Aircraft, WWII, and relatives

All my life growing up, I heard about my Uncle Leslie (great-uncle), who was flying P-38's and doing a bond drive air show, lost power, and to avoid spectators, skewered into the ground.

Could.
Find.
Nothing.

Finally got full name with middle initial (another pilot had same name but one letter off on initial), found he was flying a P-39, from Kingman AAF base to Amarillo, Texas base, one mile from the strip, lost it and crashed. Seems to be not an uncommon malady for the P-39.

Not a P-38, Not an air show, Not some heroic act.

Funny, almost....the telling of stories makes them fact...sorta like the www.

What IS odd is when he died 01AUG44, he was 35. Not a common thing to have a 35 year old 2nd Lt flying fighters, near as I can tell, other than Boyington, right?

2ND LT Leslie E. Cannon O-521737 Army/Airforce State At Large California KIA

Lubbock Texas newspaper:
ONE DIES IN CRASH AMARILLO Aug 2 ond Lt Leslie E Cannon Ingle wood was
killed in a plane crash here yesterday wnile on a flight from Kingman Army
Air field
https://newspaperarchive.com/morning-avalanche-aug-03-1944-p-1/


https://kingmanaafdepot41.weebly.com/1944.html

August

Second Lieutenant Leslie E. Cannon was killed in a P-39 at Amarillo Army
Air Field, TX. He was one mile from the airfield when his aircraft went into
a spin and crashed.



https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=97065

https://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/AARmonthly/Aug1944S.htm

440801 P-39Q 44-2319 3018BU Kingman AAF, Kingman, AZ KSSP 5
Cannon, Leslie E USA TX 1 mi short of runway, Amarillo AAF, TX

Could be he was a ferry pilot classified as too old for combat duties. Would explain flying in Texas rather than Europe, the Pacific or CBI.

Entirely possible. 75 years later, hard to glean information, but talked to an uncle last night who was around then....he recalls ferry assignments.

Also remembers the P-38 stories....maybe he ferried P-38's, too.

At least I have this much info.

What makes this story even more unusual is by August 1944, the P-39 was pretty much phased out, having been replaced by the more capable P-38s and P-47s.

We have tall tales in our family as well. The funny thing about one particular story revolving around a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game is that all the elements actually happened, but not on the same day.

Pilots did not like the door as an escape route for bail out either, if it got damaged, getting out of one might be tough.

Have a friend who’s mother ferried aircraft in WWII.

I thought most P39s were sent to Russia.

TRMark said:

I thought most P39s were sent to Russia.

Click to expand...

Actually, indications are they were sent to allies under lend-lease, mostly Russia.

I did a lot of reading up on P-39's. Apparently inherently unstable is one term. Exacerbated by the 20MM cannon. When the ammo was gone, CG shifted WAY aft, slow down to land and find yourself at 500AGL in a spin.

It's hard to conceive today what those fliers went through in WW II. Unstable planes, flak, enemy fighters. The loss of life was tremendous - I believe something like 75% for combat pilots, less but still significant for training pilots.