P-51D Mustang 'Miss Helen' - Cpt. Ray Littge - 487th FS, 352nd FG, USAAC - RAF Bodney - April 1945

This P-51D Mustang is the only known surviving original airframe that was operated by the 352nd Fighter Group of the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) during World War 2. Many other P-51s currently fly in the guise of similar aircraft of the 352nd, but none are genuine original airframes that were used by the Group.
“Miss Helen” 44-72216 was delivered brand new to the 487th Fighter Squadron of the 352nd Fighter Group at RAF Bodney (USAAC station 141) in January 1945. As soon as it arrived it became the personal aircraft of Captain Raymond (Ray) Henry Littge. Coded HO-M it is recorded as having been flown on a number of combat missions by Littge, which included destroying 6 confirmed ground kills on April 17th 1945.

Ray Littge became known as the “unknown ace” because he hadn’t courted the same level of publicity as some of the other 352nd FG aces. In total air and ground victories he was the 352nd's third highest scoring ace with a total 23.5 victories, 10 of which were air-to-air with a half credit for an 'assist' and the remainder were credits for enemy aircraft that were destroyed on the ground. Only John Meyer and George Preddy were higher scorers in the 352nd FG.
In early 1945 the 352nd were deployed to Belgium where they operated from both AAF Station Y-29 at Asch and later at AAF Station A-84 at Chievres, so for a portion of “Miss Helens” operational career with Littge the Mustang was based in Belgium. The 352nd returned to Bodney in early April 1945 and it is known that Littge was flying “Miss Helen” from Bodney during very successful ground attack operations on 16th-17th April 1945.

Ray Littge left Bodney to be assigned to special duties in the USA in May 1945. “Miss Helen” was then assigned to Capt. Russell H Ross, who renamed the Mustang “Miss Nita” after his girlfriend and he then flew this Mustang until the end of the war.

Prior to being allocated 44-472216 Ray Littge had also flown a P51B (42-103320) named “Silver Dollar” on many missions. He also flew another P51D (44-11330) named “E Pluribus Unum”. It is thought that 44-472216 might also have been painted as “Silver Dollar” for a short period before being renamed by Littge in 1945 as “Miss Helen”, but so far there is no photographic record of this known to exist.

Ray’s missions included flying cover for the D-Day Invasion, Battle of the Bulge, Market Garden and Operation Plunder, part of the Rhineland Offensive. He flew many bomber escort missions where he encountered flak and aerial combat. He is credited with 23½ enemy aircraft destroyed, making him Missouri’s top ranked WW2 air Ace.

For his heroism, valor and fearless aggressive air attacks, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (second only to the medal of honor), the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, five air medals and 15 Oak Leaf Clusters, with each Oak Leaf awarded for single acts of heroism. He also received The Unit Citation now called the Presidential Unit Citation, and the French Croix De Guerre with Palm which was awarded for exceptional bravery.

Ray Littge left the air force in December 1946 but then re-joined in March 1947 but was then tragically killed in the crash of an F-84 Thunderjet in May 1949.It is thought that a faulty oxygen supply caused the accident and it is also very tragic to note also that his son Ray Littge 2nd was killed in 1979 in a mid-air collision at the age of 30yrs whilst flying an F-4 Phantom in air combat manoeuvres over the Nellis Air Force base training range in Nevada.

This Mustang’s nose art was painted at Bodney by Sam Perry, who had painted most of the nose art on all of the 487th Fighter Squadron's Mustangs. Perry always made a point of starting the aircraft names just under the first exhaust stack. Littge named this Mustang after his fiancé Helen Fischer who he married on 25th November 1945 and with whom he fathered two sons, George Preddy Littge (named after the famous ace) and Ray H Littge 2nd.

After the end of WW2, many surplus 8th AF Mustangs were flown to Furth Nurnberg in Germany for storage and “Miss Helen” was one of these and with its US codes painted out it was purchased by the Swedish Government in February 1948. It joined the Swedish Air Force as FvNr 26116 and served at Ostersund and Uppsala. In 1953 she was sold to the Israeli Air Force and allocated the IAF number 43. It was 'retired' to a children's playground at Ein Gedi kibbutz, where it was retrieved from in 1978 and then restored.

More about Captain Littge is in a book 'Absolutely Fearless: The Life of Raymond H. Littge, Missouri’s Top Scoring WWII Fighter Pilot Ace' ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1737136910

More about P-51D 'Miss Helen' :-
http://www.misshelenp51.co.uk

Filmed at IWM Duxford on 4/8/21.
Pilot - Stuart Goldspink

Video and Audio content is
Copyright © High Flight

This video and audio material may not be reproduced in any form (except as the videos Youtube embedded video option on any other website), without written permission.