Louis Edward Curdes

Louis Edward "Lou" Curdes (2 November 1919 – 5 February 1995) was an American flying ace of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II who held the unusual distinctions of scoring an official and intentional air-to-air kill against another American aircraft as well as shooting down at least one aircraft from each of the major Axis powers. Curdes was also a Prisoner of war escapee and spent about nine months in enemy held territory. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross twice, a Purple Heart and the Prisoner of War Medal. He flew a Lockheed P-38 Lightning and a North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft with the latter having the nickname "Bad Angel."

Curdes was one of only three American pilots to shoot down aircraft belonging to the German, Italian and Japanese air forces. The other two pilots were Lt. Col. Carl Payne and Maj. Gen. Levi R. Chase. In total, Curdes shot down seven German Messerschmitt Bf 109s, an Italian Macchi C.202 fighter, a Japanese Mitsubishi Ki-46 reconnaissance aircraft and an American Douglas C-47 Skytrain. After the war, Curdes flew Douglas C-54 Skymasters in the Berlin Airlift and after retiring from the Military after 22 years of service, he founded a construction company.

Early life
Louis Edward Curdes was born on 2 November 1919, to Esther H. (nee Kover) a former schoolteacher and Walter L. Curdes who worked in development and home-building real estate. He grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana with one sister during the Great Depression and later graduated from North Side High School in 1938. Curdes played basketball and ran track in high school, but his coach caught him smoking so he was cut from the teams. He would also help maintain many of his father's rental properties.

Walter Curdes had an interest in aviation and had helped Art Smith with getting his aircraft airborne and would also take young Louis to air races at Smith Field, Cleveland and Georgia. When Curdes was eight or nine, he got a ride in a World War I Curtiss JN Jenny. Curdes' father also took him to see the building of the USS Akron and the USS Macon airships. Due to these experiences, young Louis developed a deep interest in aviation.

Louis later enrolled at Purdue University to study engineering and found construction work in the summers. Curdes only occasionally followed the ongoing wars in Europe and Asia, but still had a strong dislike of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. After three years of study, he dropped out and joined the military to become a pilot on 6 December 1941, the day before the Attack on Pearl Harbor.

About a month later, Curdes became a Flying Cadet and spent the next month in Santa Ana, California, two months in Ontario, California, two months in Lancaster, California for Basic Combat Training and then two months in Luke Field, Arizona. He trained on a few different aircraft including the Stearman PT-13, North American T-6 Texan, Vultee BT-13 Valiant (which the cadets at the timed called the "Vultee Vomit") and the Curtiss P-36 Hawk. At the time, few cadets got to experience the high performance P-36 Hawk. He then joined the Army Reserve on 12 March 1942 and later became a 2nd Lieutenant, graduating from Flying School on 3 December 1942, at Luke Field, Arizona at the age of 23 and was posted to the Mediterranean theater.

North Africa and Italy
Curdes joined the 329th Fighter Group in Glendale, California and then spent a month at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego. After that he was sent to Edwards Air Force Base and then back to Santa Ana. In March, he was sent overseas, but on 17 April, was transferred to the 82nd Fighter Group, 95th Fighter Squadron, where he saw action in North Africa, Sardinia and Italy, flying a Lockheed P-38 Lightning. On his first mission on 23 March, 1943, he engaged multiple Messerschmitt Bf 109s of the Jagdgeschwader 27 and was able to shoot down three and damaged a fourth near Cape Bon, Tunisia. Curdes had such a shortage of fuel after this engagement that he had to force a landing in a dry riverbed and wait for the Army to bring him fuel and Marston Mat to create a temporary runway.

On 19 May, the 82nd escorted B-25 Mitchell bombers near Villacidro, Sardinia and on the way back, Curdes' unit was engaged by eight Bf 109s. Curdes managed to shoot down two of them. In less than a month of combat, Curdes became a flying ace.

During another escort mission on 24 June, he shot down an Italian Macchi C.202 over Golfo Aranci in northern Sardinia and then damaged a German Bf 109 on 30 July over Pratica di Mare, Italy. In August, he was awarded his first Distinguished Flying Cross.

Distinguished Flying Cross citation
Place and date: North African Theater of operations, 29 April 1943

General Orders: Headquarters, Northwest African Air Forces, General Orders No. 128 (June 30, 1943)

Citation: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to First Lieutenant (Air Corps) Louis Edward Curdes (ASN: 0-733836), United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as pilot of a P-38 type aircraft of the 95th Fighter Squadron, 82d Fighter Group, FIFTEENTH Air Force in the North African Theater of Operations. On 29 April 1943, on a skip-bombing mission in the Sicilian Straits, Lieutenant Curdes' formation was attacked by twelve enemy fighters. Despite the fact that he had been unable to release his bomb, Lieutenant Curdes turned to attack, destroying one ME-109 and damaging another. Sighting two ME-109's attacking a crippled P-38, he unhesitatingly attacked and destroyed both of them, and escorted the damaged aircraft to friendly territory. His consistent gallantry and devotion to duty have reflected great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the United States.

Capture and escape
While escorting bombers to Benevento, Italy on 27 August 1943, Curdes' unit came under attack by about 50 enemy aircraft. During the engagement, Curdes turned around to help a teammate (which was against regulations) who was under attack by multiple Bf-109s when he was shot down over Salerno, Italy. Before he was shot down, he managed to take out two Bf 109s which would be his last two victories in Europe. He also received injuries to his back and shoulder from rounds that came through his canopy. He was forced to land wheels up on a beach about 10 miles south of Salerno due to combat damage to his aircraft and a shortage of fuel. He set his plane on fire and was soon captured by Italian soldiers who treated him well and even refused a German attempt to transfer him over to them. Curdes briefly escaped for several hours when he and 4 other Americans stole a Red cross boat in Salerno, but they were captured again by the Italians and Curdes was then sent to a prison camp near Rome.

When Curdes was shot down, he may have been the 63rd victory of Luftwaffe Experte Oberleutnant Franz Schieß of 8./JG 53. Curdes' final score at wars end would be 9 kills and 2 damaged, which made him the second highest scoring ace of the 82nd fighter group.

Curdes had not received any SERE training, but did have an escape packet with local currencies, gold coins and rubber maps. Curdes considered the maps to be worthless. He also carried an M1911A1 pistol on every combat mission he flew, although some pilots at the time were not encouraged to carry sidearms because they were of little usefulness.

Curdes was first kept in a monastery in San Valentino, Sorano, but he and a few others escaped, but were later recaptured and taken to a much higher security prison. Four days later, the Italians signed an Armistice with the Allies. In response to this, Germany invaded its former ally. Many prison guards left their positions and rifles before the Germans could take control of the POW camp. Some friendly guards even gave prisoners rifles and blankets before letting them go. The group of about twenty officers took food, rifles (likely Carcano M1891s) and ammunition and over the next eight months, traveled south through the central Apennine Mountains, making their way toward the Allied advance. One British wing commander from Curdes' group was killed sometime after leaving the POW camp. Local civilians and the communist Italian resistance aided the group by giving them handguns and supplies. The group slept during the day wherever the resistance told them to and traveled by night.

By early 1944, Curdes family gave up believing that he could still be alive especially after receiving letters of sympathy from Curdes' teammates and commanding officers. However, Curdes' best friend, 1st Lt. Burt Lutz, sent his parents a letter stating that he talked to another officer who had escaped with Curdes from an Italian POW camp near Rome. Lutz wrote to them that Curdes' group was sending back men two at a time and that Curdes would be one of the last to come back. This was unofficial and officially Curdes was still Missing in action.

On 30 August 1944, Major John “Gil” Bright was shot down over nearby Montalto di Castro and held prisoner until the Armistice. Bright already had confirmed Japanese, Italian and a "shared" German kill. Who got the credit for the German kill was decided by a coin toss which he lost and he was not in the Army Air Forces at the time of his Japanese kills, so it is somewhat a matter of debate if he is a triple-axis ace or not. However, after the Armistice, Bright traveled about 100 miles through enemy territory to reach Allied lines. Whether his path crossed with future triple-axis ace Louis Curdes is unknown.

On 27 May 1944, exactly nine months after being shot down, Curdes was near the Battle of Monte Cassino and was able to make it through Allied lines. He was wearing civilian clothes and carrying a fake Italian ID when he stumbled across some British troops from the Eighth Army. Curdes called out: "Have you got a cigarette?" A lieutenant responded: "Sure. Come over here, Yank." They questioned Curdes and eventually were able to verify his identity. Curdes then taught survival and escape methods to Allied aircrews for a couple weeks before being repatriated to the US. Curdes' family was told in June that he was still alive and he was welcomed in Fort Wayne as a hero and given an improvised parade. He spent his time home with family and fishing with his father. Curdes had no intention to fly again until he met Bud Mahurin, who he had already met when they were at Purdue University together. Curdes requested a return to active duty, but because of the Geneva Conventions and Curdes being a former escaped POW, he was unable to fly in the European theatre again so he joined the 4th Fighter Squadron and the 3rd Air Commando Group in the Pacific in August 1944, flying the P-51 Mustang.

Curdes' 1946 marriage license states that he was married before and the divorce was finalized on 3 October 1944.

Pacific Campaign and shooting down an American aircraft
By November 1944, parts of the Philippines were again under US control. His unit, the 3rd Air Commando Group, had the task of bombing Japanese bases and providing support to ground troops. They also raided Japanese facilities along the coast of China and the island of Taiwan, providing escort duties to Allied ships, dropping supplies from the air, delivering mail, and evacuating the wounded.

On 7 February 1945, Curdes flew a P-51 about 30 mi southwest of Taiwan, where he shot down a Japanese Mitsubishi Ki-46-II reconnaissance aircraft. The Ki-46 was alone and flew through Curdes' formation. Curdes called out that the aircraft was at 3 o'clock, when he actually knew it was at 9 o'clock. His teammates looked towards 3 o'clock, while Curdes and his wingman flew towards 9 o'clock so Curdes could get the kill. In recalling the event in a 1991 interview, Curdes stated: "There was no fight. Just two dead Japs and one bad airplane." By shooting down the Ki-46, Curdes now had victories on enemy aircraft from all of the three major Axis powers.

On 10 February, Curdes, now a lieutenant, formed a squadron of four aircraft that departed from Mangaldan Airfield in the Philippines. Their objective was to investigate if the Japanese were using a temporary airstrip on the southern tip of Taiwan. No airfield could be found and Curdes returned to the Philippines. Flying over the island of Batan, the squadron split; Curdes and Lieutenant Schmidtke headed north, while Lieutenants Scalley and La Croix headed south. Scalley and La Croix located a small Japanese airfield and attacked it and also called for reinforcement, Curdes and Schmidtke headed south to join them.

During the attack on the airfield, La Croix was shot down and made an emergency landing in the sea. As the squadron circled, Curdes could see that his companion had survived, and remained in the area to guide a rescue plane and protect the downed pilot. While covering La Croix, Curdes noticed a larger twin engined plane preparing to land at the Batan airfield from the east. When he saw American markings on it, he at first thought it could be a Showa/Nakajima L2D (which were Japanese license-built versions of the Douglas DC-3) with American markings. He flew to investigate and found the aircraft to be a Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport with markings of the "Jungle Skippers", the 39th Airlift Squadron of the 317th Troop Carrier Group. Curdes did not believe the aircraft to be enemy controlled and tried to make contact by radio but was not successful. He maneuvered his P-51 in front of the plane several times trying to get the C-47 to alter course, but the C-47 maintained its course.

Unknown to Curdes, the C-47 had got lost in bad weather, had been flying for almost 5 hours and their radio was malfunctioning. According to an after action report: "We received no bearings or response of any kind. The airplane continued until 1150 hours and was still over water. The pilot then informed his passengers that he was in trouble and would set the airplane down on the first land he saw." Unknown to the pilot, the airstrip he intended to land on was Japanese occupied.

The C-47 was circling and now was attempting to land on the Batan airfield. The plane had its landing gear down and was at an altitude of about 150 feet. Curdes fired in front of the C-47, but it still maintained its course. At this point, they were close enough to shore that Japanese flak guns started firing at Curdes' P-51, but not at the C-47 possibly because they thought it to be one of their own, especially considering Curdes' behavior towards it. Curdes reasoned that it was better to shoot down the aircraft than allow the crew to be taken prisoners by the Japanese. Curdes came about 20 yards from the C-47 and fired into one of its two engines, causing it to fail. The C-47 maintained its course for Batan, so Curdes disabled the other engine, forcing the pilot to ditch in the sea. The plane successfully ditched about 300 yards from shore without breaking up and the crew was able to evacuate into lifeboats. The C-47 crew drifted to about a mile from shore and was then engaged by enemy small arms fire from the shore for about half an hour. Curdes dropped a message around this time saying: "Keep away from shore. Japs there." La Croix approached and was brought on board the C-47's life raft, where he was informed about the situation.

At this point, poor light and lack of fuel forced Curdes and his wingman to return to base. Before dawn the next morning, Curdes and his wingman led the PBY-5A Catalina that picked up the downed C-47 pilot and 11 crew members, including two nurses, all of whom had survived the incident. To Curdes's surprise, he discovered that one of the nurses was a woman with whom he had had a date with the night before the incident in Lingayen. A reporter for Air Force magazine later interviewed Curdes about the incident who said: "Seven 109's and one Macchi in North Africa, one Jap, and one Yank in the Pacific-and to top it, I have to go out and shoot down the girlfriend." Curdes story was in the August 1945 issue of Air Force magazine titled: "A YANK for Good Measure." General George Kenney awarded Curdes his second Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal for the event. Curdes also received credit for the "Kill" and displayed it on his aircraft.

Curdes later flew the P-38 Lightning again with the 49th Fighter Group at Gabu Airfield in Laoag, Philippines, from where he attacked Japanese positions in northern Luzon and Okinawa until the end of the war.

A few days before the end of the war, General Kenney and General MacArthur had Curdes brought to Manila and gave him an assignment of escorting some top-secret papers to Washington, D.C.. They shackled the briefcase to his wrist, gave him a gun and put him on a special flight through Manila, Guam, Hawaii, San Francisco to Washington D.C. where he was escorted into Henry H. Arnold's office.

Overall, Curdes flew 38 missions in North Africa and 10 in the pacific.

After the war
After World War II, In Allen County, Indiana, on the 13 of April 1946, Curdes married Svetlana Valeria Shostakovich Brownell and later returned to active duty, this time with the new United States Air Force. He then helped create an Air National Guard unit at Baer Field and remained there until 1948. Later he flew about 30 flights in Douglas C-54 Skymasters in the Berlin airlift during the opening stages of the Cold War which would be the only time he flew in a transport unit. Around this time is when Curdes joined the Air Rescue Service.

In 1951, Curdes, with his wife, returned to central Italy to visit many of the people who had helped him survive during the war.

He was promoted to major on 1 September 1951, and later retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel in October 1963. After his retirement, he started a construction company under the name of Curdes Builders Company.

Louis Curdes died at the age of 75 on 5 February 1995, almost exactly 50 years after shooting down a C-47. He was buried at Lindenwood Cemetery in Fort Wayne. His widow Valeria died on 10 October 2013, at the age of 87.

After Curdes' death in 1995, Senator Richard Lugar told the 104th United States Congress: “It is with great respect that I call to my colleagues’ attention the contributions Louis Curdes made to his country. He is truly an example and inspiration for all who follow him.”

Awards and decorations
Lieutenant Colonel Curdes received the following awards: Lieutenant Colonel Curdes was also awarded a U.S. Army Distinguished Unit Citation ribbon with 1 oak leaf cluster and he was given a Certificate of Valor by General Nathan F. Twining.

In fiction
Author Clive Cussler used the incident of Curdes shooting down a friendly plane as inspiration for some of the character history of Dirk Pitt.