On January 11, 1944, Howard and a group of other P-51s were hearing for Oschersleben and Halberstadt. They were about 100 miles southwest of Berlin and the location was home to Germany’s aircraft industry. Hundreds of B-17s and B-24s had been sent to destroy and disrupt the industry.
Howard was on his own when he came across a group of Flying Fortresses that were taking fire from 30 German Luftwaffe fighters. The bombers were trying to return from their mission but it was clear that they would not make it without help. Howard decided to stay with the bombers and do whatever he could to protect the B-17 bombers. Howard would later say that he just decided “to stick around.”
In a 1992 interview he expanded a bit saying that “It was up to me to do it, there were 10-men crews in those bombers and no one else to protect them.” It was supposed to be the mission of all the P-51s to protect the bombers but Howard was separated from his group and knew that he could not rendezvous with them and leave the bomber formation undefended.
For more than 30 minutes Howard defended the bombers from the onslaught of German planes. He attacked them repeatedly, bringing down six planes before ran out of ammunition. Even without ammo, Howard refused to leave the bombers and dived onto the enemy planes to prevent them from being able to bring down the Flying Fortresses. But worse than losing three of his guns, Howard also dipped dangerously low on fuel and still remained with the bomber formation as long as possible. Howard’s dedication ensured that all the bombers were able to land safely in Allied territory.
It wasn’t long before news of Howard’s bravery and determination spread throughout the military. The leader of the bombing formation reported “For sheer determination and guts, it was the greatest exhibition I’ve ever seen. It was a case of one lone American against what seemed to be the entire Luftwaffe. He was all over the wing, across and around it. They can’t give that boy a big enough award.”
It was just a week later that Army Air Forces held a press conference where Major Howard described the attack to dozens of riveted reporters. All the major news organizations picked up the story with True magazine calling Howard the “One Man Air Force.” Howard’s success was credited to him being a typical American pilot and a sensational American airplane. Other fighter pilots during the war could not imagine such bravery. One wrote in his memoirs “An attack by a single fighter on four or five times his own number was not uncommon, but a deliberate attack by a single fighter against thirty-plus enemy fighters without tactical advantage of height or surprise is rare almost to the point of extinction.”
In February of 1944, Howard was promoted to lieutenant colonel in recognition of his valor. Just a few months later in June, the General Carl Spaatz presented him with the Medal of Honor. No other fighter pilot in the European theater during WWII was bestowed such honor. He continued on with his military service getting promoted to colonel in 1945 and being assigned base commander of Pinellas Army Airfield. Fighter pilots would be sent to Pinellas Army Air Field in order to get specialized training in gunnery and dive-bombing before being sent overseas. At the end of the war he was credited with six Japanese kills and six German kills, but he was never his kill count that gave him the reputation as an air ace, but rather his actions on that one day.
In 1948 he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the United States Air Force Reserve acting as commander of the 96th Bombardment Group. He became a civilian after the war and became Director of Aeronautics for St. Louis, Missouri. However, he remained in the reserve and kept his status as a general.
He would go on to found Howard Research before selling the company and retiring in 1977. In 1991, he finally took the time to write his own memoir about his experiences with the Flying Tigers and flying the P-51 Mustang called Roar of the Tiger. In 1994 on the 50th anniversary of the heroism that earned him the Medal of Honor, Pinellas County proclaimed “General Howard Day” and a permanent exhibit honoring him was unveiled at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater airport. He died the following year at the age of 81.