361st Fighter Group in WWII

361st
Fighter
Group

Air Forced Assigned To:		8th (Nov '43 - end WWII)

Stations Flown From:		Bottisham, England (Nov '43 - Sept '44)
		Little Walden, England (Sept '44 - Feb '45)
		Chievers, Belgium (Feb '45 - April '45)
		Little Walden, England (April '45 end of WWII)

Campaigns Flown in:		Air Offensive, Europe
		Normandy
		Northern France
		Rhineland
		Ardennes-Alsace
		Central Europe

Aces were:
(scores in the group only- some scored victories while flying in other groups or squadrons)

	HQ:	Hopkins, W.E. (4)
		Kruzel, J.J. (3.5)

374th FS:	375th FS:	Drew U.L. (6)	376th FS:	Spencer, D.F. (9.5)
		Kemp, W.T. (6)		Beyer, W.R. (9)
		Merritt, G.L. (5)		Vanden Heuvel, G.R. (5.5)
				Sykes, W.J. (5)
				Bocquin, V.E. (4)

Total Aircraft Claims in Air:	Destroyed	Probable	Damaged
	222	11	67

Squadron Insignia
	374th	375th	376th
Codes:	B7	E2	E9

Aircraft Flown:		P-47
		P-51

	"ferocious frankie" 374th Fighter Squadron, flown by Lt. Col. Wallace E Hopkins 361st FG Assoc.
	"Tika IV" 374th Fighter Squadron, flown by Lt. Vernon R Richards 361st FG Assoc.
	P47 - pilot Lt. Billy D. Welch of the 376th squadron USAF Museum photo
	376th FS Ace Dale Spencer showing damage to his plane after a mission in which he claimed 4 Me410 planes Dale Spencer photo
	Lt Van Eisenhut receives the air medal, 1944 Jack Cook photo

Another Great 361st FG webpage
Another Great 361st FG webpage

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Data for this page was found and used from the following publications-

Air Force Combat Units of WWII, by USAF Historical Div. Air University
Stars and Bars by Frank Olynyk
Special thanks to the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB for the use of their photos
Peter Randall's excellent site Little Friends

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