wwii p-51

Picked this little gem off eBay for a great price and couldn’t help but do some research on the plane. It appears to have been taken while it was with the New Mexico Air National Guard. Likely in 1945 or 1946. I missed out on another listing from the same seller showing the plane with it’s full insignia painted on the side, which was the New Mexico state symbol. I believe this photo may be considered rare, as I can’t find another shot of the 44-74976 on the web, and certainly not in color. I hope the current owner finds my site!

From what I can gather, as pictured, this aircraft was used by the New Mexico Air National Guard in WWII and in the 1940s and then was sold to Indonesia in 1958 or 1959. It was then recovered in 1978 from Indonesia and purchased by a Ralph W. Johnson of Oakland, CA and registered as N98582. It’s first flight after being recovered from Indonesia was in 1983. It was then purchased by it’s current owner, Jeff R. Michael and restored to airworthy and redesignated as “Obsession” with it’s original tail code of 44-74976. Phew!

Photo Source: http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p51registry/p51-4474976.html

The discovery of a photo and clipping from a Massachusetts flea market yields a wealth of interesting material related to the last hours of Captain Chester Coggeshall’s life. A sad story, but one that deserves to be told. Captain Coggeshall was born and raised on Cape Cod (Hyannis) and entered the war after attending Barnstable High School. He flew two tours in the ETO, the first with a P-38 (pictured below) and a P-51. His final mission of the war ended in his tragic murder. Please read below for more details.

From http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=coggeshall&GSfn=chester+&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=2639236&df=all&

343rd Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group.

From Find A Grave Contributer #47444799

Entered service from Hyannis, Massachusetts
ASN – 0-754471
11 January 1944 – Joined the 343rd Fighter Squadron
March 1944 – Promoted from 2nd Lieutenant to 1st Lieutenant
April 1944 – Awarded Oak Leaf Cluster to the Air Medal
May 1944 – Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
May 1944 – Awarded Oak Leaf Cluster to the Air Medal
30 August 1944 – Ended first tour of duty
MACR No. 13866
16 April was scheduled to be Capt. Coggeshall’s last mission on his second tour.
1/Lt. Walter Strauch reported: “I was flying Tudor Red three on April 16, 1945, on an escort and strafing mission. We dove down to strafe an airfield west of Salzburg (Austria) and when we pulled up to about 1,000 feet I noticed Red Leader, Capt. Coggeshall, making a very gentle turn to the left and losing altitude. I immediately started over toward him and noticed his airplane was covered in oil, and about this time he made a fast belly landing, dug a wing in, and cartwheeled. I went back to investigate and saw where the plane had hit a small brick building. There was no fire but the airplane was completely
demolished.”
Reproduced with kind permission of Mr. Robert M. Littlefield from the author’s
book; “Double Nickel – Double Trouble”

After action report from his wingman:
“Coggy was killed on the last scheduled mission of his second tour. He was leading Red Flight strafing an airfield near Salzburg and destroyed the 190 above. He was hit by flak and bellied in crashing through a building and the
airplane was demolished. It was reported that he survived the crash, but was hung by civilians who were in turn hung during the Nurnberg Trials. Believe it or not, he had flown two tours and had not seen an enemy plane in the air. A good high school quarterback and a good pilot. He was highly thought of by all.”
(Frank Birtciel)

A postwar inquiry found that Capt. Coggeshall had been executed by the mayor of the town of Freilassing, Germany. After being denied medical care, he was taken to a wooded area outside of the town and shot twice in the head by Burgermeister August Korbus. This was done by the civilian authorities of the town over the objections of German Army medical personnel. The two Nazi party officials responsible were tried and sentenced to death by a U.S. Military Court.

Burial:
Long Island National Cemetery
Farmingdale
Suffolk County
New York, USA
Plot: J, 15558