June 12, 2024 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Richard “Dick” Bong was a hero in an era of heroes. Here’s the History Guy with the story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Up next comes
a man who's simply known as the History Guy. His
videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people of
all ages over on YouTube. The History Guy has also
heard here regularly at our American Stories. Richard Bong was
a hero in an era of heroes. Here's the History
(00:32):
Guy with the story.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It has often been said that war is the most
dramatic of human endeavors, and of the millions of people
who served throughout the globe in the Second World War,
they are countless stories of those who went above and
beyond to serve their country, to protect their comrades, and
to do their part to try to bring an end
to the most destructive war in human history. And among
those stories is the story of Richard Ira Bong, a
(00:57):
US Army fighter pilot and the Pacific who was so
success that he became America's Ace of Aces. Richard Ira
Bong was born September twenty fourth, nineteen twenty in Superior, Wisconsin,
the oldest of nine children born to Carl Bong, a
Swedish immigrant and American door bryce. He had an interest
(01:18):
in planes from a young age and saw air mail
planes fly over the farm. When President Calvin Coolidge was
at his summer white house in Superior, he recalled that
the mail plane flew right over our house, and I
knew that I wanted to be a pilot. He attended
the Superior State Teachers College beginning in nineteen thirty eight,
where he enrolled in the civilian pilot training program started
(01:38):
just that year to train pilots both for civilian roles
and the possibility of war. On May twenty ninth, nineteen
forty one, Bong enlisted in the Army Air Corps Aviation
Cadet program. His gunnery instructor in Arizona was Barry Goldwater,
later a Senator in presidential nominee, who said that Bong
was a very bright student and was already showing his
talent as a pilot. Earned his pilot wings and was
(02:01):
commissioned to second lieutenant in the Army Air Force Reserves
on January ninth, nineteen forty two, just a month after
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Bong was kept at
Luke Field for several months, where he worked as a
gunnery instructor until he was transferred to Hamilton Field near
San Francisco, where he trained to fly the Lockheed P
thirty eight Lightning. A number of stories have come out
(02:23):
of Bong's time at Hamilton. On June twelfth, nineteen forty two,
we cited for buzzing the house of a pilot who
had just gotten married. The same day, several other pilots
were cited for a flying a loop around the center
span of the Golden Gate Bridge. Bong has awesome been
accused of looping the bridge, though he always denied it. Later, however,
he did apparently fly low down Market Street in San Francisco,
(02:44):
so low that he knocked some laundry off a line
and waved at people in the lower floors of some
of the buildings. General George Kinney, commander of the Fourth
Air Force, remembers dressing Bong down for the stunts, saying,
now I don't need to tell you again how serious
this matter is. If you didn't want to fly down
Market Street, wouldn't want to in my Air Force. But
you are not to do it anymore. And I mean
what I say. Kenny made Bong help the woman with
(03:06):
her laundry. Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Alleyed, commander of the Southwest
Pacific Area chose Kenny over General James Doolittle to command
the Fifth Air Force who were flying out of Australia.
Bong was hand picked by Kenny as one of fifty
P thirty eight pilots brought to Australia in September, Bong
was assigned to the ninth Fighter Squadron of the forty
ninth Fighter Group, nicknamed the Flying Knights. In a P
(03:29):
thirty eight, he and several others engaged a larger force
of Japanese planes near Buna, New Guinea on December twenty seventh,
nineteen forty two. Bank scored his first aerial victory here,
shooting down two Japanese planes himself. He was awarded the
Silver Star for the action. On January seventh, he squadron
attacked to convoy bringing reinforcements to New Guinea and he
shot down two more planes. The very next day, he
(03:50):
was escorting a bomber formation when he and seven accompanying
pilots attacked approximately twenty enemy fighters. The citation for his
distinguished flying Crow said that Lieutenant Bong shot down at
enemy aircraft with a long burst at a distance of
two hundred yards. A difficult shot, and already his fifth
confirmed kill, Lieutenant Dick Bong had become a fighter ace.
(04:15):
Not two weeks after his first engagement, Bong participated in
the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, where American planes attacked
transports and destroyers carrying nearly seven thousand reinforcements to New Guinea.
He shot down a Mitsubishi A six M zero, known
as a formidable fighter aircraft in the combat, and eight
transports were destroyed, in a significant defeat for the Japanese
(04:36):
and a major propaganda victory for the Army Air Force.
By April, he shot down five more planes, becoming a
double ace and was promoted to first lieutenant. On July
twenty sixth, leading a flight of ten P thirty eighth
over New Guinea, he spotted a formation of twenty Japanese planes.
He led three attacks on the formation, shooting down two
of the aircraft himself. When fifteen more Japanese planes arrived, Bong,
(04:59):
disregarding them greatly superior numbers of the enemy, attacked the
new planes, taking down another to himself. In all, outnumbered
three to one, Bong's team shot down eleven planes without
a loss. Bong himself taking four. He was awarded the
Distinguished Service Cross for the action. In August, he was
promoted again to captain. An engagement later that year nearly
(05:23):
cost him his life. According to General Kenney, Bong saw
a Japanese fighter chasing down an injured P thirty eight,
which was flying towards a nearby cloud bank. For cover,
Bong turned off one of his engines and drew the
attention of the enemy. Once the other plane was clear,
he flipped his engine back on and outraced the Japanese
pilot back to base. Unfortunately, on his return he noticed
that the plane was damaged worse than he thought. Half
(05:44):
of his tail was gone, and as he prepared to land,
he found that his ailerons were also damaged. When he
finally touched down, he discovered that he had no brakes
and one of the wheels was punctured. He ended up
in a ditch alive, but his plane was a total loss.
The plates behind his head was pitted with dance, and
the plane had fifty bullet holes in it. Both fuel
(06:04):
tanks were punctured by a self sealing rubber system that
kept them from leaking. In another engagement, he was circling
above the jungle, where a pilot had ditched below him.
Soldiers had gotten in a rubber boat across a lake
to get to the pilot, and Bong sided a crocodile
Following them, He dipped load to the water, sided and
blasted the encroaching crocodile with twenty millimeters round. Captain Bong
(06:27):
was granted leave stateside when he reached twenty one confirmed kills.
He was able to spend the holidays nineteen forty three
at home in Wisconsin, where he met Marjorie Ventendahl and
began dating her. He also participated in a ship launching
where the Welderettes named him their number one pinup boy.
When asked how he was so good at what he did,
he modestly answered, Oh, I'm just lucky. I guess a
(06:50):
lot of Japanese happened to get in my way, and
I keep shooting twenty of lead and finally some of
them get hit. When he returned to the Pacific in
nineteen forty four, he christened his plane March and had
his girl's face painted on the nose. He was reassigned
to the Fifth Air Force HQ, but allowed to freelance.
Bong had on April twelfth, been credited with three more victories,
(07:10):
which brought his totals twenty eight, officially beating Eddie Rickenbacker's
twenty six. During World War One, Kenny made Bong a
major and took the chance to send him home. Rickenbacker
and Kenny had earlier promise cases of Scots to ever
beat Rickenbacker's record first, and both of them sent along
a case. For three months, he was on leave in
the United States, doing publicity tours, surging civilians to buy
(07:32):
bonds and generally supporting the war effort. When he got back,
he was put in charge of gunnery training and told
not to engage except in self defense. On October tenth,
he accompanied his trainees shot down two more planes solely
in self defense. Of course, Bong, still officially gunnery instructor
and not required to fly combat missions, continued to find
ways to do so, and between October tenth and November
(07:53):
fifteenth he engaged in unusually hazardous sorties and shot down
eight more planes. He was recommended for and received the
Medal of Honor. MacArthur gave it to him personally with
a short congratulations. Major Richard Ira Boung who has ruled
the heir from New Guinea to the Philippines. I now
induct you into the society of the bravest of the brave,
(08:14):
the wearers of the Congressional Medal of Honor of the
United States. But December seventeenth, Bong got his fortieth victory
and Kenny ordered him home. In fact, Kenny was convinced
that Bong actually had many more victories than that. Stories
abounded that he had given away kills to wing men
when he had really done the shooting. He had flown
one hundred and forty six combat missions and had four
(08:36):
hundred hours of combat time. Richard Ira Bong married Marjorie
Battendahl on February tenth, nineteen forty five, having already given
so much in the services country to come one of
the most dangerous jobs a nation could ask, becoming a
test pilot for Lockheed testing their new P eighty Shooting
star jet. On August sixth, nineteen forty five. Bong took
(08:59):
off his when his twelve flight in the plane. A
Lockheed service mechanic later reported, we knew something was wrong
when we saw puff of black smoke come out just
as he level off and flight. Within four minutes of takeoff,
the plane exploded just some fifty feet off the ground
over North Hollywood. A witness quoted in the Los Angeles
Times saw Bong eject from the plane, but he was
too low for his parachute to open and it was
(09:19):
caught in the explosion. America's Ace of Aces died the
same day the first atomic bomb was detonated over Hiroshima.
His death shared front page news with the first reports.
Among American fighter pilots in the Second World War, only
five percent became aces, and yet those five percent accounted
for half of all enemy aircraft claimed in air to
(09:43):
air combat. And simply put that means that a huge
burden was placed on the shoulders of a very few.
When Major Dick Bong died, he was just twenty four.
In his brief life, he became one of the most
decorated pilots in American history, having earned the Medal of Honor,
the Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, seven Distinguished Flying Crosses,
(10:08):
and fifteen Air Medals.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
And a special thanks to Greg Hangler for the terrific
production into the History Guy, who you can find at
his YouTube channel The History Guy. History deserves to be remembered,
And my goodness, what a story. One hundred and forty
six missions. That's crazy. The story of Richard Dick boung
Here on our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories. Up next comes
a man who's simply known as the History Guy. His
videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people of
all ages over on YouTube. The History Guy has also
heard here regularly at our American Stories. Richard Bong was
a hero in an era of heroes. Here's the History
(00:32):
Guy with the story.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It has often been said that war is the most
dramatic of human endeavors, and of the millions of people
who served throughout the globe in the Second World War,
they are countless stories of those who went above and
beyond to serve their country, to protect their comrades, and
to do their part to try to bring an end
to the most destructive war in human history. And among
those stories is the story of Richard Ira Bong, a
(00:57):
US Army fighter pilot and the Pacific who was so
success that he became America's Ace of Aces. Richard Ira
Bong was born September twenty fourth, nineteen twenty in Superior, Wisconsin,
the oldest of nine children born to Carl Bong, a
Swedish immigrant and American door bryce. He had an interest
(01:18):
in planes from a young age and saw air mail
planes fly over the farm. When President Calvin Coolidge was
at his summer white house in Superior, he recalled that
the mail plane flew right over our house, and I
knew that I wanted to be a pilot. He attended
the Superior State Teachers College beginning in nineteen thirty eight,
where he enrolled in the civilian pilot training program started
(01:38):
just that year to train pilots both for civilian roles
and the possibility of war. On May twenty ninth, nineteen
forty one, Bong enlisted in the Army Air Corps Aviation
Cadet program. His gunnery instructor in Arizona was Barry Goldwater,
later a Senator in presidential nominee, who said that Bong
was a very bright student and was already showing his
talent as a pilot. Earned his pilot wings and was
(02:01):
commissioned to second lieutenant in the Army Air Force Reserves
on January ninth, nineteen forty two, just a month after
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Bong was kept at
Luke Field for several months, where he worked as a
gunnery instructor until he was transferred to Hamilton Field near
San Francisco, where he trained to fly the Lockheed P
thirty eight Lightning. A number of stories have come out
(02:23):
of Bong's time at Hamilton. On June twelfth, nineteen forty two,
we cited for buzzing the house of a pilot who
had just gotten married. The same day, several other pilots
were cited for a flying a loop around the center
span of the Golden Gate Bridge. Bong has awesome been
accused of looping the bridge, though he always denied it. Later, however,
he did apparently fly low down Market Street in San Francisco,
(02:44):
so low that he knocked some laundry off a line
and waved at people in the lower floors of some
of the buildings. General George Kinney, commander of the Fourth
Air Force, remembers dressing Bong down for the stunts, saying,
now I don't need to tell you again how serious
this matter is. If you didn't want to fly down
Market Street, wouldn't want to in my Air Force. But
you are not to do it anymore. And I mean
what I say. Kenny made Bong help the woman with
(03:06):
her laundry. Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Alleyed, commander of the Southwest
Pacific Area chose Kenny over General James Doolittle to command
the Fifth Air Force who were flying out of Australia.
Bong was hand picked by Kenny as one of fifty
P thirty eight pilots brought to Australia in September, Bong
was assigned to the ninth Fighter Squadron of the forty
ninth Fighter Group, nicknamed the Flying Knights. In a P
(03:29):
thirty eight, he and several others engaged a larger force
of Japanese planes near Buna, New Guinea on December twenty seventh,
nineteen forty two. Bank scored his first aerial victory here,
shooting down two Japanese planes himself. He was awarded the
Silver Star for the action. On January seventh, he squadron
attacked to convoy bringing reinforcements to New Guinea and he
shot down two more planes. The very next day, he
(03:50):
was escorting a bomber formation when he and seven accompanying
pilots attacked approximately twenty enemy fighters. The citation for his
distinguished flying Crow said that Lieutenant Bong shot down at
enemy aircraft with a long burst at a distance of
two hundred yards. A difficult shot, and already his fifth
confirmed kill, Lieutenant Dick Bong had become a fighter ace.
(04:15):
Not two weeks after his first engagement, Bong participated in
the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, where American planes attacked
transports and destroyers carrying nearly seven thousand reinforcements to New Guinea.
He shot down a Mitsubishi A six M zero, known
as a formidable fighter aircraft in the combat, and eight
transports were destroyed, in a significant defeat for the Japanese
(04:36):
and a major propaganda victory for the Army Air Force.
By April, he shot down five more planes, becoming a
double ace and was promoted to first lieutenant. On July
twenty sixth, leading a flight of ten P thirty eighth
over New Guinea, he spotted a formation of twenty Japanese planes.
He led three attacks on the formation, shooting down two
of the aircraft himself. When fifteen more Japanese planes arrived, Bong,
(04:59):
disregarding them greatly superior numbers of the enemy, attacked the
new planes, taking down another to himself. In all, outnumbered
three to one, Bong's team shot down eleven planes without
a loss. Bong himself taking four. He was awarded the
Distinguished Service Cross for the action. In August, he was
promoted again to captain. An engagement later that year nearly
(05:23):
cost him his life. According to General Kenney, Bong saw
a Japanese fighter chasing down an injured P thirty eight,
which was flying towards a nearby cloud bank. For cover,
Bong turned off one of his engines and drew the
attention of the enemy. Once the other plane was clear,
he flipped his engine back on and outraced the Japanese
pilot back to base. Unfortunately, on his return he noticed
that the plane was damaged worse than he thought. Half
(05:44):
of his tail was gone, and as he prepared to land,
he found that his ailerons were also damaged. When he
finally touched down, he discovered that he had no brakes
and one of the wheels was punctured. He ended up
in a ditch alive, but his plane was a total loss.
The plates behind his head was pitted with dance, and
the plane had fifty bullet holes in it. Both fuel
(06:04):
tanks were punctured by a self sealing rubber system that
kept them from leaking. In another engagement, he was circling
above the jungle, where a pilot had ditched below him.
Soldiers had gotten in a rubber boat across a lake
to get to the pilot, and Bong sided a crocodile
Following them, He dipped load to the water, sided and
blasted the encroaching crocodile with twenty millimeters round. Captain Bong
(06:27):
was granted leave stateside when he reached twenty one confirmed kills.
He was able to spend the holidays nineteen forty three
at home in Wisconsin, where he met Marjorie Ventendahl and
began dating her. He also participated in a ship launching
where the Welderettes named him their number one pinup boy.
When asked how he was so good at what he did,
he modestly answered, Oh, I'm just lucky. I guess a
(06:50):
lot of Japanese happened to get in my way, and
I keep shooting twenty of lead and finally some of
them get hit. When he returned to the Pacific in
nineteen forty four, he christened his plane March and had
his girl's face painted on the nose. He was reassigned
to the Fifth Air Force HQ, but allowed to freelance.
Bong had on April twelfth, been credited with three more victories,
(07:10):
which brought his totals twenty eight, officially beating Eddie Rickenbacker's
twenty six. During World War One, Kenny made Bong a
major and took the chance to send him home. Rickenbacker
and Kenny had earlier promise cases of Scots to ever
beat Rickenbacker's record first, and both of them sent along
a case. For three months, he was on leave in
the United States, doing publicity tours, surging civilians to buy
(07:32):
bonds and generally supporting the war effort. When he got back,
he was put in charge of gunnery training and told
not to engage except in self defense. On October tenth,
he accompanied his trainees shot down two more planes solely
in self defense. Of course, Bong, still officially gunnery instructor
and not required to fly combat missions, continued to find
ways to do so, and between October tenth and November
(07:53):
fifteenth he engaged in unusually hazardous sorties and shot down
eight more planes. He was recommended for and received the
Medal of Honor. MacArthur gave it to him personally with
a short congratulations. Major Richard Ira Boung who has ruled
the heir from New Guinea to the Philippines. I now
induct you into the society of the bravest of the brave,
(08:14):
the wearers of the Congressional Medal of Honor of the
United States. But December seventeenth, Bong got his fortieth victory
and Kenny ordered him home. In fact, Kenny was convinced
that Bong actually had many more victories than that. Stories
abounded that he had given away kills to wing men
when he had really done the shooting. He had flown
one hundred and forty six combat missions and had four
(08:36):
hundred hours of combat time. Richard Ira Bong married Marjorie
Battendahl on February tenth, nineteen forty five, having already given
so much in the services country to come one of
the most dangerous jobs a nation could ask, becoming a
test pilot for Lockheed testing their new P eighty Shooting
star jet. On August sixth, nineteen forty five. Bong took
(08:59):
off his when his twelve flight in the plane. A
Lockheed service mechanic later reported, we knew something was wrong
when we saw puff of black smoke come out just
as he level off and flight. Within four minutes of takeoff,
the plane exploded just some fifty feet off the ground
over North Hollywood. A witness quoted in the Los Angeles
Times saw Bong eject from the plane, but he was
too low for his parachute to open and it was
(09:19):
caught in the explosion. America's Ace of Aces died the
same day the first atomic bomb was detonated over Hiroshima.
His death shared front page news with the first reports.
Among American fighter pilots in the Second World War, only
five percent became aces, and yet those five percent accounted
for half of all enemy aircraft claimed in air to
(09:43):
air combat. And simply put that means that a huge
burden was placed on the shoulders of a very few.
When Major Dick Bong died, he was just twenty four.
In his brief life, he became one of the most
decorated pilots in American history, having earned the Medal of Honor,
the Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, seven Distinguished Flying Crosses,
(10:08):
and fifteen Air Medals.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
And a special thanks to Greg Hangler for the terrific
production into the History Guy, who you can find at
his YouTube channel The History Guy. History deserves to be remembered,
And my goodness, what a story. One hundred and forty
six missions. That's crazy. The story of Richard Dick boung
Here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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