Comments by "Colonel K" (@Paladin1873) on "The Piper Cub and Forgotten WWII History" video.

The image of those two planes at time mark 1:50 brought back some powerful memories. My Dad learned to fly in a Taylorcraft and a Cub, then later purchased his first plane, a Luscombe (the plane in the foreground). When I was a teenager his second Luscombe was the first "tail dragger" learned to fly. One of my brothers and a sister also learned to fly it. I spent many hours in it buzzing around north and central Florida and much of Georgia. By the way, the first combat use of Cubs by launching them from ships during Operation Torch in North Africa proved to be something of a disaster. Navy gunners on other ships were unfamiliar with the aircraft and opened fire. After evading naval gunfire the three little planes continued to the beach where one was forced down by friendly Army antiaircraft fire. French gunfire brought down the second plane, flown by the unit leader, Capt Ford E. Allcorn. He managed to drag himself from the wreckage before it exploded and was promptly captured by the French, thus earning him three dubious distinctions. He was the first pilot to fly a Cub from the deck of a carrier into combat, the first Army aviator to be wounded in the campaign, and the first one to be captured. The third plane made it to the improved landing strip, but when the pilot attempted to fly his first artillery spotting mission he was again shot at by US Army units unfamiliar with the aircraft, and was forced to return to the strip. Matters only got worse after this, and the entire program was in jeopardy of cancellation. The situation was eventually rectified as new tactics and leadership evolved, but like the Army itself, much was being learned on the job under combat, a less than desirable state.
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