WW2 Fallen - P-47 & P-51 ace Victor France and his P-51 pilot daughter

Captain Victor France scored 10 kills piloting P-47s and P-51s in Europe.
http://www.americanairmuseum.com/person/215693

Victor James France never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

He was born on December 12, 1917 in Missouri. I was not able to locate census data about Victor or his family, but he considered Dallas his hometown. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in journalism. While in college he learned to fly in the Civil Aeronautics Association. He also participated in ROTC.

He enlisted in the RAF (yes, not a typo) in Canada in March 1942. Perhaps he knew that anyone enlisting in the USAAF would not be flying for some time due to a lack of enough planes and he wanted to see action sooner. Regardless, six months later he was able to leave the RAF and gain a commission in 334th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group. He was promoted to the rank of captain. He was initially a P-47 Thunderbolt pilot but moved to piloting P-51 Mustangs. During his military career he flew 111 missions. He displayed his Texas roots by wearing cowboy boots and donning a polka dot scarf when flying. He was credited with 10 enemy planes shot down.

His final mission was on April 18, 1944. He was flying a P-51 Mustang Miss Dallas when he was killed in action near Rengerslage, Germany. 

Details of Captain France's final mission are memorialized at americanairmuseum.com.

It was on 18 April 1944, and the Group's escort duty was finished. Fuel and ammunition were running low, so Group Commander Blakeslee ordered the group to return to base. Vic could not leave the injured bomber free to be attacked, so, followed by his wingman, he dove into the pack of enemy fighters, dispersing them and shooting one that had attacked his wingman, driving him off. However, one German pilot persisted, returning to attack the B-17 again, causing Vic to announce over the radio, "The rest of you guys go home, I'm gonna get that bastard."

When Vic attacked, the Me-109 did a split-s, manoeuvre, with Vic on his tail in a vertical dive. Vic was scoring hits as the two planes were nearing compressibility. Unable to pull out of the dive, Vic hit the ground in a ball of flames, his plane disintegrating over a wide area.

Victor's awards and decorations included the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross with three Oak Leaf Clusters.

His grave is at Rose Hill Burial Park, Oklahoma City.

Also from the americanairmuseum.com memorial:

Years later. it was discovered that Victor had met and become enamoured of a young woman pilot who was ferrying P-51s to the 4th Fighter Group. When he died, Victor could not have known that he had fathered a child, a girl. Unfortunately, her mother also died when her daughter was only months old, and the infant child was raised by her grandmother, who kept her father's identity a secret. Upon the grandmother's death the young woman, Kathleen, discovered her father's identity while going through her grandmother's belongings. She wrote to Vic's former Commanding Officer, Col. Don Blakeslee, asking for information about her father. Blakeslee, in turn, contacted Don Allen, Vic's crew chief and asked him to follow up on her request. Allen was able to send her several pictures and to give her much insight into her father's life as a fighter pilot.

Don was astounded when her subsequent letters revealed that, although neither her father nor mother (both P-51 pilots) could have know, Kathleen was also a pilot - she flew P-51 as an attraction at air show. What a family coincidence!

Thank you Victor for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Victor.

On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!

I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.

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