RICHARD H. FLEISCHER
REPUBLIC P47
THUNDERBOLT
FIGHTER ACE

Born in Lorraine, Ohio Sept. 6, 1919. Family moved to Quincy, Ma. when he was 13. Graduated from Quincy High in 1937.

Attended Bentley Business College, Boston and was in the graduating class of 1942.

Dick enlisted in the Army Air Corp in Sept. 1941, and graduated flying school, Victoria, Tx. on Oct. 9, 1942 with a 2nd Lieutenant Commission. A week later he married Helen J. Fredrickson, his high school sweetheart. They have been married nearly 65 years. One daughter, Marion.

Dick served in the 340th Squadron, 348th Fighter Group, 5th Air Force. He was on the second Army troop ship out of New York and the first group of P47 pilots. After 2 days out, headed for Europe, orders changed, and they headed south to the Panama Canal and the South Pacific. Upon reaching the Pacific, they were joined by 5 other ships, including 3 destroyers. After zig-zagging across the Pacific for a month, they arrived in West New Guinea where he was stationed with the 5th Air Force.

Dick flew 202 missions in his "Jug" the "Solid Citizen". On March 11, 1944 he downed 2 Oscars over Wewak, earning his status as an Ace Pilot with 6 Air Victories.

Captain Richard H. Fleischer was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with 2 OLCs, and the Air Medal with 9 OLCs.

The following is one of the many accounts of his service in the Army Air Corp.

"Blue Flight was standing on alert and was scrambled to intercept target, which later proved to consist of approximately 12 "val" dive bombers escorted by an equal number of fighters.

We climbed to 10,000 feet and through broken clouds, I spotted the wake of three of our PT boats zig-zagging through the water avoiding a dive bomber on his bomb-run! He missed, but the bomb caused a huge spout of water. I didn't take my eye of the Jap plane and yelled through the "mike", 'Bandits at three o'clock low and I'm going down'.

I dropped my wing tanks as the "val" was joining up with a loose formation of twelve bombers. I was closing too fast and throttled back to come under the formation at about a 20 degree angle. This done, I opened fire and saw the tracers hitting the engine and right wing. The plane caught fire, rolled over and into the sea. I did a wing-over and came
down again behind another bomber, gave a long 4 second burst and almost shredded his tail. The plane just spun into the water. I had another shot at a bomber but didn't see the end results.

Hnatio and Brown were also having good results.

The Japanese were well scattered after this event and our kills were confirmed by the Navy. We claimed seven victories:

Hnatio 3
Brown 2
Myself 2

The Navy said 8 went into the water. This was no "Dog Fight", we 'just clobbered them' !!!

We never did understand why the Japanese fighters never dove down to engage us. We covered the PT boats for a short time and were relieved by another flight of P 47's.

Blue flight had been four planes, but the fourth man didn't get off."


Time: December 27, 1943
Finschafen, New Guinea
Action took place southwest coast of New Britain Island near Arawe.

Submitted by his daughter, Marion Fleischer Wesoski July 2007.
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(click photo to enlarge)