Donald Septimus Bryan (August 15, 1921 – May 15, 2012) was an American flying ace in World War II, who was credited with 13 aerial victories while serving with the 352d Fighter Group.
Early life
Bryan was born on 1921, to Ellis and Ethel Birdsall Bryan, and was raised on a farm near Paicines, California.
Military career
On January 6, 1942, he enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces. He was commissioned a second lieutenant and awarded his pilot wings at Luke Field in Arizona, on July 26, 1942.
World War II
After the completion of his pilot training, Bryan completed P-40 Warhawk transition training from July to October 1942 and was assigned as a P-40 pilot with the 304th Fighter Squadron of the 337th Fighter Group at Florida, from October 1942 to March 1943. He was assigned to the 328th Fighter Squadron of the 352nd Fighter Group at Mitchel Field in New York, as a P-47 Thunderbolt pilot. In July 1943, the 352nd FG boarded the troopship RMS Queen Elizabeth in June 1943. The group landed in the United Kingdom, and was assigned to RAF Bodney in Watton, Norfolk, under the operational control of the 67th Fighter Wing, VIII Fighter Command.
Flying the P-47, Bryan was credited with a shared aerial victory on January 29, 1944, when he and his wingman shot down a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 while en-route to Namur, Belgium. On January 30, he shot down a Fw 190 over Emmen, Netherlands, his first solo aerial victory. On February 20, he and two of his wingmen were credited with the shared destruction of a Messerschmitt Bf 110. Bryan scored down his second and third aerial victories on February 24 and March 15, 1944, and scored another shared aerial victory on April 10, 1944. On April 18, 1944, he led a successful mission to find and rescue a fellow fighter pilot, who was forced to ditch in the North Sea on April 15.
In May 1944, he went back to the United States for shore leave, after the completion of his first tour.
On August 9, 1944, he returned back to his unit, which by this time converted to the North American P-51 Mustangs. On September 27, 1944, he scored his first aerial victories in the P-51, when he shot down two Messerschmitt Bf 109s and damaged another Bf 109 at north of Frankfurt. His biggest day came on November 2, 1944, while leading a flight of P-51s on a bomber escort to attack oil refineries over Merseburg, Germany, they encountered a massive formation of Bf 109s heading to attack the bombers. Bryan led his flight in attacking the Bf 109s, including the shooting down the lead Bf 109 of the formation. In the massive aerial battle, Bryan was attacked by Bf 109s and he performed a daring maneuver called “inverted vertical reversement". In a 1989 interview, he recalled about the maneuver:
The aircraft does the darnedest thing you ever imagined. First, the tail snaps end to end with the nose and you fly up against the canopy and then the aircraft corkscrews around underneath. You end up going 180 degrees in the direction you were originally—were headed. Much slower but still a 100 degrees—180 degrees off the other flight path. It is absolutely impossible for an aircraft behind you to see where you were—went.
He managed to outmaneuver the attacking Bf-109s and continued to battle against them, managing to destroy a total of five enemy airplanes that day, making him one of the 38 USAAF pilots to become an "ace in a day". For his heroism in the mission, he received the Distinguished Service Cross.
During the Battle of the Bulge, which started on December 16, the 352nd FG was moved forward to airfield Y-29 near Asch, Belgium. On December 21, he damaged an Arado Ar 234 jet bomber and on December 23, he shot a Fw 190 over Liège. On January 1944, he was appointed as commander of the 328th Fighter Squadron. He scored his 13th and last aerial victory of the war, when he chased and shot down an Ar 234 over Germany on March 14, 1945, after encountering it during a bomber escort.
During World War II, Bryan was credited with destroying 13.83 enemy aircraft in aerial combat, while flying 140 combat missions. While serving with the 352d FG, his P-47 and P-51s were named in honor of wife Frances Norman, bearing the names "Little One", "Little One II" and "Little One III".