‘We had the advantage of altitude and dove blasting away with our Colt .45s, trying to force the German plane into the fire of waiting tanks of the 5th. Instead, the German began circling.’ Merritt Duane Francies Piper L-4H Grasshopper pilot
The L-4A, first known as the O-59, was the military adaptation of the well-known Piper J3 Cub. In 1941, the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) placed their initial order for O-59s as they explored the use of small aircraft for liaison and observation roles in direct support of ground troops. From 1941 to 1945, the USAAF acquired nearly 6,000 aircraft from Piper.
Throughout World War II, Grasshopper aircraft were employed worldwide in many roles, including directing artillery fire, training pilots, instructing glider pilots, providing courier services, and performing front-line liaison. In one notable incident, the crew of an L-4H Grasshopper even used their Colt .45 pistols to shoot down a German Fieseler Fi 156 Storch.
As told by Dan Sharp in his book Spitfires Over Berlin, after landing on Utah Beach on Jul. 28, 52 days after D-Day, the advance of the 71st Armored Field Artillery Battalion was directed by spotter pilots flying ahead over enemy lines. Using small, two-seat Piper L-4 Grasshoppers with 65 hp engines, these pilots spent long hours in frequently dangerous conditions.
Among the 71st’s most seasoned Grasshopper pilots was 24-year-old Merritt Duane Francies from Wenatchee, Washington. Known as Duane, or sometimes “Doc” because he had taken pre-med courses in college and was often asked to administer first aid for minor injuries, Francies had served with the 71st since the beginning of the European campaign.
He flew an L-4H called ‘Miss Me!?’ He said: “I named my plane ‘Miss Me!?’ Because I wanted the Germans to do that, the reason for the exclamation point, but I also wanted someone back home to ‘miss me,’ so there was the question mark.”
On April 11, Francies and his observer, Lieutenant William Martin, were flying ahead of the 5th Armored Division roughly 100 miles west of Berlin. Near the division’s advancing vehicles, they spotted a German motorcycle with a sidecar racing down a side road. As they moved in for a better view, they also caught sight of a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch observation plane flying about 700 feet above the treetops.
Leaving the motorcycle and sidecar behind, Francies and Martin quickly concluded that they had to deal with the Storch immediately, before it could relay information about the 5th’s positions.
Afterwards, Francies wrote: “The Storch had an inverted eight Argus engine. It was also a fabric Job and faster and larger than ‘Miss Me!?’. It spotted us, and we radioed, ‘We are about to give combat.’”
“But we had the advantage of altitude and dove blasting away with our Colt .45s, trying to force the German plane into the fire of waiting tanks of the 5th. Instead, the German began circling.”
Flying slightly above and across the German aircraft, Francies and Martin opened their own plane’s side doors and fired their pistols repeatedly into the Storch. They watched their shots land on its windscreen, fuel tank, and right wing. Francies then clamped the Grasshopper’s control column between his knees so he could reload. He wrote: “The two planes were so close I could see the Germans’ eyeballs, as big as eggs, as we peppered them.”
Trying to shake off the American aircraft shadowing its every move, the Storch banked into a low turn—too low—and its right wingtip struck the ground. The plane spun around, cartwheeling as its right wing and undercarriage tore away, before finally stopping upright.
Francies landed nearby, and he and Martin sprinted to the crash site. The German crew had staggered out of their aircraft in a daze. When they saw the Americans coming, the pilot dived behind a pile of sugar beets to hide, while the observer collapsed on the ground, defeated.
Noticing that the observer had been shot in the foot, Francies rushed over to assist. He removed the man’s boot, and a .45-caliber bullet dropped out. Martin, having reloaded his gun as well, fired a warning shot, prompting the pilot to emerge with his hands raised in surrender.
Francies collected the pilot’s uniform insignia and a German flag that they discovered inside the Storch. He wrote: “I never found out their names. They could have been important, for all I know. We turned them over to our tankers about 15 minutes later, after the injured man thanked me many times for bandaging his foot. I think they thought we would shoot them.”
Shortly after their aerial triumph, Francies and Martin were once again flying ahead of the 5th when parts of the division reached the Elbe River. They crossed the river by air and landed on the far bank, where they were soon approached by a group of Soviet soldiers in grey greatcoats riding small steppe horses.
The Russians pulled back when they noticed the white star insignia on the Grasshopper, but they were not particularly friendly, and before long, the Americans climbed back into their plane and returned to the 71st. They had not understood that they were supposed to stay on the American side of the Elbe.
By the time the war ended, Francies had been nominated twice for the Distinguished Flying Cross, but never actually received the decoration. Over the years, the recommendations were forgotten. Francies went on to serve in the Korean War and later became a commercial pilot. In 1966, historian Cornelius Ryan recounted his actions in the book The Last Battle. A U.S. senator, Harry Jackson, then pushed for Francies’ contributions to be honored, and the following year Francies finally received his DFC.
‘Spitfires Over Berlin’ is published by Mortons Books and is available to order here, along with many other beautiful aviation books.
Photo by ERIC SALARD from PARIS, France, and Marie-Lan Nguyen via Wikipedia and Mark Felton Productions via YouTube
