Captain Grattan “Grant” Mahony as the commander of the 23rd Fighter Group’s 76th Fighter Squadron, is seen in front of one of his Squadron’s Curtiss P-40K Warhawks at Hengyang. Mahony arrived in China with four confirmed aerial victories, following a very hard-fought combat tour with the USAAF’s 24th Pursuit Group, that was first fought above the Philippines and then the Dutch East Indies, against pilots of the Japanese Navy Air Force flying the deadly Mitsubishi A6M “Zero.”
Mahony destroyed his 5th confirmed aerial victory on May 23, 1943, when he shot down a Nakajima Ki-27 “Nate” fighter and destroyed two more “Nates” on the ground at the Japanese Army’s airfield at Ichang. Soon after this combat and following nearly 19 months of continuous combat, Mahony returned to the US, for a well deserved rest.
Mahony returned to the CBI with his friend and fellow CATF “Ace,” Lt. Colonel Johnny Alison, flying North American P-51A Mustangs, in support of Major General Orde Wingate’s Long Range Penetrations Operations,behind Japanese lines in Burma as a member of the 1st Air Commando Group. As commander of the Air Commando’s fighter squadron, Mahony would be credit with his 6th and final official aerial victory of the War. Following his combat tour as an Air Commando, Mahony returned to the Pacific Theater as the Deputy Commander of 8th Fighter Group, a Lockheed P-38 Lightning unit that was fighting in the Philippines. Tragically, Colonel Mahony was killed while leading a strafing mission on January 3, 1945.
From the Philippines, to China, to Burma and back to the Philippines, Lt. Colonel “Grant” Mahony holds the record for flying more combat hours than any other fighter pilot in the United States Army during the the Second World War.
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