Hewitt T. ‘Shorty’ Wheless and Boyd T. ‘Buzz’ Wagner: World War II Fighter Pilots

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On the morning of December 10, the same day the Japanese invaded Aparri, another landing force had come ashore on the northwest coast of Luzon at Vigan. As at Aparri, the enemy had flown in a squadron of fighters to the Vigan airfield. Those planes, along with several troopships, had been spotted by Lieutenant Russell Church during a reconnaissance mission over the area on December 15.

Both Wagner and Lieutenant Joe Moore, the 3rd Pursuit Squadron’s commanding officer, volunteered for the sortie to Vigan. When the two men tossed a coin to determine who would go and who would stay behind, Wagner won. At 6 a.m. on December 16, Wagner and Church took off from Iba. Each airman’s plane was carrying half a dozen 30-pound fragmentation bombs. A third P-40, piloted by Lieutenant Al Strauss, would fly cover for them.

As at Aparri, Japanese anti-aircraft gunners were quick to open up on the unwelcome visitors. Undaunted, Wagner, with Church flying only a few hundred yards behind him, headed for the row of enemy ships off the coast. Coming in at 2,500 feet, Wagner unloaded all six of his bombs, several of which hit their targets. Pulling up, he looked back in time to see Church’s plane take a direct hit.

Flames were shooting out from the belly of Church’s P-40. At that point, he banked his burning fighter toward the Vigan airfield, a single north-south strip four miles southwest of the town. Leveling off at treetop height, the young pilot dropped all six of his bombs on a line of enemy fighters. It was a ‘perfectly executed attack,’ Wagner recalled, and ‘for seconds it…seemed that Russell would be able to regain control, [but] the plane suddenly rocked wildly and plunged sideways to earth.’

There was no doubt in Wagner’s mind that Church had realized he was facing certain death when he chose to attack rather than try to gain altitude and bail out. ‘The Medal of Honor has been given for less,’ Wagner later told a correspondent.

By the time Church crashed, Wagner had been joined by Strauss, and both of them were determined to make the enemy pay for the loss of their comrade. When the two Americans started their attack on Vigan, Japanese pilots and ground personnel could be seen running for their planes. But it was too late. Five times the two pilots crossed and recrossed the field, strafing the enemy troops and aircraft.

As Wagner began his final pass, he spotted a single Nate taking off from the opposite end of the field. Since his view of the Japanese plane was blocked by his own wing, the American calmly rolled his P-40 over on its back to get a clear view of the enemy plane, then righted his ship, throttled back to let the Japanese pilot pull away to a comfortable shooting distance and shot him down.

When Wagner and Strauss finally turned for Clark Field, their ammunition exhausted and fuel tanks nearly empty, they left behind an estimated 17 enemy planes destroyed or burning, with an unknown number of Japanese dead lying on the runway. Despite the fact that the mission had garnered the most devastating results of the air war to date, headquarters was not happy with the ‘unauthorized’ use of its precious fighters. But when the news-hungry correspondents got wind of the second ‘Wagner foray’ in four days, the story made headlines back in the States.

Ironically, Wagner’s exploits at Vigan, which earned him the Distinguished Service Cross, were for all practical purposes his last as a fighter pilot. On January 2, 1942, Wagner and 16 other pilots were flown out of Bataan to Australia. The plan was to have them ferry fighters back to the Philippines. As it turned out, however, they, unlike MacArthur, did not return.

By January, Wagner had been promoted to captain, and by April he was a lieutenant colonel, becoming the youngest pilot in the Army Air Forces to wear silver leaves. With those promotions came a new assignment.

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Tags: Aerial Combat, Aviation History, Historical Conflicts, World War II

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