Did You Know Eisenhower Flew on a Combat Mission Once?

General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, (Read our earlier article) was famously a staff officer through and through, who never commanded troops in battle. It might surprise you, then, that he actually did go on a combat mission once, even though he ended up neither shooting, nor being shot at. And what might surprise you even more is that he did so in a plane.

In early July 1944, one month after the D-Day landings, Allied forces were still bottled up on and near the beaches, and planning Operation Cobra (Read our earlier article), the U.S. offensive on the west end of the lodgement that would eventually allow the Allies to break out from Normandy and head deeper into France in late July. The operation was to begin near the town of Saint-Lô, and Eisenhower wanted to see the terrain personally to assess what difficulties the troops might run into.

A highly secret recon flight was planned for July 4, disguised as a regular patrol. The flight was to be performed by P-51 Mustangs (Read our earlier article), one of which was specially modified: it was an old bird with a jury-rigged second seat behind the pilot, used to show new pilots some maneuvers and to give the ground crew chiefs rides. This was the plane Eisenhower was set to ride in. The pilot was Major General Elwood Richard "Pete" Quesada of the Ninth Air Force, a hotshot pilot and a pioneer of air-ground combat tactics and equipment.

While the Allies generally enjoyed air superiority, the mission was nevertheless risky, and strict orders were given not to reveal the presence of the VIP passenger on the radio. Even so, once he arrived at the airstrip, Ike learned that his seat was a rather precarious one. Since the plane was not a proper two-seater trainer, he could only enter and exit the back seat after someone on the outside removed a pane of the windscreen – had anything happened, he would have been unable to escape on his own. Additionally, the seat was too small for a parachute, so he didn't get one. Nevertheless, he put on a brave face and climbed into the plane.

Fortunately for Eisenhower and the rest of the Allied forces, the half-hour mission went off without a hitch, and the Supreme Commander got some personal view of the mission area which he was eager to discuss with his staff. The plane was later renamed “The Stars Look Down” in reference to the flight when it carried two generals.

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