Thread by @RokkerBoyy

With friendly fire incidents being so topical lately, I figured I would make a post about my favorite friendly fire incident of all time.

This is the story of Lt Col Louis Edward Curdes and the time he got a kill credit for shooting down an American aircraft.

Growing up, Curdes' father instilled in him a passion for aviation. He took his first plane ride when he was 8 or 9, he went to watch air races and saw airships being built. He dropped out of Purdue to join the US Army Air Corps on December 6th 1941, 1 day before Pearl Harbor.

He spent much of the next year as a Flying Cadet, training on everything from Stearman PT-13s to being one of the few Cadets to get flight time on Curtiss P-36s. By December of 1942, he had graduated flight school and was deployed to the Mediterranean In April the next year.

Curdes was assigned to fly P-38s with the 82nd Fighter Group out of Algeria. He didnt have to wait long to see action, as on his very first mission he shot down 3 Bf109s of JG27 and damaged a 4th. Within a month he would shoot down 2 more 109s, making him an Ace.

In short order Curdes would go on to shoot down an Italian C.202, and 1 more Bf 109, earning his first Distinguished Flying Cross. On his final mission in Europe he took out 2 Bf109s before being shot down over Italy. He was captured, but escaped to allied lines in May of 44.

After his escape, Curdes was told he could no longer fly in Europe, so he transferred to flying P-51s the 3rd Air Commando Group in the Pacific. In February of 45, he got his first Japanese kill, a Ki-46, making him one of 3 US pilots to down a plane from every major Axis power.

On Feb 10th Curdes wingman was shot down near a Japanese airstrip in Batan and ditched in the ocean. While circling his downed wingman, he noticed a large plane lining up to land at the airfield. It looked like it could be a Nakajima L2D, a Japanese license built DC-3.

After pulling up for a closer look, he realized it was an American C-47! It had drifted off course and was attempting to land at the Japanese airstrip. He tried to contact them to no avail. Fearing what would happen if they were captured by the Japanese he had a tough choice.

Curdes decided they would have a better chance ditching in the water than getting captured by the Japanese. So he lined his guns up on the C-47s engine and fired. The 47 ditched into the ocean and deployed life rafts. They would pick up his wingman and spend the night in the raft

The next day Curdes returned with a PBY Catalina rescue party, everyone had survived. Upon return he learned that a nurse he had gone out with earlier that week was on board!
The USAAF would award him its first and only US kill credit and his second Distingushed Flying Cross.

Curdes flew a total of 48 missions in WW2 with 9 enemy kills (and 1 friendly.) He would go on to fly in the Berlin Airlift. He would retire after 22 years of service and died at 75 in Ft Wayne, Indiana.

His P-51 "Bad Angel" can be seen today at the Pima Air and Space Museum.

Unfortunately I just found out that Pima's P-51 is merely painted as Curdes. Still a great story and great museum. I looked into it when I first heard the story many years ago and couldn't find anything saying it wasn't the original and assumed it was. My bad.