Rigby flew around a while, waiting for things to calm down at the airfield. "Landing would not be a problem, I had so much fuel left I could have gone to any field on the continent or even back to England." Finally, after watching another P-51 pilot being shot at by American gunners as he performed a victory roll over Y-29, Alden Rigby put aside similar ideas and greased his P-51D in on a runway made slippery by the melted morning frost.

His 352nd Fighter Group had not lost a single plane in the air and only one on the ground. Only one P-47 was lost from the 390th across the field. The Germans had lost almost half of their attacking force, including planes flown by two of their most experienced commanders. They also attacked sixteen other American and British bases that same day with a total of 1200 German planes. Those bases lost more than 200 aircraft on the ground and in the air. But the Luftwaffe lost 300 planes, and with them went their last remaining veteran pilots. The German Air Force was essentially finished.

The one-sided battle over Asch has since come to be known as The Legend of Y-29. But with a score of 24 to none for the P-51s, and 8 to one for the P-47s, Al Rigby says it should be called, "The Miracle of Y-29." "We were at the right place at almost the wrong time. One minute or even 30 seconds later, and the day would have been a total disaster."

Landing after flying a second mission on the same day, 1st Lt. Rigby taxied past a twin engine aircraft that was headed out to the runway and got a wave from Generals "Tooey" Spaatz and Jimmy Doolittle. The two had come to Y-29 to congratulate the group. Lt. Gen. Doolittle would later approve Rigby's Silver Star medal for his heroic actions that day.

Lt. Col. John C. Meyer, who led the takeoff, if not the battle, downed two German planes himself. He went on to become a four-star general and commander of SAC. According to Rigby, Lt. Littge ended World War Two as Missouri's top ranking Ace and the State's most decorated Airman. He died in a jet (F-84) crash in 1948. He also had a son that perished as a fighter pilot (F-4) in the late 70s. Lt. Kennedy finished his tour with the 9th AF and established himself in a very successful business. He passed away in Illinois at age 65, leaving at least one grandson who, as a graduate of the AF Academy, is now an F-15 fighter pilot.

Al and Eleen Rigby are enjoying a comfortable retirement. They have served two tours as missionaries for their church, one in India and Sri Lanka, the other in Israel. Alden is an ordained lay minister and has officiated in more than 1800 marriages. "It's a great calling," he says with quiet satisfaction.

Not long ago he received a message from a man named Dave Kennedy. Dave said he'd tracked down former Lt. Rigby to thank him for saving the life of his father. It seems that on January 1, 1945 over an airfield called Y-29, a Me-109 had young Jack Kennedy's P-47 dead in its sights. Suddenly, a P-51D Mustang had appeared out of nowhere to blow the Messerschmitt out of the sky.

Dave wanted Al Rigby to know that he and his nine brothers and sisters, plus the 28 grandchildren and great-grandchildren of this former P-47 pilot--38 in all--owed him their lives, too. "We wouldn't be here today," Dave Kennedy wrote, "if you hadn't crossed paths with Dad."

Alden Rigby knows that all these folks are just one more miracle of Y-29.

Author's note: Al Rigby was initially awarded only half credit for his third and fourth victories that day and always assumed that other pilots must have reported that they fired on the same planes he did. Al never bothered to question the split because in the 8th Air Force a plane he had earlier destroyed on the ground had fully counted. So the two halves had still made him an ace. He later found out that outside 8AF he was credited with only four kills, one short.

Only recently did he learn that no other pilots claimed to have shared in his last two victories that day, nor had anyone claimed to have even damaged those two German planes. As far as the other Y-29 pilots were concerned, those victories were Al's alone. So he wondered why he got only half credit. He asked the American Fighter Aces Association to review the records. The review clearly showed he had four full victories in one day and had became an ace--using either scoring method--on 1 January 45.

John B. Taylor
Logan, Utah

(Copyright, John B. Taylor, 2003)

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