March Matron

Bill Overstreet, interviewed in his 90s.

Overstreet, interviewed while he was in his 90s, credited his piloting skills to the unusual teaching methods of his military instructors and leaders. 

"The instructor would flip the plane upside-down and then cut the engine."

"(They would) take a flight of four to the Golden Gate Bridge and do loops around it. . . . Our legal officer, told me years later that he was able to hold up action on bushels of charges."

After being stationed overseas, Overstreet had more near misses and some incredible successes.

"I had a freak accident. . . While over enemy territory, a burst of flak cut my oxygen line. . . . The next thing I knew, I was in a spin, engine dead since the fuel tank it was set on was dry. . . . I had no idea where I was, but remembered where I had been headed so I reversed it." Dodging trees, he was able to land on the coast of France after passing out for 90 minutes. 

Overstreet was also assigned to flying supplies to the French Resistance while picking up downed airmen from behind enemy lines.

Overstreet, in his P-51 Mustang, chasing a German ME 109 under the Eiffel Tower in a 1944 epoch skirmish.

However, he was best known for a dogfight in Paris. In 1944, while escorting bombers, the escort was met by German fighter planes. Overstreet hit one of the German's engines and the pilot headed into the city for the protection of heavy anti-aircraft artillery.

Overstreet followed and the German pilot aimed his plane at the Eiffel Tower. The German flew under the tower with Overstreet following. 

Overstreet stands by his P-51 Berlin Express, the plane he flew under the Eiffel Tower.

"A lot of people don’t believe I did it. I don’t blame ’em but I got back to Leiston with barbed wire under the tail and cat tails on the wing tips"

Pastor Jeff Clemmons, a combat veteran of the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps and a close friend of William Overstreet added, "The Paris citizenry actually rose up in defiance of the Germans for a period of three days, celebrating that victory."

In 2009, Overstreet was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French Ambassador Pierre Vimont. He dedicated his award to, "my comrades who never made it home."

Overstreet, 88-years-old, received the Legion of Honor.

Overstreet died on December 29, 2013. He was 92.

Lieutenant Colonel "Mad Jack" Churchill 

Photo of "Mad Jack" training commandos in Scotland. "Mad Jack" Churchill graduated from the Royal Military Academy in 1926. He worked as a male model, a professional bagpiper, a newspaper editor in Kenya, and a movie extra demonstrating his champion archery skills in several films. He also toured across India on his Zenith motorcycle crashing his bike into a water buffalo.

John "Mad Jack" Churchill, competing in the 1939 Archery World Championships in Oslo, Norway.

Lieutenant Colonel Churchill, training American troops.

He volunteered for the Commandos and while leading a raid in Norway, leaped from his position playing “March of the Cameron Men” on his bagpipes. He received the Military Cross and Bar. 

"Mad Jack" Churchill inspects a captured coastal defense gun, his sword at his side.

He also received the Distinguished Service Order after leading his unit into Sicily and capturing a German observation post. Having lost his sword during hand to hand combat, he walked back to retrieve it and told a disoriented American patrol they needed to change direction because he wasn't coming back "for a bloody third time" to rescue them.

Jack Churchill (far right) leads his unit, sword in hand, during a training exercise in October, 1941.

In 1944, he was captured in Yugoslavia, flown to Berlin for interrogation and then transferred to a concentration camp. Churchill and a Royal Air Force officer crawled through a drainage ditch and attempted to walk to the Baltic coast where they were recaptured and sent to Austria.

"Mad Jack" Churchill, leading a landing exercise and gesturing with his blackthorn cane.

After WWII, Churchill was posted to Palestine where he co-ordinated the evacuation of 700 Jewish doctors, students and patients from the Hadassah hospital.

Later, he served as an instructor at the land-air warfare school in Australia. While commuting home from work, he would throw his briefcase out of the train window, landing the case into his back yard so he wouldn’t have to carry it home. 

"Mad Jack" Churchill, playing the bagpipes at a memorial service.

Overestreet mastered surfing and after returning to England, he was the first man to ride the River Severn’s five-foot tidal bore.

During his retirement and well into his 80's, Churchill refurbished steamboats to motor on the Thames and rode in several motorcycle speed trials. 

A cartoon from Jack and The Severn Bore, a play written and directed by John Bassett, preformed at the Spaniel in the Works Theatre Company. "Any man who goes into battle without his sword is not properly dressed." - "Mad Jack" Churchill  Churchill's obituary included his description of a good military leader:  "An assault leader should have a reputation which would at once demoralize the enemy and convince his own men that nothing was impossible."

To Overstreet, Churchill, the veterans I've been lucky enough to work with, and all the other men and women who did a very difficult job, thank for your service.

#pilot #WWII #ace #Veteran
Update 8/23/2017 

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Other stories of Pilots:

Flight School and the Wright Brothers

Dogfight

The Best Bet EVER

Wrong Way

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