Later in WWII the Allied bombers were flying deep into Germany but suffered tremendous losses because of the lack of range the fighter escorts had. German fighters would wait beyond the range of the Allied fighters and then attack the vulnerable bombers. Once the P-51 called Mustang by the British had the Allison engine replaced with a British Merlin it possessed the high performance that had been lacking. With drop tanks the P-51 had the range to escort bombers all the way to Berlin and back.

The Aircraft

P-51D 44-72123 coded CY-G was delivered to the USAAF on January 20th, 1945. It was one of the 4 P-51s Major Edward Giller flew and all carried the named “Millie G” after his wife Mildred. Major Giller served with the 343rd FS, 55th FG in the 8th Air Force. He became Commander of the 343rd FS and later Deputy Commander of the 55th FG. Flying P-38s and then P-51s Major Giller flew 115 combat missions accumulating 465 combat hours. P-51D 44-72123 was sold to Sweden in 1946.