WW2 American 8th Air Force Officers ‘Ike’ Jacket, Attributed to Fighter Pilot ‘Ace’ Lt Col Kenneth W Gallup, 350th Fighter Squadron, 353rd Fighter Group, consisting of a beautiful ‘Ike’ jacket belonging to P47 pilot, Lt Col Kenneth Woodrow Gallup. The jacket itself is a London tailors made piece, with red lining and named to the inside pocket with the initials ‘K.W.G’ on a ‘Raman, of New Bond Street London label’. complete with original insignia, featuring a British made 8th Airforce patch, silver senior pilot wings maker marked ‘Meyer, New York’ and the rank of Lieutenant Colonel to the epaulettes. The USAAF collar badges are in situ, held in place with pin and catch or early Phinney type clutch backs. Six, ‘six months’ overseas bars don the lower left arm. Below the wings are the medal ribbons denoting, DFC, Air Medal with Oakleaves, American Campaign Medal, EAME and what appears to be the Asiatic-Pacific Medal? The Distinguished Unit Citation is upon the right chest, which the 353rd was awarded in September 1944. The tunic has seen some sunlight damage, due to slight change of green shade across parts of the blouse, but not particularly noticeable. Lt Col K Gallup mainly flew with the 353rd fighter group, firstly assigned as Group Ops officer in May 1944, until becoming the 350th FS commander. He would become an ‘ace’ whilst flying P-47’s mainly ‘Rat A Dat’ and shooting down 9 confirmed air victories, 2 ground targets and sharing 2 others. The 353rd FG flew from Metfield and then Raydon in Suffolk from April 1944, they were heavily involved in all the major European campaigns, Normandy, Market Garden and the Bulge. Kenneth Gallup would also service in the Korean war and retire in 1965 as a Colonel. Accompanying this blouse, is some research paperwork, a book ‘American eagles’ featuring a colour plate of Gallup’s aircraft, and a signed paper sheet by Kenneth Gallup himself. A great piece of USAAF / 8th Air Force history.

American B-17 Pilots Uniform and Paperwork Archive of Captain Gerald T Smith DFC, 332nd Bomber Squadron of 94th Bomb Group US 8th Air Force, the comprehensive grouping relating to Cpt Gerald T Smith, Pilot, 332nd BS/94th BG. This excellent grouping consists of his full uniform, officers class A’s with shirt, tie and officers garrison cap as well as his A2 flying jacket. The medals, of which are still cased and a very large quantity of paperwork and photos. The officers class A tunic is good clean condition featuring its full insignia with sterling pilot wings, clutch back ‘US’ tabs and ‘Props’, Captain rank badges to the epaulettes, English made 8th air force badge to the right shoulder and the USAAF patch to the left. Common in these cases to have the previous serving air force patch applied to the opposite shoulder, probably in this case, due to returning home and serving in a training unit. Medal ribbons of the DFC, Air Medal and EAME sit nicely below the wings. The trousers or ‘Pinks’ are in good condition with the brass officers type buckled belt. The shirt with collar rank still present and US made 8th Air Force patch applied and period issue tie. His garrison cap with Captain rank badge in situ is in good condition with the black and gold USAAF piping. The A2 is a private purchase example, with good strong leather and working ‘talon’ zip in which a whistle hangs from. Captain Smith’s DFC and Air medals that accompany this lot are in their black presentation cases, both of which have the ribbon bar and button-hole badge in each. In the blue card boxes, are the American campaign medal, the victory medal and the EAME medal plus a spare set of 3in sterling pilot wings. The paperwork side of this grouping is what makes this lot special, detailing most of Gerald Smiths time with the air force from joining up to post war service. His wartime experiences with the 332nd Bomb Squadron of the 94th Bomb Group, based at Rougham, are fascinating, having Photos of two signed members of Geralds crew, ‘Upton’ his navigator and ‘McCormick’ his bombardier. Other pieces include general order extracts, informing Gerald of his DFC awarded on the 8th December 1943 for extraordinary achievement on the 18th oct 1943 on bringing back his stricken B17 ‘Little Sir Echo’ and crash landing it into a field, in Lydden, Near Dover, Kent, without harm to the crew. This is the second time Gerald made a forced landing, before a landing in the channel in July 1943. He would go on to complete a tour of 25 operational missions over enemy territory and receive an oak leaf to his DFC, of which is still attached to the extract letter, dated 16th Dec 1943. Overall, a fantastic collection of pieces relating to a B-17 pilot in the 8th Air Force. Viewing highly recommended due to the large collection of paperwork in which can’t be described in full here.