaircraft fire that damaged his plane so severely that it was virtually nonflyable.

Three of the few remaining enemy twin-engine aircraft at that base were destroyed.

Realizing the critical need for aircraft in his unit, he declined to parachute to safety over friendly territory and unhesitatingly attempted to return his shattered plane to his home field. With great skill and strength, he flew homeward until caught by treacherous air conditions in the Appennines Mountains, where he crashed and was killed.

The gallant action of 1st Lt. Knight eliminated the German aircraft which were poised to wreak havoc on Allied forces pressing to establish the first firm bridgehead across the Po River; his fearless daring and voluntary self-sacrifice averted possible heavy casualties among ground forces and the resultant slowing on the German drive culminated in the collapse of enemy resistance in Italy."

Rest in Peace, Warrior! 

Sources:
https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/raymond-l-knight/
https://www.afhistory.af.mil/FAQs/Fact-Sheets/Article/639610/knight-1st-lt-raymond-l-knight/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_L._Knight
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fknhx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Benito_Mussolini