On August 19, 1942 Flight Officer Hollis "Holly" Hills, an American serving with No. 414 Sqn of the RCAF, took off from Gatwick in the pre-dawn darkness, as "weaver" (wingman) to Flt. Lt. Freddie Clarke. Flying at wavetop level, the glow from the searchlights and AA fire at Dieppe permitted him to stay with his leader. Once over the target, they were promptly separated; both returned safely. On the second mission that morning, they saw a huge dogfight filling the sky over Dieppe, and Hills spotted four Fw 190s off to their right. With his radio out and unaware of the German fighters, Flt. Lt. Clarke left himself open and was hit. Then Hollis caught one of the FW's with a deflection burst. It started smoking and flaming, then the canopy popped off. Hollis fired again, and the plane fell to ground. He headed for home, shepherding Clarke as he went, dueling another Fw 190 for miles. In his fight with the Fw's, he lost sight of Clarke. After that, Hollis flew home uneventfully, to a dinner made rather somber by Clarke's apparent loss. But next morning, Clarke re-appeared over Hollis' bunk, smelling of seaweed; he had ditched off Dieppe and been rescued. He had witnessed and could officially confirm Hollis' victory over the Focke-Wulf, the first of many aerial victories for the Mustang. And Clarke had the dubious honor of being the first combat Mustang to be shot down in the war by the Germans.
I joined [the Royal Canadian Air Force] in June 1940 and was called up for enlistment in September of that year. Due to problems in the starting of the Empire Training Scheme, I did guard duty until preflight training and selection for aircrew started for me in mid-December at the Hunt Club in Toronto. I finished that and was accepted for pilot training.
I reported to #7 Elementary Flight Training School mid-January 1941. There I was trained on Fleet Finches, graduating in March. It was then on to Service Flying Training School at Dauphin, Manitoba, on Harvards [North American AT-6, called Texan in the U.S. Army]. We were the second class at the station. I received my wings and was designated a Sergeant Pilot on 22 June 1941, the day Hitler invaded Russia.
I was able to swap orders with an 18-year-old who wasn't too interested in going abroad and obtained his overseas posting. Via rail and ship I arrived in England in August. OTU followed at Old Sarum in Wiltshire on [Westland] Lysanders and [Curtiss P-40] Tomahawks. It was then on to RCAF Squadron 414 at Croydon (Greater London).
We trained and did some OPs in our Tommies, hours and hours of practice fights [against] Spits and Hurricanes from the operational squadrons at Biggin Hill, Kenley, and Redhill. There was no better way to get proficient at airfighting other than the real thing with bullets. We got Mustang Mk Is in June 1942, getting our battle experience with them at Dieppe in August of that year. I got a FW-190--that was the first enemy plane for the Mustang. I also did some train busting and photo missions in the bird.
I transferred to the U.S. Navy November 8, 1942, and returned to the States in December on the Queen Mary. I was send to Jacksonville, Florida, for indoctrination as a naval officer, having been commissioned as a Lieutenant j.g., then on to Miami for air gunnery training. We flew Brewster Buffaloes and Grumman Wildcats. After the first hop as a student, I spent three months there instructing the instructors. [With the war only a year old, probably Holly was the only pilot at Miami with combat experience.]
I did a one-year carrier-based tour in the Pacific Theater in VF-32 (with them I got four Zeroes), then VF-150 and VF-97 till war's end.
I am the only fighter pilot who flew in the two greatest air battles of the war: Dieppe in 1942 and the Great [Marianas] Turkey Shoot in the Pacific in 1944. The thing that I am most proud of is that in my 25 years as a military pilot, I brought back everyone I took out, wartime or peacetime.
-- Commander Hollis H. Hills, USN retired
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