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- Major George E. Preddy ~ Free Shipping
Product Description
George Preddy got off to a slow start in combat, but went on to become one of the top scoring aces of WWII. The native of Greensboro, North Carolina, won his wings five days after Pearl Harbor and departed the United States for the southwest pacific with other members of the 49th fighter group on January 12, 1942. A mid-air collision in July of 1942 ended his combat tour in the pacific and Preddy was returned to the United States. When July of 1943 arrived, Preddy was in England with 352nd fighter group flying p-47 thunderbolts. However, it was not until December that he scored his 1st and 2nd victories. Victory no. 3 came in January, but on the way home Preddy’s was hit by flak and he was forced to bail out in the English Channel. When the 352nd group received p-51 mustangs in spring of 1944, Preddy’s score began to climb. The high point of his combat career came on august 6, 1944, when he shot six Messerschmitt 109s from the sky. The blue nosed mustangs of the 352nd were escorting the bombers to berlin when Preddy sighted a gaggle of German aircraft. The p-51s immediately bounced the enemy and Preddy pulled in on the tail of the formation and blasted away. As he described it, "I just kept shooting and they kept falling". Preddy returned to the United States soon after this classic combat for which he received the Distinguished Service Cross, but returned to the 352nd in November of 1944. When the German offensive in December 1944 created the critical battle of the bulge, Preddy was amongst the pilots who went to advance bases in Belgium to help assist beleaguered allied ground forces. On Christmas day of 1944 Preddy was flying southwest of Coblenz when he sighted two 109s. He immediately gave chase and downed both aircraft. A Focke Wulf 190 was then sighted flying on the deck, so Preddy dived to do combat. As he closed on the enemy craft American anti-aircraft opened fire on the Focke Wulf just in time for Preddy to fly into it. Desperately, Preddy off combat but his mustang took fatal hits and plunged into the ground. His final score was 26.83 confirmed aerial victories.
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