Heroic World War Ii Pilot Dies

Retired Air Force Gen. Leon William Johnson, who won the Medal of Honor for leading a daring raid that cut Axis fuel supplies from Romania’s oil fields in 1943, has died in a retirement home. He was 93.

Johnson died at The Fairfax retirement community near Fort Belvoir, Va., a staff member said Saturday. She gave no cause of death but said the retired general died Monday.

On Aug. 3, 1943, Johnson, then a colonel, led the final bomber group that flew in below 100 feet to deliver the final blow of the all-out air assault in Romania.

Of the six planes in that formation, his was the only one able to limp back to base in Libya, blackened and riddled with holes.

Johnson, born in Columbia, Mo., spent more than 40 years in uniform. He was graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1926 and later received a master’s degree in meteorology from the California Institute of Technology.

He transferred to the Army Air Corps after three years in the infantry. He was among the first flying officers of the 8th Air Force and an assistant chief of staff for that command in Savannah, Ga.

Johnson’s wife Lucille died in 1983 after 54 years of marriage.