US Army Air Forces / Air Force Lt Col Louis Curdes: The Ace Who Shot Down an American Plane – Lt Col Louis Curdes

Welcome back, everyone!  Before I share the amazing story of Air Force Lt Col Louis Curdes, I want to share the audio from one of the American heroes that I recently shared on the Duty & Valor YouTube channel, where in addition to these longer episodes, I share YouTube shorts that are under three minutes in length.  If you haven’t checked out the channel, I welcome you to do so.
This episode's audio short is about Army Sgt Eddie Chervony, a Distinguished Service Cross recipient during the Vietnam War. 
On May 5, 1968, at Landing Zone Peanuts, west of Khe Sanh, Sergeant Eddie Chervony, was serving with 1st Battalion, 77th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. Early that morning, Sgt Chervony detected the start of a major enemy assault. A North Vietnamese Army sapper battalion had launched a coordinated attack against his battery’s position as part of the Tet Offensive. 
Recognizing the immediate danger, Sgt Chervony quickly organized his three-man bunker, positioned directly in the path of the main assault.
Under his direction, the small team poured fire into the advancing enemy, holding their ground despite being vastly outnumbered. As their ammunition ran dry, the battle shifted to brutal close-quarters fighting along the perimeter. 
Determined to strengthen their defenses, Sgt Chervony led his men across open, exposed ground to secure an unmanned machine gun. Once in position, he ordered his teammates to retrieve more ammunition while he unleashed suppressive fire into the enemy assault. 
When the ammunition for the machine gun was finally exhausted, he took charge of nearby positions, directing their fire and rallying the defenders to slow the enemy's momentum. 
Hearing that several nearby positions had been overrun, Sgt Chervony selflessly exposed himself again to intense enemy fire to help evacuate wounded soldiers. On five separate trips, he crossed nearly 100 meters of open terrain to carry severely wounded soldiers to safety. 
On his sixth trip, while carrying another wounded man back to friendly lines, SGT Chervony was cut off by enemy troops who attacked him with grenades and satchel charges. 
Without hesitation, he shielded his fellow soldier with his own body as a satchel charge detonated, absorbing the full force of the blast which mortally wounded him. 
For his actions that night, SGT Eddie Chervony was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Many comments on Sgt Chervony’s video are asking why he wasn’t awarded the Medal of Honor, and I asked myself the same question.  Not to minimize anyone else, but his actions seem to exceed other Medal of Honor recipient’s actions.

Now on this week’s episode, I’m going to share the story of a WWII ace.  He was one of only a few American pilots to be credited with downing an aircraft of all of the three major axis powers.  Germany, Italy, and Japan.  To add to his lore, he was also credited with downing an American plane as well.  This is the story of Air Force Lt Col Louis Curdes.

On this week’s episode, I’m going to share the story of a WWII ace.  He was one of only a few American pilots to be credited with downing an aircraft of all of the three major axis powers.  Germany, Italy, and Japan.  To add to his lore, he was also credited with downing an American plane as well.  This is the story of Air Force Lt Col Louis Curdes.

Louis was born on Nov. 2, 1919 in Fort Wayne, IN to parents Esther, a school teacher, and Walter Curdes, who worked in real estate development.  During his childhood, Louis developed a love for aviation.  He would assist family friend, Art Smith, a mail service pilot, repair his aircraft whenever he had a chance.  Louis’ father also took him to see the US Navy airships USS Akron and USS Macon being built.  
While attending North Side High School, Louis was on the basketball and track teams, but after getting caught smoking, he was cut from both teams.  To fill his time, his father had him help manage his rental properties. 
When it was time to continue his education, Louis chose to attend Purdue University where he majored in engineering and worked in construction during his summer breaks. Three years into his studies, and with WWII raging, Louis decided to drop out and join the military on Dec. 6, 1941, the day before the Attack on Pearl Harbor. 
The following month, he was accepted into the Flying Cadet training program and joined the Army Reserve on March 12.  Throughout 1942, he spent time at multiple training bases before ending up at Luke Field, Arizona, where he completed the bulk of his flight training. He was later commissioned as a 2nd Lt and graduated from flight training on Dec. 3, 1942. 
LT Curdes was then assigned to the 329th Fighter Group and sent to Europe in March 1943.  Curdes flew in the Mediterranean Theatre of operations and saw a lot of action over North Africa, Italy, and Sardinia.  On his very first mission on Mar. 23, he was flying his P-38 Lightning named “Good Devil” over Tunisia when he engaged a flight of Messerschmitt Bf 109s. He was able to shoot down three of them and badly damage a fourth. During this engagement, Lt Curdes expended so much fuel that he was forced to land in a dry river bed. Soldiers were able to deliver fuel and build a temporary runway made of perforated steel, which allowed him to take off.  
The following month he was transferred to the 95th Fighter Squadron of the 82nd Fighter Group on April 17th. On May 19, Lt Curdes was tasked with escorting B-25 Mitchell bombers near Sardinia.  After the successful escort mission, Lt Curdes and his flight were on their way back to base when they encountered 8 Bf 109s.  During the combat that followed, Lt Curdes was able to shoot down two more planes, bringing his total to five during the war.  After just two months in combat, Lt Curdes was now officially an Ace. 
On June 24th, he was able to add to his total when he shot down an Italian fighter plane over Northern Sardinia and damaged a German Bf 109 six days later, the same day that he was awarded his first Distinguished Flying Cross.
On August 27, 1943, he was on another bomber escort mission when his squadron came under attack by about 50 enemy aircraft.  During the engagement, Lt Curdes broke regulations and turned back to help a squadron mate who was under attack by Bf-109s.  In the ensuing combat, Lt Curdes was able to down two enemy fighters, but unfortunately, his plane was hit by enemy fire, forcing him to land on a beach just South of Salerno, Italy.  Though he was able to land safely, the plane was badly damaged and he suffered injuries to his shoulder and back when an enemy round pierced his canopy.
Moving quickly, Lt Curdes set his plane on fire not long before he was surrounded and captured by Italian soldiers.  His Italian guards treated him well and even refused the German demands to hand him over.  
While under confinement, Lt Curdes, along with four other Americans, succeeded in stealing a Red Cross boat and escaping, but they were recaptured hours later.  He was then sent to a monastery in San Valentino, where he again escaped with a few other men, and he was recaptured once again. He was obviously viewed as an escape risk, so he was sent to a POW camp with much tighter security.
However, he wasn’t there long.  Just four days later on Sep. 3, 1943, Italy signed an armistice with the Allies. This led the Germans to turn on Italian forces and begin taking control of POW camps throughout Italy. 
The Italian guards at his camp allowed Lt. Curdes and about 20 other Allied prisoners to escape with rifles, ammunition and food.  Over the next eight months, they made their way south, travelling mostly at night time, aided much of the way by civilians and communist resistance fighters.       
On May 27, 1944, Lt Curdes finally met up with Allied forces near Monte Cassino.  Even though he was in civilian clothes and carried a fake Italian identification card, he was able to convince British soldiers of the 8th Army that he was an American pilot. 
Over the next few weeks, Lt. Curdes trained Allied aircrew on escape and survival techniques before being sent back to the US.  By this point, his family had thought he had been killed in action, so they were beyond thrilled to hear that he was alive and heading back home.  After arriving back at Fort Wayne, Lt. Curdes said that he had no intention of flying again, whether that meant in combat or flying in general, I’m not sure.   But either way, he changed his mind after his college friend convinced him to fly again.  
Lt. Curdes attempted to rejoin his unit, but due to the Geneva Conventions laws, he was not allowed to fly in the European Theatre again because he was an escaped POW.  The answer to this was to head to the Pacific.
In August 1944, he joined the 4th Fighter Squadron and 3rd Air Commando Group.  With his new unit, Lt. Curdes flew a P-51 Mustang. In contrast to his P-38 named “Good Devil,” he christened his Mustang “Bad Angel.” 
Curdes and his unit were primarily tasked with supporting ground troops by bombing Japanese forces; they also dropped supplies and mail, as well as escorting Allied ships.  Around this time, Curdes was promoted to 1 LT. 
It wasn’t until Feb. 7, 1945 that Lt. Curdes scored his first kill in the Pacific Theatre.  That day, he was about 30 miles SW of Taiwan when he spotted a lone Mitsubishi Ki-46 reconnaissance plane.  He radioed to the others in his flight that the plane was in the 3 o’clock position.  As the other pilots looked in that direction trying to spot the plane, Lt Curdes and his wingman turned towards their 9 o’clock where the plane actually was.
This was his way of ensuring that he would get the kill, which he did.  By downing the Ki-46, Lt Curdes now had aerial victories against German, Italian, and Japanese planes,  one of only three American pilots to have this distinction.  But the event that would set him apart from the two other pilots would occur just three days later.
On February 10, Lt. Curdes led a flight of four aircraft from their airfield in the Philippines with the objective of locating a Japanese airstrip in Southern Taiwan.  Unable to locate any airfield, the four planes turned back towards the Philippines. Once over the Philippines, Lt. Curdes and his wingman, Lt Schmidtke, headed north while the other two, Lts Scalley and La Croix, flew south.  When the two pilots found a Japanese airstrip south of their position, Lt. Curdes and his wingman flew to join them in an attack.  During this attack, Lt. La Croix’s plane was hit and he was forced to make an emergency landing in the sea. Lt Curdes then began to circle Lt La Croix’s position, hoping to guide a rescue plane to him.
While circling above, Lt Curdes spotted a large plane heading towards the airstrip that they had just attacked.  The thing that seemed odd to him, was that it looked like an American Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport plane.  He considered that it could have been a Japanese variant of the plane, but it appeared to have American markings.  Suspicious, he chose to go inspect the plane further.  As he approached, he did confirm it was an American plane bearing the markings of the 39th Airlift Squadron, known as the “Jungle Skippers”.
Now believing it was truly an American plane, he decided to get their attention to divert them from landing on the Japanese held airstrip.  Repeated attempts to contact them by radio was unsuccessful.
Unknown to him, the C-47s radio wasn’t functioning and they were extremely low on fuel, leaving its pilot with little choice but to land.
Lt Curdes then flew in front of the plane and attempted to get it to divert, but it maintained its course.  By now, the C-47 had lowered its landing gear in preparation for landing and was flying just 150 off the ground.  That’s when Japanese flak guns opened up on Lt Curdes’ plane.  It’s assumed that they didn’t fire at the C-47 because they thought it to be a Japanese plane.  Especially because of the way Lt Curdes was behaving around it.
Lt Curdes believed that ditching into the sea was safer for all aboard the C-47 than landing and being subjected to harsh treatment by the Japanese, so he made a split-second decision. 
He got closer, just 20 yards away, and fired at the plane, disabling one engine. And when it kept flying without changing course, he took out the other engine as well, forcing it to ditch into the sea intact. 
After seeing the crew board lifeboats, he dropped a note warning them to not drift close to the shore, where the Japanese were waiting to capture them. 
Forced to depart due to low fuel, Lt Curdes returned early the next morning and guided a PBY Catalina to the lifeboats where all were safely brought aboard. In addition to the 12 aboard the C-47, Lt. La Croix, who Lt. Curdes was originally protecting, was also picked up. 
For his actions that day, Lt Louis Curdes was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal. 
“Bad Angel” later carried kill marks for Germany, Italy, Japan… and the United States.  The only plane to do so. 
One of the people aboard the C-47 was a nurse that Lt Curdes was supposed to go on a date with just days prior, but he had cancelled on her.  
Some accounts have said that he later married this nurse, but that wasn't the case.  By this point in his life, Louis Curdes had been married and divorced from his first wife and met his second wife, Svetlana, after the war ended.  They married in 1946 and would go on to raise two children, Christopher and Valeria Louise.
Louis Curdes stayed in the military, transitioned into the Air Force when it was formed in 1947 and flew C-54 Skymasters during the Berlin Airlift.  He retired from the Air Force in 1963 as a Lt. Col.

Flying fighters across multiple theaters of war, Louis Curdes proved himself a relentless warrior and leader, adapting to every challenge the skies threw at him. His story isn’t just about victories in combat and escaping confinement, but about resilience, daring, and the unshakable spirit of a man who refused to yield, no matter the enemy.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Duty & Valor. If you enjoyed this episode and our show in general, please like, follow, and share our show wherever you’re listening.  You can also support the show directly at patreon.com/dutyandvalor or by becoming a member of our Duty & Valor YouTube community. 
To read more about this week’s hero, check out the sources used in today's episode in our show notes and at dutyandvalor.com.
Remember, we release new episodes on the Duty & Valor YouTube channel on Fridays at 5 pm. On our channel, we also release YouTube shorts that highlight our Nation’s heroes, many of whom haven’t been featured on the show yet.
Please join us for our next episode, where we'll be sharing the inspiring story of another American hero who served with pride and lived with humility.