Robert S. Johnson; WWII Ace Shot Down 27 Planes

Robert S. Johnson, the Oklahoma pilot who shot down 27 German planes to become the second leading American air ace of the European Theater in World War II, has died.

Johnson was hospitalized on Christmas Eve after collapsing on a visit to family members in South Carolina. He died Dec. 27 at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Okla. at the age of 78.

Johnson, a member of the 56th Fighter Group in the 8th Air Force, made his 27 kills in an 11-month period during the war. His accomplishment was surpassed only by his squadron commander, Lt. Col. Francis S. Gabreski, who shot down 28 German planes and destroyed three more on the ground. Both men bested the American record of 26 kills set by the legendary Col. Eddie Rickenbacker in World War I.

A native of Lawton, Okla., Johnson started flying when he became a teenager. He entered an Army aviation school in November 1941, and received his commission and pilot’s wings on July 3, 1942.

Flying a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter, Johnson shot down his first plane, a Focke-Wulf fighter, on June 13, 1943, after breaking from his squadron’s formation. Johnson would later recall that he was yelled at for breaking formation, something that wasn’t routinely done at the time.

“I had a reputation as a wild man,” he recalled in a 1996 interview about his days flying support for B-17 Flying Fortress bombers as they flew toward targets deep inside Germany. “Other pilots would say ‘Don’t fly with Johnson, he’ll get you killed.’ ”

He surpassed Rickenbacker’s mark on his last combat mission, downing two Luftwaffe fighters near Brunswick, Germany, on May 8, 1944.

Major Richard I. Bong of the Army Air Forces was the leading American ace of the war, downing 40 Japanese planes in the Pacific Theater.

In his postwar memoir, Gabreski noted that Johnson seemed to have superior vision.

“There were some guys who just seemed to have a knack for seeing things before anyone else did,” Gabreski said in his book “Gabby.” “If he looked into a certain area, and enemy aircraft were there, he saw them ahead of the rest of us.”

Johnson, then a major, returned to the United States on June 6, 1944--the date of the allied invasion of Europe--to a hero’s welcome. He was greeted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and received a standing ovation from members of the Senate when he appeared in the spectator gallery.

His list of awards included the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross with the 56th Fighter Group.

After the war, Johnson was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve. He become an executive with Republic Aviation, which manufactured the Thunderbolt. He later worked in the insurance industry.

He detailed his combat experiences in the book “Thunderbolt.” He once noted that he was fatalistic about life and death. “I’m . . . a strong believer that when your time is up, you’re gone. . . . Why worry about it.”

But he also said that while flying combat “ . . . I was also scared--that’s what made me move quick.”