Adair County News, October 25, 1944

Lt. George Morris Downs Nazi Plane

An Eighth Air Force Fighter Station, England: The Focke-Wulf 190 which had tried to stab at the troop-carrier planes and gliders in the second day of the air-borne invasion of Holland crashed into the soft black soil of the Ruhr Valley and exploded. The pilot didn't get out.

Claiming destruction of the Nazi plane was 1st Lt. George W. Morris, a short, dark-headed P-51 Mustang pilot who calls his Mustang "Sweet Eloise" after his wife, the former Eloise Stapp, Columbia, Ky. It was the fighter pilot's first air victory of the war and he didn't earn it the easy way.

"I must have chased that Kraut for 15 minutes right on the deck," he said. "We were scorching the grass blades right across the Ruhr Valley. I finally scored hits on his tail and fuselage. His ship wavered out of control and crashed."

Lt. Morris' "kill" brought the score for Colonel Donald W. Graham's Eighth Fighter Command group to 26 enemy aircraft destroyed on the one mission. Not one of approximately 50 Nazi planes seen got through to the troop-carrier planes.

Lt. Morris recently was awarded the Air Medal and first Oak Leaf Cluster for exceptionally meritorious service in aeriel flight. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Morris, 537 Wainright St., Louisville.