Major George Earl Preddy Jr. (February 5, 1919 – December 25, 1944) was a

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

officer during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and an American

ace An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the c ...

credited with 26.83 enemy air-to-air kills (a number that includes shared one-half- and one-third-victory credits), ranking him as the top

P-51 Mustang The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in April 1940 by a team headed by James ...

ace of

and eighth on the list of all-time highest scoring American aces. Preddy was born and grew up in

Greensboro Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, North Car ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

Early life

Preddy was born on 1919 in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...

, the second of four children born to George Earl Sr. and Clara Noah Preddy. He attended Aycock School and Greensboro High School. Following graduation, he worked at a cotton mill and attended

Guilford College Guilford College is a private liberal arts college in Greensboro, North Carolina. Guilford has both traditional students and students who attend its Center for Continuing Education (CCE). Founded in 1837 by members of the Religious Society of ...

for two years, before becoming a barnstormer pilot.

Military career

On September 1940, he enlisted in the

North Carolina National Guard The North Carolina National Guard (NCNG), commonly known as the North Carolina Guard, is a component of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the National Guard of the United States. It is composed of Army and Air National Guard uni ...

and served with the 252nd Coast Artillery Regiment. Preddy attempted to become a

naval aviator Naval aviation is the application of military air power by navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. Naval aviation is typically projected to a position nearer the target by way of an aircraft carrier. Carrier-based a ...

in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

, but was rejected thrice. As a result, he entered the Aviation Cadet Program of the

U.S. Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

on April 29, 1941. He was commissioned a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the U.S. Army Air Forces and was awarded his pilot wings at

Craig Field Craig Field (born 12 December 1972) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer. Field played for South Sydney Rabbitohs, South Sydney, Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, Balmain Tigers and Wests Tigers. His primary position was at . ...

in Alabama, on December 12, 1941, just five days after the

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, ju ...

World War II

Preddy was assigned as a

P-40 Warhawk The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and ...

pilot with the 9th Pursuit Squadron of the 49th Pursuit Group, which provided air defense against Japanese aircraft attacking Darwin, Australia. Preddy claimed two Japanese aircraft damaged over Darwin. He was hospitalized after a midair collision with another P-40, in which the other pilot, 2nd Lt. John Sauber, was killed. After his recovery, he arrived at Hamilton Field in California, looking for an assignment and in December 1942, he was sent to

Mitchel Field Mitchell may refer to: People *Mitchell (surname) *Mitchell (given name) Places Australia * Mitchell, Australian Capital Territory, a light-industrial estate * Mitchell, New South Wales, a suburb of Bathurst * Mitchell, Northern Territory ...

in New York and later to

Westover Field Westover may refer to: People * Al Westover (born 1954), American professional basketball player in Australia * Arthur Westover (1864–1935), Canadian sport shooter and 1908 Olympian * Charles Westover (1934–1990), better known as Del Shannon, ...

in Massachusetts where he was assigned to the 487th Fighter Squadron of the

352nd Fighter Group The 352nd Fighter Group was a unit of the Eighth Air Force that was located in the European Theater of Operations, United States Army, European Theater of Operations during World War II. The unit served as bomber escort, counter-air patrols, and ...

, flying

P-47 Thunderbolt The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is a World War II-era fighter aircraft produced by the American company Republic Aviation from 1941 through 1945. It was a successful high-altitude fighter and it also served as the foremost American fighter-bombe ...

s. In July 1943, the 352nd FG boarded the troopship RMS ''Queen Elizabeth'' in June 1943. The group landed in the United Kingdom, and was assigned to

RAF Bodney Royal Air Force Bodney or more simply RAF Bodney is a former Royal Air Force Station located west of Watton, Norfolk, England. Originally built as an RAF Bomber Command airfield during 1939-1940, Bodney was transferred to the United States ...

Watton, Norfolk Watton is a market town in the district of Breckland in the English county of Norfolk, about west-southwest of Norwich and northeast of Thetford. The annual Wayland Agricultural Show in its west is one of the oldest one-day such shows in Eng ...

, under the operational control of the

67th Fighter Wing The 67th Fighter Wing was a unit of the United States Air Force for four years, between 1946 and 1950. It was located at Logan Airport, in Boston, Massachusetts. It is unrelated to the modern 67th Network Warfare Wing. History World War II The ...

VIII Fighter Command The VIII Fighter Command was a United States Army Air Forces unit of command above the wings and below the numbered air force. Its primary mission was command of fighter operations within the Eighth Air Force. In the World War II European Thea ...

. George Preddy was killed on the morning of December 25, 1944, by

friendly fire In military terminology, friendly fire or fratricide is an attack by belligerent or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy/hostile targets. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while eng ...

. As commanding officer of the 328th Fighter Squadron, 352nd FG, he was leading a formation of 10 P-51s. After patrolling for about three hours, they were directed to assist in a dogfight already in progress. Preddy destroyed two

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...

s before being vectored to intercept a lone

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 The Focke-Wulf Fw 190, nicknamed ''Würger'' (" Shrike") is a German single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank at Focke-Wulf in the late 1930s and widely used during World War II. Along with its well-known counterpart, ...

strafing Allied ground forces southeast of

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

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. As he pursued the , Preddy's aircraft as well as two other P-51s passed over the Allied front line at treetop height. A US Army

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

(AA) battery (believed to be part of the 430th AA Battalion, XIX Corps) fired at the but missed and, instead, hit Preddy's P-51. Preddy managed to release his canopy but was unable to bail out before his aircraft hit the ground at high speed. Although the shallow angle of impact meant the crash was potentially survivable, his wounds from .50-caliber machine gun fire were mortal. Preddy's brother William, a P-51 pilot with the 503rd Fighter Squadron, 339th Fighter Group, was later buried alongside George at the

Lorraine American Cemetery Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial is a Second World War American military war grave cemetery, located just outside Saint-Avold, Moselle, France. The cemetery, containing 10,489 American war dead (the second largest number of American buri ...

Saint-Avold Saint-Avold (; ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Sänt Avuur'') is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is situated twenty-eight miles (45 km) east of Metz, France and seventeen miles (27 km) southwest ...

, France. William died in what is today's

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

on April 17, 1945, from wounds he sustained when he was shot down by enemy AA fire, while strafing

České Budějovice České Budějovice (; german: Budweis ) is a city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 93,000 inhabitants. It is located in the valley of the Vltava River, at its confluence with the Malše. České Budějovice is t ...

airfield.

Military decorations

Preddy's military decorations include: Army Presidential Unit Citation

Memorials

Veterans of Foreign Wars The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), formally the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, is an organization of US war veterans, who, as military service members fought in wars, campaigns, and expeditions on foreign land, waters, or a ...

Post 2087 in Greensboro was named after George Preddy, soon after the end of World War II. In 1968, Business Interstate 85, through Greensboro, North Carolina was given the street name Preddy Boulevard, in memory of both Preddy brothers. There is a memorial kiosk with video, photos, and models of planes flown by the Preddy brothers at

Piedmont Triad International Airport Piedmont Triad International Airport (commonly referred to locally as "PTI") is an airport located in unincorporated Guilford County, North Carolina, west of Greensboro, serving the Piedmont Triad region of Greensboro, High Point and Winston- ...

Footnotes

References

National Museum of the United States Air Force: Major George Preddy- one magazine article
*Noah, Joe & Sox, Samuel L. Jr. (1991). George Preddy Top Mustang Ace. Greensboro, NC: Preddy Memorial Foundation. *Scutts, J. (1994). Mustang Aces of the Eighth Air Force. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120211053517/http://raleightelegram.com/20120206752 - North Carolina Newspaper Article: Preddy Fighter Ace Legends Live On Through Cousin

External links

The Preddy Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Preddy, George 1919 births 1944 deaths United States Army Air Forces personnel killed in World War II American World War II flying aces Aviators from North Carolina People from Greensboro, North Carolina Recipients of the Air Medal Recipients of the Silver Star Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States) United States Army Air Forces officers Aviators killed by being shot down Military personnel killed by friendly fire Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in Belgium Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1945 Burials at Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) Recipients of the Croix de guerre (Belgium)