2Lt John Dave Landers arrived in the 9th Pursuit Squadron, 49th Pursuit Group when he delivered a P-40E to the squadron at Batchelor Field, Australia on 3 April 1942. The following day he scrambled on his first combat mission and scored his first confirmed kill. This would be the first of 14 ½ confirmed victories scored by Landers in P-40s, P-38s, and P-51s in the Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO) and the European Theater of Operations (ETO).
John D. Landers was born in 1920 in Oklahoma, but moved to Texas by the time he was 18 and spent most of his life in Texas. He attended Texas A&M and Arkansas State College before enlisting in the Army Air Corps and beginning pilot training in March 1941. He received his pilot wings at Stockton Field on 12 Dec 1941, five days after Pearl Harbor. He went through fighter transition training before shipping out to Australia to join the 49th Pursuit Group.
On 4 April 1942, Landers scrambled with the 9th PS against a formation of seven Mitsubishi G4M “Betty” bombers escorted by only three Mitsubishi A6M Reisen “Zekes” aka “Zeros.” Landers lost power soon after take-off and could not keep up with the squadron that was headed toward Darwin. Instead of aborting and returning to Batchelor Field, he decided to climb up to 20,000 and orbit along the normal ingress route used by the Japanese airplanes. All alone, Landers spotted the Japanese formation flying inbound toward Darwin. Several years later Landers recounted the following description of his flight to author, Ernie McDowell:
“I started having that same sinking feeling I used to get before a football game back home in Texas, but this was a hundred times worse. I circled above them but didn’t have the slightest idea where to start. I couldn’t decide how to attack, so I just dove on them. I don’t’ know why, it was more a reflex than anything else. I tore into the middle of the formation, found a bomber in my sights, and fired. One of the engines quickly caught fire, which spread to the fuselage and the bomber came apart.
By that time, the Zeros were after me. I must have looked like cold turkey to them, and I almost was. They punched holes in my P-40 from the wings to the tail and knocked out my radio. I shoved the stick forward and dove away. After losing them I climbed back up to wait; I knew that they would come back the way they went in. In the distance I could see the battle over Darwin. One by one, the Japanese bombers spun down on fire, until there were only three left and none of the Zeros.
When the three came back they passed directly under me and I attacked from line astern. This time there was no hesitation; my ‘buck-fever’ was gone. I made a couple of passes and one went down immediately. The other two kept flying although they were badly damaged and later crashed on the other side of Melville Island. These two were credited to the squadron as a whole since they had been pretty shot up before I hit them.”
Landers moved to 14-Mile Field, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea with the 9th Fighter Squadron. He achieved four more confirmed kills flying P-40Es. Landers became an ace on 26 December 1942 when the 9th FS engaged large formations of Zekes and Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa “Oscars.” Landers shot down two Oscars before he trapped another Oscar at his six o’clock and was shot down. (Some sources report that he engaged Zekes.)
Landers bailed out and was lucky to wander into a friendly native village. The villagers helped him return to his squadron at Port Moresby. He returned to the U.S. soon afterward, in January 1943, and became a P-38 instructor pilot in a fighter transition squadron.
He returned to combat in April 1944, but not to the 49th FG in the PTO. Landers was assigned commander of the 38th FS of the 55th FG at Wormingford, England flying P-38s. He shot down his first German airplane, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 on 25 June 1944. He shot down three Messerschmitt Bf 109s on 7 July 1944 before his wing converted to P-51Ds.
In the fall of 1944 Landers was transferred to the 357th FG as acting wing commander. He scored his first victory flying a P-51 on 18 November 44 before returning to the U.S. in December for a short rest.
Colonel John Landers returned to ETO as commander of the 78th FG at Duxford in January 1945. He scored 3 ½ kills for a total of 14 ½ confirmed victories. His ½ kill was a shared victory over a Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter.
After Victory Europe Day he assumed command of 361st Fighter Group and prepared to move to the PTO. The Japanese surrendered before the 361st FG could move to the Pacific and John Landers was discharged from the Army Air Force on 28 Mar 1946.
John Landers married first Emma Mathilde Schuurman, born in the Netherlands, and second Kathryn Louise McCoy. He worked for several pipeline companies in Texas before joining Brown & Root Industrial Services (a construction company) in 1956. John Landers retired in 1975 and died in Granbury, TX in 1989 from complications during surgery.
References:
General Kenney Reports, George C. Kenney, 1949, p. 171.
The P-40 Kittyhawk, Ernest R. McDowell, 1968, pp. 31.
Flying Buccaneers, The Illustrated Story of Kenney’s Fifth Air Force, Steve Birdsall, 1977, p. 40.
49th Fighter Group, Ernest R. McDowell, 1989, pp. 8, 14, 25.
Protect & Avenge, The 49th Fighter Group in World War II, 1996, Steve W. Ferguson & William K. Pascalis, 1996, pp. 60, 61, 100, 101.
American Fighter Aces Album, 1996, p. 283.
49th Fighter Group, Aces of the Pacific, William N. Hess, 2004, pp. 13, 22, 70.
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