An Airborne Battle with Pistols

Duane Francies had wanted to fly ever since he was a child, when he saw the Bellanca Skyrocket land after completing its first non-stop trans-Pacific flight. Then only 10 years old, the triumphant belly-landing the pilot achieved on the sandy hill that day made a great impression on him.

Fast-forward to 10^th December 1941, three days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the day on which Francies voluntarily enlisted.

As he had trained as a pilot in the pre-war years, he was assigned to the U.S. 5^th Armored Division. In February 1944 Francies was stationed in Liverpool, England, and was then sent for more advanced training. Moved to the 71st Armored Field Artillery Battalion, he began flying combat missions – on a Piper L-4 Cub “Grasshopper” as an artillery spotter.

Piper L-4 Cub

The 5^th Armored Division in France and Belgium

Shortly after D-Day on 24^th July 1944, the 71^st landed at Normandy's Utah Beach. Over the following months Francies and his fellow "Grasshopper" pilots flew ahead of the 5^th Armored Division, directing artillery fire and guiding the advancing tank forces. As he had hoped, Francies would soon see action.

From 30^th August to 3^rd September, Francies' unit was part of a task force that spearheaded the drive of the 5th Armored through France from Compiègne to Condé, following the German forces’ retreat towards the Belgian border.

Observation pilots not only guided the advance of their divisions but also protected their units from enemy spotters. While on a reconnaissance flight in Belgium, Francies spotted two German soldiers observing American movements. After landing on a nearby hillside, he stealthily crawled up from behind and took them prisoner!

Francies received his first recommendation for the Distinguished Flying Cross due to his role in this episode and the overall mission.

By 13^th September Francies had completed 44 combat missions and he was awarded the Air Medal on 27^th September.

Around that time, he was out on observation when he spotted an American officer lying wounded in a field next to his plane. Despite coming under fire from the enemy, Francies landed and crawled to the downed ground observer to pull the officer to safety. He managed to carry the wounded man to a safer location and get him to an aid station. Francies later received the Bronze Star for his actions.

Advancing towards Berlin

The battalion travelled north towards Aachen sometime in late September 1944 and became involved in heavy fighting in the Hurtgen Forest. The weather closed in at the end of December meaning Francies was unable to fly for almost two months. Despite this, he received a battlefield promotion to first lieutenant on 15^th January 1945.

As the American units moved forward on 27^th February, Francies spent six hours in the air directing fire. The next day he flew four similar missions, the longest of which lasted an hour and 40 minutes.

A day later, bad weather closed in again and the air observers were unable to fly for 19 days. When flights resumed, one of the liaison Cubs was lost. Both the pilot and observer were killed when their Piper was shot down by a group of 10 Messerschmitt Me-109s. 

By this point in the War, the 5^th Armored had an impressive track record. It liberated Luxembourg City, led the encircling manoeuvre that trapped the Germans at Falaise in France and most notably it was the first to pierce the Siegfried Line.

When his unit re-entered Germany on 31^st March, Francies saw hundreds of observation planes in action. He wrote in his journal that seeing these planes made him realise how vital his role was to the army’s progress on a daily basis. It made him glad that he had volunteered as a field artillery spotter.

At that time, Francies was flying an unarmed Piper L-4 called Miss Me!? with his observer Lieutenant William Martin in the seat behind him.

The plane was named Miss Me!? because Francies wanted Germans to do just that, miss him. The exclamation mark emphasised this but there was a double meaning – he also wanted people at home to miss him, so he added the question mark.

Burt Madder’s painting of the airborne pistol duel. Commissioned by Francies himself.

On 11^th April Francies and Martin took part in Francies' 142^nd mission and one of the most unusual aerial actions of the war.

They were spotting for the 71^st Battalion, which was then the closest American force to Berlin. Out about 100km west of the capital, Francies noticed a German motorcycle speeding along a road near some tanks of the 5th Armored.

 And so it begins: An Airborne Battle. With Pistols

When he and Martin went in to take a closer look at the motorcycle, they noticed a German Fieseler Fi-156 Storch artillery-spotting plane below them, about 220m above the trees.

Fi-156 Storch

The Storch was bigger and faster than Miss Me!? but that did not sway the American pilot. He radioed, 'We are about to give combat.'

With the advantage of altitude they dove and opened fire on the Storch with their Colt .45 pistols! Their goal was to drive the Storch into the fire of the waiting American tanks. Instead, the German plane began circling. 

Blasting away through the side doors, the American airmen emptied their seven-round magazines into the enemy plane. They hit the windshield, fuel tanks and right wing of the plane, and wounded the plane’s observer in the foot, before Francies was forced to hold the controller stick between his knees to reload his pistol. 

The Storch pilot made a low turn but the plane's right wing hit the ground, causing the plane to cartwheel and come to rest in a field. Setting down nearby, the Americans ran to the downed plane. 

The German pilot attempted to hide behind a pile of sugar beets but the wounded observer tripped and fell, revealing their location.

Martin fired warning shots in the air that brought the pilot to his feet, hands raised. The Germans were taken prisoner and Francies applied a dressing to the observer’s injured foot. He then confiscated the pilot's wings and Luftwaffe shoulder insignia, as well as the battle flag.

Francies and Martin never discovered the Germans’ names. Francies himself admitted, “They could have been important, for all I know. We turned them over to our tankers about 15 minutes later after the injured man thanked me many times for bandaging his foot. I think they thought we would shoot them."

Thus the most bizarre airborne duel of World War II came to its conclusion.

The 5^th Armored stood poised at the River Elbe, ready to push towards Berlin, unaware that the Soviets were to make the first entry into the German capital. 

In mid-1945 Francies was recommended for the Distinguished Flying Cross a second time. However, the recommendation was not followed through until 1966, when The Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan publicised Francies’ story and a US senator took up his case. Captain Merritt Duane Francies finally received his DFC 22 years after the incident. 

Francies was recalled to active duty in the Korean War and served for two more years. His military career spanned 29 years of service in activeand reserve flying units.

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Sources:

• The Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan
• Public Domain