Many people are familiar with the name of World War I pilot Captain Eddie Rickenbacker — he held the record for enemy planes shot down.
Far fewer people know that Greensboro’s George E. Preddy Jr. broke that record with his exploits in World War II.
Preddy was born in Greensboro in 1919. He worked in a cotton mill to help pay his way to Guilford College and while there, took an interest in flying. He was good enough at it that he spent two years barnstorming with his instructor.
As World War II drew closer, he tried two times to join the U.S. Navy but because of his small size (5’9), a curvature of the spine, and high blood pressure, he was rejected. He later managed to qualify for the Army Air Corps, but was told the pilot classes were full, so he joined the National Guard. He got his pilot’s license and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant five days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
By the summer of 1942, he had engaged several Japanese planes, but not shot any down. He was put out of commission after a midair collision during a training flight in Australia and hospitalized. After he was released, he was sent home and then reassigned to 352d Fighter Group and sent to Europe to fly a P-47 fighter. He was also promoted to captain.
On his first mission against German planes on September 14, 1943, he shot down a ME-109 which started a run of terror on the Luftwaffe. Over the next 17 months, he shot down 26.83 planes and had five ground victories, most of them after he was issued a new P-51 Mustang that he named “Cripes A Mighty.”
In January 1944, he was shot down over the English Channel, but managed to bail out and was later pulled from the water by rescuers.
On August 6, 1944, he had a remarkable day while escorting a group of B-17 bombers. More than 30 German planes attacked the group, but when the battle was over, Preddy had shot down six enemy planes. He went home briefly and was able to fly in an exhibition with his brother William
In October, he was named commander of the 328th Fighter Squadron of 352d Fighter Group and sent to Belgium in December. On Christmas Day 1944, he and another pilot went on a mission near Liege where Preddy destroyed two more planes and then the pair got a report that German planes were strafing U.S. troops on the ground. As he and the other pilot closed on the enemy plane, troops opened fire trying to hit it as well and instead hit Preddy and his plane. He managed to land the plane but died shortly after.
Preddy flew 143 missions and was awarded the Silver Star with oak leaf cluster, the Air Medal with seven oak leaf clusters, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Flying Cross with eight oak leaf clusters, the Purple Heart and the Croix de Guerre by Belgium.
He is buried in the American cemetery in Saint Avold, France, next to his brother, who was shot down in April 1945 in Czechoslovakia, just a month before the war in Europe ended.
Sources:
Sox, Samuel Jr. “Preddy, George Earl Jr.” NCPedia.
Jones, H.G. Scoundrels, Rogues and Heroes of the Old North State.
What a story. What an adventure.
When I was in elementary school, I could not get enough of reading about WW2 and the fighter pilots. I loved the show “Baa Baa Blacksheep,” but it was usually after my bedtime, so I read the book. We had an ace in Spring Hope that I wrote about in the 90s … I need to dig it up and post it. He was a great guy.