Duane Beeson
Duane W. Beeson (1921-1947) was a World War II fighter pilot, born and raised in Boise, Idaho.
He was Don Gentile's rival in the Eighth Air Force's Ace Race in an attempt to beat the great World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker's record of 26 enemy aircraft shot down (neither of whom broke the record). However, he was brought down by German groundfire and captured on 5 April 1944, spending the rest of the war as a prisoner of war.
He scored 22.08 victories, including 17.3 air to air kills, 5.3 of which were scored in the P-51-B Mustang. Beeson was one of ten U.S. Army Air Forces pilots who became an ace in two different types of fighter plane.
Early years
In a family history his sister Elizabeth Beeson wrote,
- “One of my most vivid memories is the types of books he read from the library, which he checked out in profusion. They were on philosophers and great men in history. Men like Lin Yu Tang, Napoleon, and he knew a great deal about Hitler. He put quotes on his room wall, which impressed me so much I would copy them in my school notebook. One is all I can recall now. It went, GOOD, BETTER, BEST, NEVER LET IT REST, TILL YOUR GOOD IS BETTER AND YOUR BETTER BEST.”
Beeson took piano lessons and loved classical music. At Boise High he played the trumpet, and joined the junior ROTC program as platoon bugler. He debated and took part in speech club functions. His sophomore year he discovered William Blackstone’s law dictionary and read it cover to cover non stop till graduation. Although slight in stature in high school he was a member of a boxing club and played American football.
By the spring of 1939 Beeson planned to study law at the University of California
After high school
In September the Nazis invaded Poland and World War II broke out. Beeson learned that in order to become an Army Air Corps pilot he had to have completed at least two years of college. He could, however, join the Royal Air Force in Canada without such entry qualifications.
Military career
The Royal Canadian Air Force was accepting cadets as pilots and officers. On June 23, 1941 Beeson traveled up the coast to Vancouver.
Beeson trained in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. By late summer he was at basic flight school. A month later after logging more than 5 hours in the Tiger Moth Duane made his first solo flight.
From there he moved on to a twin engine Cessna's at Yorkton, Saskatchewan.
By February 26 1942 Beeson had 201 hours of flight time and had successfully completed the Royal Canadian Air Force flight training curriculum. His rating was “A good average pilot and is slightly over confident. No outstanding faults.”
Beeson was ordered to Bournemouth,England. New pilots were evaluated then assigned, the powers that be decided that Beeson was suited to be a fighter pilot and started converting to the Hawker Hurricane.
On September 5 1942 Beeson was posted to No. 71 Squadron at Debden, Essex.
However, just as Beeson was getting ready for his first combat missions the United States Army Air Forces had arrived in England and were gearing up for operations over Europe. The Eagle Squadrons were absorbed into the Eighth Air Force, Beeson among those who resigned their RCAF commissions and joined the USAAF. Without aircraft of their own, the 4th Fighter Group continued to fly its RAF issued Spitfires, now painted with U.S. markings, until it received P-47s.
Beeson flew his first combat mission with his new unit the 334th Fighter Squadron; they flew the Spitfires over Dieppe, France.
By November Beeson was getting restless, and when ordered to fly a test to fire his guns he took his Spitfire across the channel and ‘tested’ them on some German trucks near a coastal gun emplacement, Beeson’s Spitfire being hit with shell fragments. Beeson had some explaining to do, he sheepishly told his superiors that no order was given as to where he was supposed to test his machine guns.
In January of 1943 Beeson was transferred to transition training onto the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. Affectionately nicknamed "Jug", the P-47 was one of the most famous USAAF fighters of the war. The first production model was delivered to the AAF in March 1942, and in April 1943 the Thunderbolt flew its first combat missions over Western Europe.
On May 8 1943 Beeson saw a group of German fighters and as the first of two Bf 109’s came at Beeson from the left side they turned directly into the attackers. Beeson broke hard right and managed to get on the tail of a Bf 109. At 3,000 feet Beeson opened up with short bursts at point blank range. The Bf 109's engine and wings exploded into a fireball, but the pilot bailed out.
On June 26 Beeson was flying an escort mission over Dieppe when he spotted two Messerschmidtt 109’s, one with a P-47 on his tail. He closed in other German aircraft, locked on his tail. The pilot tried desperately tried to break free with a series of short turns. But Beeson opened up with his guns, the plane caught fire and crashed into the sea, he had used just 400 rounds of ammunition.
A month later Beeson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in recognition of 37 combat missions and two victories. The citation read:
- “The skillful and zealous manner in which Lieutenant Beeson has sought out the enemy and destroyed him, his devotion to duty and courage under all conditions serve as an inspiration to his fellow flyers. His action on all these occasions reflects the highest credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the United States.”
On July 2 the 4th Fighter Group made Air Force history becoming first Fighter Group to penetrate German air space. On the way back over the Netherlands they came face to face with a flight of Bf 109s attacking a formation of B-17s. Beeson and wing man Hank Mills dove from 21,000 feet to cut off the fighters. Beeson turned into the enemy fighter and closed within 75 yards before opening up. The aircraft disintegrated before his eyes. Later in September, after 65 combat missions, he was awarded the Silver Star.
On October 8 1943 Beeson shot down two Bf 109’s over the Netherlands.
Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Don Blakeslee watched Beeson’s development with interest. He knew Beeson was a sharp shooter and Blakeslee appointed Beeson the group Gunnery officer.
On the 29 January 1944 in Beeson’s personal encounter report he described a typical mission.
“We sighted approximately fifteen Me 109’s and FW 190’s flying near the bombers and when Pectin squadron attacked them they went into a dive.” He wrote. “ I saw six other Me 109’s coming in, Lt. Chatterley and I turned into this group. I got on the tail of the nearest one, and opened fire at 250 yards, closing to about 50 yards. I saw very severe strikes on the fuselage and wing roots, then a large flash somewhere in the cockpit area and the enmy aircraft flicked violently ot the right and went down trailing a long stream of gray-black smoke.” Beeson then engaged another enemy fighter. “I don’t think he saw me as I was approaching out of the sun, but he steepened his dive a little and I was closing on him slowly, he wrote. “So I fired a burst out of range trying to slow him down. He went into a cloud and when we came out, I was only 300 feet behind. I opened fire again and saw many incendiary strikes on his fuselage. He dropped his nose at about 200 feet altitude and went into the deck. Claim: 1 Me 109 and 1 FW 190 destroyed.
His courage on that day earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross. A day later Beeson claimed his 10th enemy aircraft.
By February, 1944, the 8th Air Force launched a series of large-scale raids to bring the Luftwaffe to its knees and create air superiority over Europe; "Operation Pointblank", the destruction of the Luftwaffe through bombing of aircraft factories, dogfights and strafing German airfields.
The big raids were called "Big Week". The P-47s were equipped with two drop tanks that doubled their range – the Luftwaffe began to lose many experienced fighter pilots- and they suffered more pilot losses in this month than in all the daylight raids of 1943 combined.
Blakeslee was able to get top priority for the new P-51 Mustangs, promising that on arrival "I'll have them operational in 24 hours", On February 24, the first four Mustangs arrived at Debden, with the 46 others arriving over the next 48 hours. When the group flew its first missions on February 25, the pilots had less than one hour and ten minutes' flight time in the new fighter.
During the week, Beeson was awarded an oak leaf cluster to go with his Distinguished Flying Cross and promoted to Captain, he had 80 combat missions, he was just 22 years old. He was also became the Commanding Officer of B flight.
On 28 February Beeson got his new P-51-B. He and crew chief Willard Wahl named the new bird simply “Bee.” In his first mission across the channel he strafed an airfield, Beeson shot up a Ju 88 on the ground.
On the 23 March Beeson downed two more aircraft putting him in 1st place as top USAAF Ace.
He wrote in his report: “I got two 109’s and damaged a train, had a hell of a fight with one of them, lots of fun.” He shot down the enemy fighters over Munster, Germany. “I opened up everything and went after him,” Beeson wrote “…at about 25,000 feet, was in range and got good strikes on him; he began to smoke and dived for a cloud at 6,000 feet. I got on his tail as he came out of the cloud and clobbered him again, but he stuck to his aircraft and crash landed in a field, I strafed the a/c on the ground…He ran very fast across the field and fell behind a fence post as I came over again.” It was Beeson’s 93rd combat mission and he had 17 swastikas painted on the fuselage
He got 2 more kills but on April 5 things turned sour for Beeson. Beeson had dove on an airfield and destroyed 6 enemy planes but suddenly tracers and flak were everywhere. Lt. Thomas Biel described what he saw in his report: “I saw Captain Beeson clobbering the first Ju 88, setting it on fire, and the shooting up the other 6. “While this was going on,” Biel added. “The Jerries were throwing up intense flak which was very accurate. I saw Captain Beeson get hit and glycol streaming out.”
The cockpit of the Bee was filled with smoke those final moments. It was noisy, there was confusion and the plane was losing altitude. Beeson got on the radio; he thought there was a way out. “I’ve got a glycol leak, but I’ll make it home anyway.” But then the reality of the situation caught up with him. “I’ve got to bail out in a minute; My temperature is up to 150.”
His Mustang engine as seizing up, he pulled the stick back all the way to try and get some altitude, when engine seized he dropped the stick barely able to bale out at 200 feet. His chute barely opened before he hit the ground. He landed hard in a field with injuries to his knee and ankle, and cuts from a barbed wire fence. The Luftwaffe immediately arrested him.
In POW camp Beeson passed the time boxing, reading, studying. Nearly a year passed before the camp was freed by the Russians on April 29 1945. It took Beeson nearly a month to make it back to Debden.
He had been promoted to Major and had received the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Flying Medal with five clusters, Silver Star, Air Medal most of which were presented to his proud parents at Gowen Field while he was in the POW camp.
He returned to Boise in June 1945. He spoke at the Jaycees, Kiwanis, attended dances at Hillcrest and spoke to the VFW. But he wanted to get back into the war and made every effort to get reassigned but the war in the Pacific ended before that could happen.
He was reassigned to Sarasota, Florida and met Tracy Waters. Beeson had met the love of his life, the war was over and a bright future lay in front of him. Every thing he touched turned to gold, he learned he was promoted to Lt. Col. In January Tracy and Duane were married in Baltimore. He was excited about the peace time Air Forces and advocated a new, stand alone Air Force on a trip to Boise. He was excited about marriage his new duties in the Air Force when out of the blue he was violently ill. Doctors diagnosed him with a brain tumor and advised an immediate operation. The sudden illness shocked his family, friends, his wife. He was flown to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington DC. Just as the plane touched down, Duane Beeson, just 26 years old, died. In November 1993 the city of Boise honored her native son by naming the Duane W. Beeson Air Terminal building after Idaho's top WW II Ace.--by Jake Putnam
References
- Air Force Magazine December 1944, "Portrait of a Crew Chief, Sgt. Samuel W. Taylor"
- Fry, Garry; The Duane Beeson Story, American Aviation Historical Society, Winter, 1978
- Duane Beeson Gun Camera Films
Other Sources
- The Warhawk Museum, Nampa, Idaho, John and Sue Paul
- Joe Goicoechea, Classmate, Wake Island Veteran, POW, Boise High Classmate
- Idaho Daily Statesman
- Office of Air Force History