Presentation Date: June 22, 2000
Herb Ross
P-38 Fighter Ace, Flew in North Africa as a member of the 14th Fighter Group Maj. Herb Ross flew P-38 Lightnings with the 14th FG in North Africa. He Scored 7 victories against Italian and German aircraft over Sicily and Italy. He tells of his direct bomb hit that sank the Italian troopship "Rex" after it opened fire on his flight. Maj. Ross commanded a squadron of F-86 Sabers in Korea and retired in 1967.
"Herbie the Boat Sinker"
Herb Ross flew with the 14th Fighter Group, 48th Fighter Squadron in the Mediterranean Theater, mostly missions from North Africa across the Sea to targets on the Italian mainland or islands.
The Stockton, California native joined the Army in 1940, but it wasn't until 1943 that he was sent over to combat from bases in Tunisia. In what would mistakenly be called "the soft underbelly of Europe", Ross led his P-38 squadron on 52 missions and had seven confirmed victories - - two Me-109s, two Macchi 202s, two Ju-52s and one FW-190. Had another Macchi 202 probable and another Me-109 damaged.
Ross was the guest speaker at the Golden Gate Wing's June dinner meeting.
One thing Ross remembers well about the Mediterranean was the squalid living conditions - - tents baking under the desert sun, sand and flies. Ross recalls one day the temperature hit 126 degrees, and watching a ground crewman fry an egg on a P-38 wing. Another thing that impressed him was the skill and 'tremendous courage' of PBY crews of the British Fleet Air Arm, who rescued downed airmen in the Mediterranean. He escorted one "Dumbo" to about three miles off the coast of the Bay of Naples, to drop down to pick up a ditched bomber crew.
Among the other Africa experiences was Ross' chance to meet USO veteran Bob Hope. In fact, Ross gave the entertainer a ride in his P-38. And when Herb came home after his tour of duty, he got orders for a 30-day bond tour with Hope, Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper and others.
Although Herb Ross wasn't interested in aviation as a child, one of his idols was Jimmy Doolittle, who blazed through air races in a number of planes, including the Gee Bee. Growing up, Herb's mother had always emphasized music, and his dad saw to it the lad was competent in sports. "I grew up with a shotgun and a rifle in my hand. So I had a pretty good idea of what 'lead' meant with respect to shooting down an enemy aircraft." And, if the war hadn't come along, Herb was on track to become a concert pianist, having studied at Julliard School of Music. At age 17 he was taking money earned playing in a jazz band to pay for flight lessons.
"Things don't really always happen as they're planned, Ross stated, as he launched into the story of how he became known as "Herbie the Boat Sinker".
On that particular mission, Herb and his squadron were flying their P-38s with a drop tank under one wing and a 2000-pound bomb under the other, to dive bomb a German airport in northern Sardinia.
"I think they probably thought we could hit the airport by dive bombing because the B-17s and B-26s were having problems hitting small targets." General Atkinson had asked Herb's P-38 squadron to practice dive bombing. On a desert dry lake, "we drew a thing about 50 feet wide and about 200 feet long and that was our target, and out of 100 bombs, the safest place for you or I to be was inside that target area."
The day of the mission the island's northern coast was socked in by fog, and after leading the 12 planes up the coast and finding no alternate targets, Herb aborted the mission, and headed for home. As they broke out from the fog, they suddenly saw flak bursts blossoming near them, and Herb saw a ship below, its guns flashing at the planes overhead.
"So I thought, those s-o-bs are shooting at us. Well, we have 2000-pound bombs on board, let's practice on the boat. We had it all squared away, a 60-degree dive angle at 26-hundred feet...all this good stuff was worked out and so I peeled off and pickled, pulled out leisurely and about five seconds later I heard over the radio, 'Herb got a direct hit. Everybody hold your bombs.'"
Herb was stunned to see the ship flying apart under a mushrooming cloud of smoke, debris soaring up thousands of feet. An Army Air Force reconnaissance flight later identified the capsized ship as the Rex, an Italian luxury liner - turned troop carrier, as the boat Ross sunk with his single bomb.
John Som (later a race pilot at Reno) was Herb's wingman on a mission over Sicily. "Our mission was to find and destroy a radar tower with bombs and strafing. But we couldn't find it and, concerned we'd be jumped by 109s or 190s, we climbed back up and started home. As the squadron began climbing we spotted a lone Macchi 202 stooging around. I said 'John, you go get him. We've got eleven P-38s giving you top cover.'"
Herb says they put on 'a pretty good air show' before the Macchi pulled up vertical and then bailed out. "Back at the base, John told me he never fired a shot at the Italian."
In August, 1943, late in his Mediterranean tour, Ross admits he made a horrible mistake. After shooting down an Me 109 near Rome, he relaxed back in his cockpit, and started flying straight and level at 28,000 feet, breathing hard and sucking in some oxygen. A voice on the intercom said, "Hey Herb, look behind you."
"I looked around behind me and there was an Me 109 - - couldn't have been 200 feet behind me. And I thought, my God, I'm gonna' die. I knew that in one or two seconds I was gonna' be dead. And I just froze. I couldn't pull back on the stick...I turned around and looked again and the Me 109 exploded. Then the voice said, 'I got him'.
Back on the ground, Sidney Weatherford told Ross he thought it was real sport to say "look behind you," before shooting down the enemy aircraft.
On one mission, Ross made a commander's decision he believes contributed to a watershed change in bombing mission fighter tactics. Under fighter escort 'doctrine', fighter squadrons were admonished to always stay with the bombers. They were to be defensive, not to chase enemy interceptors who "yo-yoed" around the bombers.
Leading a group of four squadrons on an escort mission for B-17s from North Africa to Italy, Ross noticed the lead group of bombers turn in error away from the main group. He chose to take two flights of P-38s with the wayward bombers, and climb above them in an offensive posture to hit any enemy fighters who showed up.
"Sure enough, about 30 enemy fighters all headed for this group of just eighteen B-17s. So, I called the guys in the squadron and told them not to stay and fight with them. 'Yo-yo on them. If you don't get them on the first pass we'll back up and make a new run on them.' "
Ross says as the situation developed, he gave them the green light to go one-on-one with the enemy fighters, causing about half of them to split-s and disengage. Ross shot one down on his second pass, as did five other Americans. Altogether, the group shot down 22 German fighters on that day.
About three hours after Ross was back on the ground, he got a call from General Atkinson's office. Expecting to be bawled out for leaving the "close escort" position, Ross drove over to Atkinson's office and went inside. Herb says the General returned his salute and came around his desk, stuck his hand out for a hearty shake and said, "Young man, you saved my life today. I was on board that lead B-17". And Ross says the General used the 'f 'word to describe the navigator who made the bad turn.
That night, Ross says he got word from higher-ups that future escort, "tactics would be at the discretion of the group commander." And, when Jimmy Doolittle became General Eisenhower's Air Chief for the Normandy invasion, the sign posted on Doolittle's office door was changed from "The mission of the fighters is to protect the bombers," to "The mission of the fighters is to destroy the Luftwaffe."
Ross says about 15 years ago he walked up to say hello to Jimmy Doolittle at an airshow in Watsonville. Herb says the old General turned and asked, "Don't I know you from some place?" They shook hands and Herb again shared his memory of that mission.
Herb Ross served in the Air Force for 27 years, including a stint as a squadron commander in the Korean War, in which he never got a chance to see a Mig fighter. He retired as a full bird Colonel. Today, he's still a very active pilot, until recently flying airshow aerobatics in a Pitts Special.