Germans Couldn’t Kill America’s Top Ace in 3 Years — His Own Gunners Did It in 3 Seconds
Germans Couldn’t Kill Him in Three Years of Combat — Friendly Fire Ended the Life of America’s Top P-51 Ace
Major George E. Preddy Jr. had survived everything the air war over Europe could throw at him.
He had survived midair collisions, brutal dogfights with veteran German aces, anti-aircraft fire over the heart of the Reich, and the unforgiving learning curve that killed thousands of young fighter pilots before they ever saw an enemy. By the winter of 1944, Preddy was not only alive — he was the most successful P-51 Mustang pilot in American history.
And then, in a matter of seconds, American guns killed him.
On Christmas Day 1944, just miles from his own airfield in Belgium, Preddy was shot down by U.S. anti-aircraft gunners while pursuing a German fighter at low altitude. He was 25 years old. The Luftwaffe had failed to stop him in three years of war. Friendly fire did it in less than three seconds.
A pilot who was never supposed to fly
George Preddy Jr. was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1919. Thin, undersized, and plagued by minor medical issues, he was rejected multiple times when he tried to join the U.S. Navy in 1940. Doctors said he was too small, his blood pressure was too high, and his chest X-ray showed spinal curvature.
Most men would have walked away.
Preddy did not.
He turned to the Army Air Corps instead, passed their physical, and earned his wings just days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. His early combat career was anything but glamorous. Flying P-40 Warhawks in the Pacific, he fought Japanese aircraft repeatedly without scoring a single confirmed kill. Then, in July 1942, his aircraft collided with another fighter in midair. He barely survived, spending months in an Australian hospital with shrapnel embedded throughout his body.
The Army could have grounded him permanently.
Instead, they sent him to Europe.
Finding his weapon in the Mustang
In 1943, Preddy joined the 352nd Fighter Group in England, initially flying the bulky P-47 Thunderbolt. The aircraft frustrated him. It was powerful but fuel-hungry, limiting escort range. German fighters simply waited until American escorts turned back.
Everything changed when the group transitioned to the P-51 Mustang in early 1944.
The Mustang was fast, agile, and — most importantly — had the range to escort bombers all the way to Berlin and back. Preddy mastered it almost immediately. By May 1944, he had become an ace. By August, he was a legend.
On August 6, 1944, flying with a hangover and just hours of sleep, Preddy shot down six German fighters in a single mission over Germany. It was one of the most extraordinary days of aerial combat in U.S. Air Force history. His total score climbed to 23 confirmed victories, making him the highest-scoring active ace in the European Theater at the time.
Other pilots waited for mistakes. Preddy forced them.
He attacked aggressively, from angles others considered suicidal. He used the Mustang’s new K-14 gyroscopic gunsight with deadly precision. In the cockpit, fatigue, fear, and pain seemed to disappear. Fellow pilots said that once Preddy spotted an enemy aircraft, its fate was sealed.
A reluctant hero
The Army pulled him from combat after his record-setting mission and sent him home on a war bond tour. Newspapers called him the deadliest Mustang pilot in Europe. Crowds cheered. Cameras followed him everywhere.
Preddy hated it.
While he posed for photographs, the air war over Germany reached its bloodiest phase. Bomber losses mounted. Fighter squadrons suffered heavy casualties. His absence was felt immediately.
When Preddy returned to England in October 1944, instead of rejoining his old squadron, he was given command of the 328th Fighter Squadron — the weakest unit in the group. His mission was blunt and simple: fix it.
He did.
Within days, the squadron transformed. On November 2, Preddy led them to 25 aerial victories in a single mission — the highest squadron score in Eighth Air Force history. Morale soared. Confidence returned. Preddy led from the front, flying every dangerous mission himself.
By December, his official tally stood at 26 confirmed aerial victories, the highest of any P-51 pilot in the war.
The chaos of the Battle of the Bulge
Then came the Battle of the Bulge.
In December 1944, German forces launched a massive surprise offensive through the Ardennes, plunging Allied ground units into chaos. American fighter groups were rushed forward to muddy, exposed airfields near the front lines. Preddy’s group relocated to Y-29, a primitive base in Belgium just miles from German positions.
The danger wasn’t only from the enemy.
German commandos were operating behind Allied lines in captured American uniforms. Anti-aircraft units were on edge, ordered to fire on any unidentified aircraft approaching at low altitude. Recognition procedures existed, but in combat conditions they often failed.
Friendly fire incidents were tragically common.
Three seconds that ended a life
On the morning of December 25, 1944, Preddy led a patrol over the front. He shot down two German fighters, bringing his total to 28 — his final confirmed victories.
Later that morning, he spotted a lone Fw 190 attacking an American supply convoy. Preddy dove after it at treetop height, chasing the German aircraft toward Allied lines. American anti-aircraft gunners saw two fast-moving fighters approaching. One was clearly German. The second was firing tracers.
They had seconds to decide.
They opened fire on both.
Hundreds of .50-caliber rounds tore through the air. The German pilot escaped. Preddy did not. His Mustang was hit repeatedly. He tried to climb and bail out, but it was too low. His parachute never fully opened.
Major George Preddy Jr. was dead before he hit the frozen ground.
A record that still stands
No charges were filed. No gunners were disciplined. The Army ruled it a tragic accident of war.
Preddy’s final official score — 26.83 aerial victories — made him the highest-scoring P-51 Mustang ace of World War II, a record that still stands more than 80 years later. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, multiple Distinguished Flying Crosses, and the Purple Heart.
Four months later, his younger brother William, also a P-51 pilot, was killed by German ground fire. The brothers now lie side by side in the Lorraine American Cemetery in France.
Thousands drive along Preddy Boulevard in Greensboro every day, unaware that it bears the name of a man who dominated the skies over Europe — and died at the hands of his own side.
The Germans could not stop him.
War, in the end, did.
