Harry L. Barr Jr was commissioned as a 2nd Lt in the USAAC at Kelly AB in the summer of 1941. He was assigned to the 41st Pursuit Squadron assigned at Selfridge Field Michigan flying P-39’s. He was married to his hometown (El Dorado, Kansas) sweetheart in Detroit before Pearl Harbor. Their adventures started Dec7th, 1941.

The 41st was immediately sent to the West Coast, Payne Field in Everett, Washington, by way of flying their P-39’s across the mountains. It was a slow trip because of numerous weather diversions and delays. The 41stPursuit Squadron was divided and some pilots stayed with the 41st while others formed a new unit the 31stPursuit Group. The 31st traveled to various destinations around the U.S. but were eventually sent to New York for ship transport to England. Their P-39’s didn’t arrive and the 31st was equipped with Spitfire MK-Vb’s.

The 31st was the first USAAC unit to see combat out of England starting in August of 1942. The 31st was sent from England to North Africa at the end of 1942, but Lt Barr was transferred to the 350th Fighter Group which was being formed in England. He was Operations Officer for the 345 Fighter Squadron.

Early January 1943 the 350th was sent to North Africa. Lt Barr was leading a flight of 4 P-400’s who were being led to Gibraltar by a B-25 to provide the navigation. The flight ran into weather and typical of military operations the fighter and bomber radios were on different frequencies. When the flight broke out of the weather Lt Barr and ther others could see nothing but water, no land anywhere, and didn’t know where they were. He couldn’t talk to the B-25 leading the fighters, so he flew up beside the bomber and shook his map and shrugged his shoulders. The bomber crew indicated they didn’t know where they were either.

The flight of P-400’s was running low on fuel so Lt Barr turned the fighters due East and ended up in Lisbon, Portugal where he and the others were held as internees since Portugal was a neutral country. After several months they were returned to the US Army and he rejoined the 31st 309th Fighter Squadron flying in the campaigns across North Africa, Sicily, and Italy.

The 31st was forced (they were very unhappy) to convert to P-51’s in January/February 1944 and since now Capt Barr had the time and missions making him eligible to return stateside he did. Leaving Italy with two victories while flying his Spitfire Mk-IX, an ME-109 and an FW-190.

Capt Barr finished out the War instructing pilots checking out in the P-47.

Harry L Barr