Posted on 10/13/2018 5:01:44 AM PDT by marktwain
Richard Bong was born on September 24th, 1920. My father was born on January 22, 1918, less than two years earlier. They grew up about 40 miles apart, on farms in northern Wisconsin. Richard in the town of Poplar. My father was raised in the town of Lenroot. Township. Townships in Wisconsin, are political units, six miles by six miles square.
Both were good deer hunters. Richard Bong, the famous World War II ace, was shown using a Savage 99 chambered in .300 Savage, while hunting deer in Northern Wisconsin. The picture was taken in 1943 during his first leave back to the U.S. It appears that Richard is wearing a military web belt. His father, Carl, was shown walking alongside him.
What struck me were the rifles. Richard's father, was carrying a Remington model 8 or 81, the first successful high powered semi-automatic rifle. It came on the market in 1906. I have one made in early 1907. Richard Bong's Savage model 99 was advanced for its time in a different way. It sported a rifle scope. It was probably a 3/4 inch tube Weaver 3-30, 3-29, or 4-40. Weaver converted to one inch tubes for their high powered rifle scopes after the war, in 1947.
The Savage 99 rifle Richard Bong used deer hunting has been donated to the Bong Center. It no longer sports a Weaver scope, but those scopes have long been obsolete.The serial number on the Bong .300 Savage model 99 rifle indicates it was manufactured in
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
Lockheed P-38 L. Paint scheme of Maj. Gerald R. Johnson who flew with the 49th FG, 9th FS from Tacloban Field in the Philippines in October 1944. Twenty-five kills, later reduced to 22 confirmed kills. (Photo courtesy of Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum/ heathmoffattphoto.com
There are no great aces without great wingmen and young Lt. Floyd Fulkerson from Little Rock, Arkansas, was one of those wingmen. Although he had four confirmed victories, so he was nearly an ace himself, he sees his primary contribution to the war effort to have been the protection of his lead pilots, some of whom were America’s leading aces. During his time with the 475TH Fighter Group in the Pacific, Floyd flew with such notables as Major Richard Bong, Major Tommy McGuire, and even the much-celebrated “Lone Eagle,” Charles Lindbergh. Cover the shooter, that’s what wingmen do. They protect the shooter from surprise attack. In this role, Fulkerson helped some of our great aces achieve their successes.
Author John Dejanovich:
I just looked and found that I have darn near a full box of the old Bronze Tip ammunition in .300 Savage. Damn shame I don’t have the rifle to go with it.
Fine old lever gun that 99. The rotary magazine was an interesting feature.
L
It carries and points well, and is an accurate rifle.
To duplicate the craftsmanship today makes it an expensive rifle to produce.
Great tagline! Richard Bong displayed tremendous courage on his way to becoming an ace. He would fly his plane as close as possible to the enemy target and fire his .50 cals...many times at risk to his own safety,in order to ensure a kill.
So a lot of Japanese pilots experienced “Bong hits” long before the 1960s....
Not the best way to get “high”....
Think about that, though. His flying skills must have been immense to use such a style in a dogfight.
A kid in my high school made a point of referring anyone that would listen to a book in the library called “Dick Bong. “ Interesting read. That was in the ‘70s
thank you.
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