To be an Ace, you had to shoot down five enemy
airplanes in aerial combat. At the very moment, I’m the highest-scoring
living Ace. Even from an early age, Clarence E. Anderson
- known to most as “Bud” was obsessed with becoming a pilot and joining the U.S.
Army Air Corps. But in September of 1939, just as Bud was
enrolled in an Aeronautics Institution, Hitler’s Germany invaded Poland, igniting the start
of the Second World War. We, here in the United States, could see that
that was coming. It looked like we were going to have to get
involved sooner or later. Adolf Hitler’s all out attack on Poland
makes the long-dreaded European war a certainty. By January of 1942, the United States was
at war with Japan and Germany. Eager to do his part, Bud wasted no time and
enlisted the moment he was of age. When I volunteered and got accepted for Aviation
Cadets, I was so excited about it and couldn’t sleep that night. I got up and rushed out to my car, said goodbye. About the time I got to the gate I said, “Oh
my God, I forgot my orders!” I went right in and busted in to the kitchen,
and there was my mom, sitting in the chair with her hands over her face, crying like
a baby. I grabbed my orders and got the hell out of
there. You know, “What’s wrong with her?” Not really. I knew. There were so many losses. What do you do when your family got the notice
that Joe Blow is missing. It’s quite a thing. I was a good shot. I’d been through three gunnery schools. Two in the Army Air Corps, and a lucky break
when the group commander said, “You go to the Royal Air Force Central’s fighter gunnery
school, and take the Mustang.” And I got thirty-five hours in the Mustang. By the end of 1943, Bud and the 363rd Fighter
Squadron were in England, training in the Army Air Forces latest advancement in air
combat - the P-51 Mustang. The plan was for the 363rd to provide air
support for the inevitable invasion of Western Europe, known as D-Day. But before the invasion could be achieved,
Germany’s air forces would need to be silenced. D-Day was already pretty well set in June. The Eighth Air Force was supposed to destroy
the Luftwaffe, go to the factories, blow up the airplanes, go after the gasoline, blow
up all the airplanes on the ground and in the hangars. The Army Air Corps thought that the bombers
could go in unescorted. They could just do it all by themselves, go
back into Germany, destroy their war-making capability, and the troops could walk in. Well, they forgot to tell the Luftwaffe about
it. It just didn’t work that way. They’d go on these raids and the Germans
would just eat them up. And so they finally decided, “We gotta have
fighter escort.” And the Eight Air Force said, “Well, we’ve
got these P-51’s over here. Why don’t we try them?” Bud Anderson and the 363rd were now assigned
to the 8th Air Force. The P-51’s escorted the vulnerable bombers
on missions deep into Germany to wipe out the Luftwaffe. The Mustang was so great of an airplane. It had so much fuel in it. We could go into combat, deep into Germany
and engage the enemy. We could stay in the air longer than their
interceptors could, and get home easily. The Eighth Air Force, before, was run by bomber
pilots. They told us how to escort. They said, “We want you close, and when
the enemy comes in you drive them away and you come back.” So they had an altitude limit of 18,000 feet. If you hadn’t shot them down yet, you had
to come back up, close escort again. It wasn’t exactly the way to do it, but
that’s what we were told. They said, “The mission of the mission of
the Eight Fighter Command is to bring the bombers home safely.” General Doolittle came in and he says, “The
mission of the Eight Fighter Command is to destroy the Luftwaffe.” And he released us. He said, “Now, when you fighter pilots engage
the enemy, you take them to the ground, follow them and kill them. Pursue and destroy.” Wow! Turning a bunch of eager bunch fighter pilots loose
turned out to be the best thing he ever did. Finally unleashed, the Fighter Squadrons of
the 8th Air Force began to rain fury on the German Luftwaffe, and Bud in particular began
to show a knack for shooting down enemy aircraft. To be an Ace, you had to shoot down five enemy
airplanes in aerial combat. To be a Triple Ace, you had to do that three
times at least, and I shot down sixteen and a quarter enemy airplanes. I can remember this flight back to Posen,
Poland. We were already deep into Germany. We were escorting this long, long column of
bombers, and we heard that they were being attacked up front. And so, we swing around and push up the power
to get up to the front of the column. Here comes four ME-109’s flying line abreast. They came right into the bombers, head on,
firing. They rolled over and came around like they’re
going to go up ahead of it again and come in for a second pass. Well, we cut them off at the pass, and I picked
out this one guy. We got into a turning dogfight, right at the
altitude where the B-17’s were. And what were the bombers doing? They were coming right as us, like this. We kept turning and turning, and I could see
features of the B-17’s… the windshields. And I said, “Holy smokes!” The first guy that breaks out of this turn
is going to be at a disadvantage because the other guy can get on him. Sure enough, the 109 takes it down. So this guy is gonna turn like this and come
back and try to go head-on with me. And head-on passes are not fun. Not for me, anyway. And I suddenly realized if I don’t do something,
this guy is going to be able to get a shot at me. So he’s turning like this, so I got a sight
picture on him and fired a burst and went right by him, cause we were going like this. My wingman comes up here, and he’s looking
at him and he says, “Andy, you got that guy!" He says, “You hit him all around the engine. The propeller flew off of it, the cowling
came off, and you hit the cockpit.” But the guy pulled up and bailed out like
that, right there on the spot. But the missions over Europe were not always
a success, and the 363rd was not immune to casualties. Our squadron, the one we deployed with and
went overseas with, had exactly twenty-eight pilots in it. And when it was all over, exactly fifty percent
of them were either killed or prisoners of war. What do you do about combat losses? You’re there. You’re in the same hut. You come home and there’s an empty bunk
over there at night. Each guy had to figure out how to cope with
that. Some guys could just pull the shade down and
ignore it. Some people would not make close friends because
of it. But for every one we lost, we shot down five. Our claim to fame was we shot down more enemy
airplanes quicker than anyone else had. We destroyed their capability by May of 1944. And this allowed the invasion of Europe, and
then the final surrender of Germany. I’m not saying the fighter pilots won the
war by any means. It took everybody to win the war in Europe,
no question about it. But, the Eight Air Force over Germany was
probably one of the most dangerous places to be. We took a tremendous toll from the enemy. My best friend got married one week before
he went overseas. He got killed on his fifth mission. And Eleanor, she got notified by telegram. It was such a cold way, but you know, there
was just so many people that died, you couldn’t send someone personally there to notify the
widow. When I went home on R and R between tours,
I had to go see her. I think in my thirty years in the Air Force,
that’s the hardest thing I ever had to do was jump in my staff car and drive up to her
quarters and tell her her husband’s not coming home tonight. But anyway, I went to see her. “Hey, that wasn’t so bad.” So I went back to see her again, and maybe
again. And then we said, “Well, let’s write.” So we kept in touch. When I came home after my second tour, we
were married on the twenty-third of February. So it was a whirlwind romance. Best thing that ever happened to me. Following the war’s end, Bud Anderson raised
a family and went on to a thirty-year career in the United States Air Force, finally retiring
as a highly decorated Colonel in 1972. Still, one of the greatest honors of his life
came in 2015 when the city of Auburn, California commemorated a gift to Bud in recognition
of his accomplishments and service to his country. The town has a great spirit, and they’re
very good about veterans. It was a tremendous thing. It was very humbling. And I never really had a hometown. I lived and was raised on a farm. I never lived in the city. Now I feel like I have a hometown. There are many Aces that outrank me. But at the very moment, I’m the highest
scoring living Ace. Underline “living”.
