On January 11, 1944, he faced off against 30 Luftwaffe planes

The great feat that led American pilot James H. Howard to receive the Medal of Honor

The history of World War II is littered with horrors, but also with heroes who fought with honor and beyond the call of duty.

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The epic story of the first B-17 bomber shot down in combat in World War II

One of those heroes was James H. Howard. Born in 1913, before the war he seemed called to follow his father's work as a doctor, but instead in 1938 he enlisted in the US Army to be a naval aviator . His first assignment in 1939 was to the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier at the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii. A few months before the Japanese attack on that base, James joined the American Volunteer Group (AVG) known as "The Flying Tigers" to help the ROC fight against the Japanese invaders during the Sino-Japanese War. He did it at the controls of a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter.

James H. Howard in the cockpit of his P-51 in April 1944, displaying the six Japanese flags that symbolized his victories with The Flying Tigers in China and the six swastikas that symbolized his victories against the Germans in Europe (Photo: USAAF).

During that campaign, James achieved six victories, for which he would fly six Japanese flags when he was sent to Europe in 1942, with the rank of major and assigned to the 356 Fighter Squadron of the Army Air Forces of the USA (USAAF). At that time, the B-17 bomber missions over Germany were suffering heavy losses due to the problem of not having a fighter with sufficient autonomy to accompany these "flying fortresses" during their flights. to Germany. That problem was solved with the appearance of an outstanding fighter: the North American P-51 Mustang.

James H. Howard in his P-51B after receiving the Medal of Honor for his feat on January 11, 1944 (Photo: USAAF).

The great feat for which James H. Howard went down in history occurred on January 11, 1944, during an escort mission carried out by James's unit to provide protection for the B-17s of the 401st Bombardment Group, during a mission that was destined for the German town of Oschersleben. James launched into combat, staying away from his teammates, and fought against 30 German Luftwaffe planes. His eagerness to protect the bombers caused amazement and admiration among the B-17 crews. Once he ran out of ammunition, James continued to deal with the Germans using maneuvers to simulate an attack, which proved to be successful.

Depiction of James H. Howard's P-51 during the epic combat of January 11, 1944. The aircraft bore the nickname "Ding Hao!" (The Best) written in Mandarin Chinese on the nose, a memento of his participation as a volunteer in The Flying Tigers (Image: Piotr Forkasiewicz).

The testimonies of the crew of those B-17s led to James being awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration in the United States. James was the only American pilot in the European theater of operations to receive that distinction. After the war, he continued his military career, retiring in 1966 as a Brigadier General of the US Air Force, having served in three branches of service in the Armed Forces. He passed away on March 18, 1995.

The channel Yarnhub has dedicated today one of its excellent videos to staging the feat of James H. Howard in that air combat in which he saved the lives of many of those bomber crews:

The video has excellent quality, as you can see in these three screenshots. Yarnhub excels every day.

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