How a US Pilot Shot Down an American Plane — And Got a Medal for It
THE DAY A U.S. PILOT SHOT DOWN AN AMERICAN PLANE — AND SAVED EVERYONE ON BOARD February 10, 1945
At 4:47 p.m., a Douglas C-47 Skytrain appeared over the horizon, descending steadily toward a narrow island airstrip in the Philippine Sea. The white star on its fuselage marked it as American. To most observers, it looked like a routine transport flight preparing to land.
Lieutenant Louis E. “Louie” Curdes knew instantly it was anything but.
From 3,000 feet above, flying his P-51D Mustang, Curdes recognized the runway below as Japanese-controlled. If the C-47 touched down, the 12 Americans aboard — a four-man crew and eight passengers, including two Army nurses — would be captured within minutes.
Curdes had seconds to act.
A Choice No Manual Covered
Curdes dove toward the transport and keyed his radio.
“American transport, you are approaching a Japanese airfield. Pull up. Pull up immediately.”
There was no response. The C-47’s radio had been knocked out earlier by severe weather. Landing gear down, flaps extended, the aircraft was less than 150 feet above the runway.
Below, Japanese anti-aircraft gunners tracked Curdes through their sights. They were not firing at the C-47. They believed it was a captured prize returning home.
Curdes knew exactly what capture meant in the Pacific.
By early 1945, reports of the Bataan Death March, mass executions of prisoners, starvation camps, and beheadings of downed airmen were widely known among U.S. pilots. If the transport landed, most of its passengers would likely not survive the war.
With roughly 15 seconds remaining, Curdes lined up behind the C-47 and fired on its left engine.
A Pilot Shaped by War
Louis Edward Curdes was born on November 2, 1919, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, into a middle-class family. He grew up watching aircraft take off and land at local fields, dreaming of flight long before the war reached American shores.
In December 1941, one day before Pearl Harbor, Curdes left Purdue University and enlisted in the Army Air Forces. By late 1942, he had earned his wings and was flying Lockheed P-38 Lightnings in North Africa with the 82nd Fighter Group.
The P-38, with its twin booms and heavy nose-mounted firepower, became his weapon of choice. German pilots called it the “fork-tailed devil.” Curdes painted a cartoon devil with a halo on his aircraft and named it Good Devil.
On his very first combat mission in April 1943, Curdes shot down three German Messerschmitt Bf 109s. Within weeks, he was an ace.
By the end of the Mediterranean campaign, he had eight confirmed aerial victories — German and Italian aircraft — and a reputation for aggressive, decisive action.
Capture and Escape
Curdes’s luck ran out in August 1943 near Naples. Outnumbered four to one, he broke formation to save a wingman and was shot down. He crash-landed his P-38 on a beach and was captured by Italian forces.
Weeks later, Italy surrendered.
As German troops moved to seize Italian prison camps, guards released Curdes and other Allied prisoners, handing them rifles and pointing toward the mountains. What followed was a nine-month escape through German-occupied Italy — 150 miles on foot through the Apennines in winter.
Curdes survived with help from Italian farmers, Catholic clergy, and Communist partisans. He rejoined Allied lines in May 1944, long after his family had received notice that he was presumed dead.
Rather than go home, Curdes volunteered for the Pacific.
A New War, A New Aircraft
By late 1944, Curdes was flying the P-51 Mustang with the 3rd Air Commando Group in the Philippines. Faster, longer-ranged, and more agile than the P-38, the Mustang was widely regarded as the finest fighter of the war.
Curdes named his new aircraft Bad Angel — a counterpart to Good Devil.
On February 7, 1945, he shot down a Japanese reconnaissance aircraft, bringing his tally to nine victories across three enemy air forces. Only two other American pilots would match that feat during World War II.
Three days later came the mission that would define his career.
Fifteen Seconds Over Enemy Territory
The C-47 Curdes intercepted had taken off hours earlier on a routine flight. Severe weather disabled its navigation equipment and radio, forcing the crew to fly blind. Low on fuel, they spotted an island airstrip and committed to land — unaware it was Japanese-held.
Curdes tried everything. He rocked his wings in front of the transport. He fired warning shots ahead of its nose.
Nothing worked.
Japanese gunners opened fire on Curdes, attempting to protect what they believed was a captured American aircraft. The transport was seconds from touchdown.
Curdes aimed again and fired at the right engine.
The engine exploded. With both engines disabled, the C-47 ditched into the Philippine Sea at high speed. The fuselage held. Life rafts deployed.
All 12 people aboard survived.
Aftermath and Recognition
Curdes circled until his fuel gauge was nearly empty, then returned to base. At dawn, he led a rescue aircraft to the crash site. Every passenger and crew member was recovered alive.
Among them was Army nurse Svetlana Brownell — someone Curdes had planned to see socially before the mission.
“I shot down the girl I was dating,” Curdes later joked.
General George Kenney, commander of Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific, faced an unusual situation: an American pilot had destroyed U.S. government property and saved 12 American lives.
Kenney awarded Curdes the Air Medal.
“I told him I hoped he wouldn’t feel called upon to repeat the performance,” the general later remarked.
Curdes’s ground crew added a fourth kill marking to the nose of Bad Angel: an American flag. German, Italian, Japanese — and American. No other U.S. pilot would ever claim all four.
Life After the War
Curdes remained in uniform after World War II, flying missions during the Berlin Airlift and retiring in 1963 as a lieutenant colonel after 22 years of service.
He returned to Fort Wayne, started a construction business, and lived quietly. He married Svetlana Brownell in 1946. They remained together for nearly five decades.
Louis Curdes died in 1995 at the age of 75.
The Meaning of the Moment
Military history is filled with acts of courage under fire, but Curdes’s decision on February 10, 1945, stands apart. No training manual prepared him for that moment. No rulebook explained how to weigh the destruction of a friendly aircraft against the certainty of captivity and death for its passengers.
Curdes had 15 seconds.
He chose to pull the trigger.
Because of that choice, 12 Americans lived — and one of them became his wife.
It is the only known case in World War II of an American pilot being decorated for shooting down an American plane.
And it remains one of the clearest examples of how, in war, the right decision can sometimes look exactly like the wrong one.
