Don Gentile had claimed 21.8 aerial and six ground strafing kills by April 1944. This tally prompted Gen. Eisenhower to dub him a “one-man air force.” Trained in Canada after being rejected by the USAAC, Gentile claimed his first kill with the RAF in Spitfires. He then scored two in USAAF Spitfires and four in P-47s, before converting onto the P-51B and claiming an additional 15.5 up to April 13, 1944. The majority of his claims came in this aircraft, which became one of the best-known P-51s of the Eighth Air Force in WWII. It was written off at the end of Gentile’s last mission on April 13, 1944. He clipped the ground at Debden while beating up the airfield for the attending press, who had gathered to welcome him back from his final sortie. The aircraft broke its back in the resulting crash-landing. Gentile was subsequently killed in a post-war flying accident.
MILITARY AIRCRAFT 
