2nd Lieutenant Mahlon Tallmadge Stelle

Remembering 2nd Lieutenant Stelle, of Burlington Iowa, a P-47D pilot who flew with the 387th Squadron of the famous “Hell Hawks”.

Having left RAF Beaulieu on the afternoon of 7th June 1944, on a mission to support the breakout of Allied forces from the Normandy beachhead, Mahlon spotted a column of enemy half-tracks and began his attack.

During the dive, Lt. Stelle “took several damaging hits”¹ and, to the horror of his comrades, crashed and was killed South-West of Villers-Bocage.

1. Dorr, R & Jones, T 2008, Hell Hawks! The untold story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler’s Wermacht Zenith Press