1st Lt. Richard Creamer - Pilot |
487th Fighter Squadron, 352nd Fighter Group |
A Distinguished Veteran |
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| 1st Lt. Richard Creamer joined the 352nd Fighter Group, 487th Fighter Squadron in November, 1944, and flew his first combat mission to Oberlandstein on December 2, 1944. He flew 50 combat missions with the 487th, including four to Berlin. He destroyed over a half dozen trains, and on March 25, 1945, strafed and destroyed an ammunition dump at Freidburg. He flew a P-51D (specifications) he called “Joyce”, 44-13384, HO-C, and on April 16, 1945, while strafing an airfield, destroyed an ME-109 and damaged two more. His squadron received the Presidential Unit Citation with oak leaf cluster, and he received the Air Medal with five oak leaf clusters. He had 672.5 total flight hours in the PT-13, P-40, P-47 (specifications), P-51B, and P-51D. He describes the P-40 (specifications) as an eighteen-wheeler, and the P-51 as a Mercedes. He flew on many occasions with Meyers, Whisner, and Preddy, and he flew the second patrol mission on January 1, 1945, the day his friend, Alden Rigby, became an ace. The following is his account of that famous day. |
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| Richard Creamer signing "Full House - Aces High" |
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| Legend of Y-29 |
| “I remember waking up early on January 1st because there was a patrol mission scheduled. I personally was not scheduled to fly that morning, however, I can remember walking from the tent where we slept out to the dining area on my way to breakfast. As I was going out to breakfast, word came back that the twelve-ship flight from the 487th had taken off and that they had engaged enemy fighters before forming up around the field. As the word came back from the tower, I stood and watched the final take off of four airplanes, and as I looked down the runway, I could see there was some activity beyond the field where they would of normally formed up, but instead, had become engaged in combat with the Germans. As this was taking place, of course, we were all interested in additional word as to what was going on, and we were informed that some 50 to 75 German planes were attacking our field, as well as other fields in the area, and these were the planes that Col. Meyers and the other eleven planes became tangled up in immediately upon take off. |
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 There was immediate concern that our planes had engaged in combat because the P-51, with a full load of gas in the fuselage tank, was not the most maneuverable and stable until a portion of that gas had been used out. As we thought about these concerns, we continued to watch the sky. I don’t even remember today whether or not I had breakfast, but as the engagement became more intense, we could see that there was not just aerial combat immediately above the airfield, but some of the German aircraft were breaking away and ground strafing our field. All of the ground crew, as well as the pilots and officers not scheduled to fly in that particular mission, were scurrying around looking for cover, or some place to duck in the event a plane came in our direction. The scene above became very much like watching a deadly sporting event, wherein all of the ground personnel were watching the events taking place, and cheering as though at a football or baseball game. ‘Get that guy, get that explicative. Watch him, he’s on your tail’, shouting out loud, kind of steering the combat from the ground. It was a spectacle that could never be duplicated. The fighting raged above the field for two to two-and-a-half hours, and there was periodic strafing, and all this time, we were watching from the ground the combat and fighting that was going on above the field. It was difficult from time to time to find out whether a P-51 was chasing a German, or the German was chasing the P-51, and the fighting was so intense, we were concerned that our men were vastly outnumbered.
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| I remember watching one Me-109 who was apparently doing evasive maneuvers to get away from one of our 51s. I first saw him at approximately 2,000 to 2,500 feet, when he put his plane into a spin. I’m estimating he spun the plane for three turns before he pulled out at approximately 1,000 feet, and from that moment, he put the plane into a split S, and leveled out at approximately treetop level. I can vividly remember that I was amazed at the miraculous recovery he did with that plane as he flew away across the treetops out of my line of vision. That convinced me that the Germans really knew how to fly. As the combat progressed, I can vividly recall that you could hold your arms outstretched around the perimeter of the field at approximately 15 degrees, completely around the field, and there was a column of smoke arising from the downed planes. Of course, at that moment, we did not know if they were 487th men or German planes. |
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 As the morning wore on, the fighting began to subside around 11 am. There still was much activity in the air however, and planes were still flying around, but the combat itself seemed to be diminishing. At this point in time, one of the German planes had strafed the airfield, and hit one of our P-51s on the field, and as I recall, it was a 328th plane. I wanted to go out and see what damage had been done, and thought that the German planes had been diminished or scared off at that point. As I was walking out to look at the plane that was hit, I looked to my right and three heads were bobbing above the trench, waving me to get down. Not knowing exactly why they were waving me to get down, I assumed that there was an enemy aircraft approaching from somewhere. As I remember, the field itself was very, very flat, and the only place I could see to immediately fall was a small mound of dirt that was immediately to my right. I thought it would be away from the direction the plane was coming, however, as soon as I hit the ground, I turned my head to the left, and I could see an Me-109 bearing down at deck level across the field with guns blazing. Fortunately, he was not shooting at me, but more of the aircraft, which were probably now fifty yards in front of where I was lying. I could see tracers, and shells, hit both the ground and I believe a few strikes on aircraft as he made his pass across the field. As he crossed my path, I got up, and because I was so angry, I pulled my trusty 45 sidearm out and tried to play that it was a 20mm anti-aircraft weapon. Needless to say, it was ineffective, but it did satisfy my anger for having been so closely shot at. |
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| After that plane passed, I did proceed out and looked at the airplane, and it was damaged, but not severely, and I then returned back to the tent area. This was now very late morning, the fighting had subsided, and our aircraft started to return. As the planes began to land, I recall that Whisner came in with a broken oil line and his canopy was so badly blackened, he could hardly see to land, in fact, I think he had to open his canopy to see around in order to land the plane. In any event, eleven of our planes landed, and obviously, one was missing. This happened to be Capt. Littge, and as the morning and early afternoon wore on, and his gas load would have diminished, we presumed he was one of the columns of smoke surrounding the field. There was another patrol mission scheduled from noon to about three o’clock, and I had to fly that mission. We landed about three o’clock, and, of course, we were still missing one aircraft from the morning combat. About four o’clock in the afternoon, a lone Bluenoser straggled onto the field. He pulled up to the landing area, and Capt. Littge climbed out of his aircraft. |
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| Of course, everyone was in wonderment at where he had been, and how he had survived without gas. The story, of course, was that he had gotten on the tail of a German plane, I’m not sure if it was a FW-190 or Me-109, and was headed south towards Paris. He had run out of ammunition and was chasing this airplane. His gun camera still had film when he was pressing his gun trigger, and he did get a kill because his film showed the German pilot bailing out of the aircraft. He had flown on down toward Paris, landed at an airfield near Paris, refueled, and then took off and flew back to our base in Belgium. Of course, everyone was elated that he had returned, which meant the 487th twelve planes had flown without a loss, and when all the German kills had been tallied, we had shot down twenty-three German aircraft. It was a day that, in my mind, could never be duplicated because of the number of aircraft that were flying around the field in that short span of three hours. It was a magnificent tribute to those twelve pilots who flew on that mission, as well as the four P-47s who had flown an early morning patrol mission from the group across the field. Even though I did not fly that morning, I can say that I was very proud to be a member of the 352nd Fighter Group, 487th squadron, on that morning. I don’t believe a movie script writer could write a story portraying the actions in all the little details, and events, that happened that day”. |
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| Richard Creamer is one of our Rogue's Gallery members. |
| (Thanks are due Richard for providing photos and stories) |
