Dogfights were like a card game': WWII veteran, last American triple ace vividly recalls combat

SAN ANTONIO — At 100, Clarence E. “Bud” Anderson Jr. still has vivid memories of aerial combat high over Germany with fellow ace Chuck Yeager.

The dogfights play like an old World War II movie reel, except everything is in color and he’s in the middle of the action, not in front of a television watching it.

The P-51 Mustang they flew was the perfect plane for the mission, capable of traveling long distances and faster than any other aircraft out there except the Me-262 Schwalbe, the new German jet with a top speed of 540 mph. Anderson and Yeager had an advantage most pilots on either side did not — better-than-perfect vision that allowed them to see the ballpoint penlike dots that were enemy aircraft as far as 50 miles away at 25,000 feet.


https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/WWII-veteran-Triple-Ace-Anderson-17548039.php