Allied Jet Killers of World War 2

by Stephen Chapis

  On the afternoon of 10 April the Allies launched 1232 bombers covered by more than 900 fighters. The targets were airfields, transportation hubs and military infrastructure centres in Oranienburg, Rechlin, Neuruppin, Stendal, Brandenburg-Briest, Zerbst, Burg, Parchim and Wittenberge. A number of German fighters were scrambled in response to this armada, with JG 7 sending 55 Me 262s aloft – many of which were armed with 24 R4M rockets apiece – from all three Gruppen.

  One flight of seven Me 262s, led by high-scoring ace Oberleutnant Walter Schuck of 3./JG 7, was patrolling at 24,000 ft when they were directed towards Oranienburg, where a formation of B-17s was approaching from the northwest. As they made their way towards Oranienburg, the jets climbed to 30,000 ft. At 1430 hrs Schuck and his flight bounced the Flying Fortresses just as they dropped their bombs on Oranienburg, the German ace closing to within 300 yards of his first victim before opening fire with his four 30 mm cannon. One of the B-17’s wings disintegrated under the weight of the fire. Schuck then pulled up and went after another bomber, hitting it hard and sending it down in a spin. Several crew members bailed out. In rapid succession Schuck shot down two more B-17s, taking his tally to 206 victories. The veteran ace had taken just eight minutes to destroy four Flying Fortresses. Moments later Schuck was himself shot down, almost certainly by Capt Joseph A Peterburs of the 55th FS/20th FG, who subsequently fell victim to flak while strafing an airfield minutes after he had despatched Schuck’s jet. Both pilots survived the war and would meet decades later.

  A total of six Me 262s were claimed as destroyed by the 20th FG, which emerged as the highest scoring group in terms of jet kills on 10 April. Both the 352nd and 353rd FGs claimed three apiece, with two of the pilots from the latter group achieving ace status with their respective Me 262 victories. The first to claim his fifth kill was Capt Gordon B Compton from the 351st FS, who, that day, was leading ‘Lawyer Red’ Flight on an escort mission to Zerbst airfield in northern Germany when he heard a report of jet activity over Dessau five miles to the south. Turning his flight in that direction, Compton flew several orbits over the city from 1400 hrs until he spotted an Me 262 on the deck heading east;

  ‘I started a dive from about 10,000 ft and pulled up along the left side of the Me 262, which was turning left now, to make sure it wasn’t a P-51. I then tacked onto its tail and shot it up a bit. The jet caught fire and crashed on the edge of Köthen airdrome.’

  Compton’s wingman, 2Lt James L McDermott, confirmed the victory and actually saw the jet hit a telephone pole before it crashed. This kill took Compton’s final tally of aerial victories to 5.5, and doubled his haul of Me 262s – he had claimed his first on 22 February. He was also credited with 15 strafing kills, and had scored his early victories in the P-47.

  The second pilot to ‘make ace’ that day was Capt Robert W Abernathy of the 350th FS, who had claimed a single kill with the Thunderbolt before his squadron switched to P-51s. The Me 262 was his fifth, and last, victory. Non-aces from the 4th, 55th, 56th, 356th, 359th and 364th FGs were also credited with Me 262 kills on 10 April, with no fewer than 27 fighter pilots from nine Eighth Air Force fighter groups downing 21 Messerschmitt jets in aerial combat. This tally made it the deadliest day of aerial combat for the Me 262. However, this score had come at a price, for the Me 262 force – which launched 76 sorties – had claimed 27 aerial victories, including eight P-51s.

  No further Me 262s were shot down until 14 April, when a pair of jets were claimed by two aces from the Ninth Air Force’s 354th FG. Capt Clayton K Gross had scored his first aerial victory on 11 May 1944 and ‘made ace’ on 29 October. On 14 April he was leading a flight of Mustangs from the 355th FS in his assigned aircraft, P-51D 44-63668 LIVE BAIT, when he spotted a lone Me 262A-1b near Alt Lönnewitz airfield and split-essed into a full throttle dive from 12,000 ft in pursuit of the aeroplane.

  As the Mustang passed through 450 mph it was suddenly gripped by compressibility. For several harrowing seconds Gross struggled to pull the fighter out of the dive. When he finally levelled out the Me 262 was right in front of him, but his overtake speed was so high that he only managed a quick, albeit well-aimed, burst that blew off the jet’s left wingtip. Gross pulled up into a chandelle to the right, and as he came around he saw the jet going straight up with its left engine on fire. Using what little energy he had left from the dive, he followed the jet into the climb and watched the pilot bail out as the Me 262 slowed and fell into a tail slide. As Gross watched the pilot’s parachute open, every flak battery on the airfield opened up on him. Quickly gathering his flight together, he fled the area.

  There is conflicting evidence as to who was flying the Me 262 claimed by Gross, although it seems almost certain that 19-year-old Gefreiter Kurt Lobgesang of 1./JG 7 was at the controls. The two would meet 50 years later. This was Capt Gross’s sixth, and final, victory of the war.

  The second jet was shot down by 1Lt Loyd J Overfield, a nine-victory ace with the 353rd FS. It had taken the 26-year-old just three missions to claim five aerial kills, with three of his victories coming on 7 August 1944 when he downed a trio of Bf 109s over Mayenne, in northwestern France. On 14 April, Overfield was flying along the Elbe River north of Dresden when he spotted three Me 262s heading south, but was unable give chase. However, he did come upon a He 111, which he quickly sent down in flames. Overfield then spotted another Me 262 six miles south of the city, and after a brief chase he fired several bursts that set the jet on fire, forcing the pilot to bail out. This pair of victories brought Overfield’s final tally to 11.

  As the war drew to its inevitable conclusion, the Me 262s valiantly continued to counter Allied bombing raids. On 17 April Capt Richard Hewitt and his wingman, multiple jet-killer 1Lt Allen Rosenblum, from Duxford’s 82nd FS/78th FG chased a pair of Me 262s to Kralupy airfield near Prague, where Hewitt shot one of the jets down when it was on short finals to land. Rosenblum was in turn forced to crash-land minutes later after his fighter was hit in the engine by flak whilst strafing. With his wingman a PoW and his own gun camera film inconclusive, Hewitt failed to have his all-important fifth victory claim confirmed. He was at the controls of his distinctively marked P-51D-20 (44-64147) when he downed his Me 262 (USAAF)

  On 16 April 1Lts Vernon O Fein and Henry A Yandel each claimed an Me 262 destroyed to give the P-47-equipped 368th FG, assigned to the Ninth Air Force, its only jet victories of the conflict – both pilots were from the 397th FS. A third Me 262 was credited to Maj Eugene E Ryan, who had been made CO of the 55th FG’s 338th FS just three days earlier. He had claimed the victory (his third, and last, aerial success) during an escort mission to Salzburg, in Austria, downing the fighter over nearby Hörsching airfield. Ryan was also credited with an He 111 destroyed in a strafing attack on this mission.

  Capt Charles E Weaver (seen here to the right) of the 362nd FS/357th FG downed an Me 262 over Prague-Ruzyne airfield on 18 April whilst flying this machine, P-51D-20 44-72199. Although the Mustang lacked a name, it did feature what was possibly the most striking nose art applied to any 357th FG aircraft during World War 2 – nudes were rarely seen on USAAF fighters in the European Theatre of Operations. The Me 262 was Weaver’s eighth, and last, aerial victory, the ace completing 73 missions between August 1944 and May 1945. 44-72199, minus its reclining female, was sold to the Swiss Air Force post-war (Lt Col Clarence ‘Bud’ Anderson)

  Six Me 262s were claimed as shot down by USAAF fighters on 17 April, with five falling to Mustang pilots from the 339th, 354th, 357th and 364th FGs and one to 1Lt James Zweizig flying a P-47 from the 404th FS/371st FG. None of these aviators were aerial aces, although the victory for Capt Roy W Orndorff of the 364th FG’s 383rd FS (one of two Me 262s credited to the squadron that day) took his tally to four – he also had four strafing kills.

  A seventh success went unconfirmed from the 17th involving Capt Richard Hewitt and his wingman, multiple jet killer 1Lt Allen Rosenblum, of the 82nd FS/78th FG. They had chased a pair of Me 262s towards Kralupy airfield, near Prag
ue, in Czechoslovakia. One of the jets was on short finals to land when Hewitt’s 0.50-cal rounds hit home and sent it down in flames just short of the runway. The engine in Rosenblum’s P-51 was then hit by flak and started to burn, but he was not quite finished inflicting damage on the Luftwaffe. Rosenblum strafed an unidentified trainer and then somehow survived a 300 mph belly landing that saw his Mustang smash through two hedgerows and a stand of trees.

  With no clear gun camera film and a wingman who was now a PoW, Hewitt’s victory could not be, and has never been, confirmed, thus officially depriving him of ace status – he had claimed aerial victories on 16 March and 21 November 1944 and two on 19 March 1945, plus 4.333 strafing kills.

  The following day (18 April) three more Me 262s were credited to USAAF fighter pilots, two of whom were aces from the 357th FG. Acknowledging the continuing threat posed by the Me 262s to its heavy bombers, the Eighth Air Force had briefed the 357th FG to cover the airfields near Prague an hour before the arrival of B-17s and B-24s. Since the Me 262 had limited endurance, the plan was to either knock them out as they took off or strafe them on the ground. High-scoring ace Maj Kit Carson of the 362nd FS led the mission. Through some superb navigation the group was able to fly a zigzag course at low altitude to disguise its intentions. It hit Prague-Ruzyne airfield at exactly 1300 hrs, at which point Carson despatched Maj Don Bochkay to cover the two nearby fields, then orbited Prague-Ruzyne to see what the German fighter pilots would do. Soon, the Mustang pilots saw the jets taxi out for takeoff. Carson later wrote;

  ‘As the first ’262 started his take-off roll we dropped our wing tanks and I started down with “Red” Flight from 13,000 ft with an easy wing-over. The ’262 pilot had his gear up and was going past the field boundary when we ploughed through intense light flak. As I came astern of him and levelled off at 400+ mph, I firewalled it to hold my speed and centred the bull’s eye of the optical sight on the fuselage and hit him with a two-second burst.’

  Double ace and jet killer Maj Donald H Bochkay scored his second Me 262 victory when he bounced one over Prague on 18 April. Although he hit the fighter’s right engine, the German pilot was still able to break right into a very tight 9G turn, which Bochkay somehow managed to match in his P-51D-20 44-72244 (not the aeroplane seen here, which is his P-51B-5 43-6963). Closing to 250 yards at 475 mph, Bochkay fired again and set the jet on fire. His Encounter Report duly noted, ‘His tail came off. It then rolled over and went in like a torch’. The Me 262 took Maj Bochkay’s final tally to 13.833 aerial victories (Peter Randall collection)

  Carson’s timing was slightly off, for although he scored strikes he only claimed the jet as damaged. Capt Chuck Weaver of the 362nd FS had better luck, catching an Me 262 trying to land. He shot it down for his eighth, and last, aerial victory, the wreckage landing on the field. He and 1Lt Oscar Ridley had both gone after the Me 262 as it drew the Mustangs across the airfield. This resulted in them being targeted by ‘considerable flak’, related Weaver. ‘Lt Ridley called that he had been hit. I returned to the field and told him to fly west for as long as possible. I caught up with him at a point 20 miles west of Prague. His engine was smoking badly. He said the fire was bad and he was leaving the aeroplane. He bailed out at 5000 ft. His ’chute opened successfully’. Ridley was the last pilot to be lost by the group as a result of enemy action.

  Bochkay, meanwhile, was leading the 363rd’s ‘Cement Blue’ Flight when he heard ‘White’ Flight call in a bogey at ‘11 o’clock low’. The ace recalled;

  ‘I recognised it as an Me 262. I dropped my tanks and dove from 15,000 ft to 13,000 ft, pulling up behind the jet. I then let him have a burst from 400 yards, getting very good hits on his right jet unit and canopy. He then broke right in a very tight diving turn, pulling streamers from his wingtips. My “G”-meter read 9Gs. As he straightened out at 7000 ft, I was 250 yards behind him, going at 475 mph. I let him have another burst, getting very good hits on his right jet unit again. He then popped his canopy as I let him have another burst. Large pieces came off his ship and it caught fire. I pulled off to miss the pieces and watched the Me 262 fall apart. His tail came off. It then rolled over and went in like a torch, crashing into some woods next to a river. The pilot never got out.’

  Capt Ernest C Tiede Jnr and 2Lt Gifford W Miller both confirmed Bochkay’s final victory, which took his tally to 13.833.

  The third victory on 18 April was claimed by Maj Ralph F Johnson, CO of the 325 FG’s 319th FS. This Mustang unit was assigned to the Fifteenth Air Force, and his victory was the last of 11 Me 262s credited to fighter groups flying from Italy.

  A fourth jet victory was claimed on 18 April when Lt Col Dale Shafer, CO of the 339th FG’s 503rd FS, downed an Ar 234 near Regensburg. He was the only pilot of the 14 from the group credited with jet kills during World War 2 to ‘make ace’. Four of Shafer’s seven aerial victories came whilst he was flying Spitfire Vs and IXs with the 309th FS/31st FG in North Africa and the Mediterranean in 1942-44.

  Although 14 pilots from the 339th FG combined to shoot down 12 Me 262s and an Ar 234, only one of them ‘made ace’ – Lt Col Dale E Shafer. No details have been found about the action, which took place at 1225 hrs on 18 April near Regensburg. Shafer, CO of the 503rd FS, was at the controls of his assigned P-51D-20 44-72147 at the time (he had downed an Fw 190D-9 and damaged a second in it on 18 March), the Ar 234 being his seventh, and final, victory of the war (Peter Randall collection)

  Over the next week, the last 11 Me 262s credited to USAAF fighters in aerial combat fell to non-aces – six of them on 19 April to pilots from the 357th FG. These were the final jet victories claimed by the group, and it raised the unit’s overall score to 19 Me 262s destroyed. The 357th was undoubtedly the USAAF’s most effective jet-killing group.

  On 25 April the 479th FG became the second of only two USAAF fighter groups to claim victories over all three Luftwaffe jet types. That morning the 434th FS was participating in a bomber escort mission to Traunstein, in Bavaria. Flying at 24,000 ft, ‘Newcross Blue’ Flight had just commenced a 360-degree turn over the target when, part way through the manoeuvre, ‘Newcross Blue Three’ – 1Lt Hilton O Thompson (whose only other victory had been an Me 262 downed on 7 April), spotted a bogey 2000 ft above them heading east. Thompson immediately set off in pursuit of the bogey with his wingman and a spare aircraft. Thompson’s Encounter Report describes what subsequently happened;

  ‘The jet turned to a southeasterly direction and I closed to 800 yards at his level. Ranging with my K-14 sight, I fired two short bursts and observed hits around his left engine. Then I began closing rapidly from “seven o’clock astern” and fired several bursts from 600 yards down to 300 yards, observing strikes along the entire left side of the fuselage, which caused many pieces to fall off. At 200 yards I pulled to the right and watched him spiral down at a 40-degree angle.’

  The Ar 234 pilot bailed out of his stricken bomber, which crashed in the vicinity of Berchtesgaden. Thompson’s Arado was the 15th, and final, Ar 234 shot down by the USAAF, and the last jet victory for the 479th. The group was credited with downing an Me 163, three Me 262s and an Ar 234.

  In the final weeks of the war in Europe Twelfth Air Force B-26s fought a series of vicious battles with the Me 262s from Generalleutnant Adolf Galland’s JV 44. On 26 April, Galland and his wingman attacked 17th BG Marauders over Ulm and shot down one bomber. As the high-scoring ace flew by the 34th BS B-26 flown by Maj Luther W Gurkin, his waist gunner, TSgt Henry Dietz, fired a quick burst that heavily damaged the fuel tanks in Galland’s fighter. Dietz is seen here standing third from the right (Robert Forsyth collection)

  Just before 1700 hrs that same day (25 April), a formation of 13 JV 44 jets, including Me 262A-1a/U4 Wk-Nr 111899, which was armed with a single 50 mm Mauser MK 214 cannon, took off from Munich-Riem. The aircraft split into two formations, with one heading out on a freelance patrol against the hundreds of American fighters roaming over southern Germany and the other flying south to attack B-26s
of the 344th BG that were targeting Erding airfield and a nearby ordnance depot. However, all five jets looking for enemy fighters aborted for various reasons. Three of the remaining aircraft, including the Me 262A-1a/U4 flown by 72-victory nightfighter ace Major Willi Herget, succeeded in attacking the Marauders prior to being intercepted by P-51s from the Ninth Air Force’s 370th FG. A single Me 262 was downed by the group, 1Lts Richard D Stevenson and Robert W Hoyle of the 402nd FS sharing in its destruction. Their victory was the 17th Me 262 to fall to Ninth Air Force fighters, Capt Jerry G Mast and 2Lt William H Myers of the 365th FG’s 388th FS having shared the 16th 24 hours earlier in their P-47s.

  On 26 April, the B-26-equipped 42nd BW launched a maximum effort against Lechfeld airfield with fragmentation bombs. As the wing headed into Bavaria JV 44 was put on alert, and at 1120 hrs Generalleutnant Adolf Galland led a scramble of five Me 262s from Munich-Riem. Once airborne, they were vectored towards Ulm, where they would clash with the Thunderbolts of the 27th and 50th FGs. Galland and his Experten approached the bombers head-on at 11,000 ft, passed over them and then made a wide sweeping turn, before returning to attack the Marauders from ‘eight o’clock’. Galland’s wingman, Unteroffizier Eduard Schallmoser, flying Me 262 ‘White 14’, launched his R4M rockets and was transfixed when a Marauder ‘blew apart in the air’. On the same pass, Galland armed his quartet of 30 mm Mk 108s and switched off the safety for his R4Ms. He opened fire with his cannon, disintegrating another bomber and heavily damaging a second. He then attempted to fire his rockets, but he had forgotten to turn off the second safety switch!