The signatories
Major James McLane
Jim McLane joined the 357th Fighter Group on 24th March 1945,
the day that the group was celebrating it's last really big day,
having shot down 16 enemy aircraft while on patrol. Assigned
to the 362nd Squadron flying P-51Ds, Jim Managed to get into
the action for the final weeks of the war, getting his first
combat mission on 17th April escorting 8th Air Force heavy bombers
on a 1,000 plane mission to the Aussig chemical works.
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Captain Harvey Mace
Harvey Mace arrived in England at the end of 1943 to join
the 357th Fighter Group who were then stationed at Raydon. He
flew all his 59 combat missions in P-51 Mustangs with the 362nd
Fighter Squadron, notching up three victories over Me109s along
the way.
Flying primarily on B-17 bomber escort missions, Harvey went
to nearly all the major strategic bombing targets in Europe,
including the shuttle missions from England to Russia, Italy
and back again. Towards the end of his tour he was appointed
Squadron Operations Officer, and then assigned as Fighter Controller
of the 3rd Bomb Group.
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Captain Charles E. Weaver
Born in 1923 in Detroit, MI, Charles Weaver joined the Army
Reserves and was rated a pilot in February 1944. He transferred
to the 357th Fighter Group in August 1944, joining the 362nd
Fighter Squadron initially flying a P-51B. He soon got into the
thick of the action, scoring his first victory against an Me109
over the Zuider Zee on 19th September.
Two victories in the space of a minute on 14th January 1945 just
north of Berlin took his score past Ace status to 6, and his
final victory on 18th April, over an Me262 jet near Prague, took
his final tally of aerial victories to 8.
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