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P-47D-28 44-19713 Miss Pussy “IV” of Capt Valmore Beaudrault, 386th FS/365th FG, A68 Juvincourt, Belgium, October 1944
Despite the Mustang taking over as the USAAF’s premier fighter in the ETO from the summer of 1944 up to VE Day, the first three Me 262s downed by USAAF fighters fell to Thunderbolts. On 2 October 1944, 21-year-old Capt Valmore J Beaudrault was leading a flight of P-47s that was bounced by a Me 262. After a chase in and out of clouds, Beaudrault entered a low-level scissors engagement with Oberfeldwebel Hieronymous Lauer from 3./KG 51 until the wingtip of his Me 262 struck the ground, sending it into a fiery cartwheel. This was the first jet to be shot down by a Ninth Air Force fighter.
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P-51D-10 44-14164 DETROIT Miss of 1Lt Urban ‘Ben’ Drew, 375th FS/361st FG, Little Walden, October 1944
In mid-September 1944, 1Lt Urban ‘Ben’ Drew had his first encounter with an Me 262 near Hamm, in Germany. Although his Mustang hit 500 mph in the dive from 20,000 ft, Drew could not close on the jet in order to open fire. On 7 October the 361st FG was near Achmer when Drew spotted two Me 262s taking off. Diving on the pair of jets from 15,000 ft, and with flak exploding all around him, he fired a burst that caused the first jet to explode directly in front of him – Drew flew straight on right through the fireball. The second jet broke to the left, and Drew racked his Mustang into a 6G turn at 400 mph. As his vision began to fade Drew opened fire and ‘walked’ his tracer rounds up the fuselage until they slammed into the cockpit, shattering the canopy and sending the jet down in an inverted spin. In less than 60 seconds Drew had shot down two jet fighters, becoming the first of only two USAAF pilots to achieve the feat. At A84 Chièvres, in Belgium, on 4 April 1945, 44-14164 was subsequently written off in a wheels-up belly landing, the fighter having suffered engine failure in flight.
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P-47D-28 42-28442 of 2Lt Huie Lamb, 82nd FS/78th FG, Duxford, October 1944
On 15 October 1944 2Lt Huie Lamb, flying as wingman to Capt John I Brown, spotted an Me 262 near Hanover. Unable to acquire the jet himself, Brown gave Lamb permission to attack it. Lamb activated his fighter’s water injection in the dive, and the P-47 was indicating 525 mph when he levelled out at an altitude of just 100 ft. His opponent, Fahnenjunker-Feldwebel Edgar Junghans of I./KG 51, made a hard left turn in an attempt to drag Lamb over a nearby airfield in the hope that defending flak batteries would shoot the pursuing American down. Although Lamb’s P-47 did indeed take a number of hits, he stuck to the Me 262 long enough to fire a telling burst into its left engine, which sent it crashing into the ground. Although Lamb never ‘made ace’, on 19 March 1945 he received a half credit for the destruction of an Ar 234, making him one of just 13 USAAF pilots to score multiple jet kills.
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P-51D-5 44-13317 of Capt Freddie Glover, 336th FS/4th FG, Debden, November 1944
By early November 1944, seven USAAF fighter groups had claimed 12 German jets, but the 4th FG, the famed Debden ‘Eagles’, was not among them. On 2 November, however, ace Capt Freddie Glover shot down an Me 163 from 2./JG 400 with a quick burst from 400 yards. On that day Glover was flying Capt Donald Emerson’s Mustang, which had originally boasted ‘Donald Duck’ nose art as seen here. By the time of Glover’s victory over the Komet it is likely that the famous nose art had been removed, so 44-13317 is depicted here as it appeared when Glover flew the fighter in August 1944. The Mustang was lost on 18 March 1945 when it suffered engine failure and crashed east of Fordham, Cambridgeshire, the pilot successfully bailing out.
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P-51D-15 44-15028 Red Dog of Capt Louis Norley, 335th FS/4th FG, Debden, November 1944
Moments after Capt Glover downed his Komet, fellow ace Capt Louis Norley latched onto another Me 163 that was not using its rocket motor and quickly overshot the fighter. He pulled up and closed in for another attack just as the pilot, Oberfeldwebel Jakob Bollenrath of 1./JG 400, belatedly ignited the rocket motor. Norley fired several bursts and saw strikes on the tail that caused the Komet to roll over and crash into a village, the aircraft exploding on impact with the ground. Subsequently 44-15028 was passed on to the 359th FS/356th FG.
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P-51D-5 44-11161 June Nite of Capt Ernest Fiebelkorn, 77th FS/20th FG, Kings Cliffe, November 1944
On 8 November 1944 Capt Ernest Fiebelkorn was leading ‘Yellow’ Flight near Lake Dummer when he spotted an Me 262 and then chased it at low altitude until a pair of P-51s from the 364th FS/357th FG cut him off as the jet turned and began to climb towards the clouds. Moments later it came spinning out of the clouds and crashed, taking the life of high-scoring ace Major Walter Nowotny. Although Fiebelkorn never fired on Nowotny’s jet, he shared credit in the downing of the Me 262 with 1Lt Edward Haydon of the 357th FG. This was Fiebelkorn’s ninth, and final, victory of the war. Subsequently assigned to the 20th FG’s 55th FS, 44-11161 was destroyed when it crashed on take-off from Kings Cliffe on 13 June 1945.
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P-51D-44-15041 PETIE 3RD of Lt Col John Meyer, 487th FS/352nd FG, Y29 Asch, Belgium, December 1944
On 31 December 1944, the day before he scored his 24th and 25th victories, 352nd FG deputy CO Lt Col John Meyer was leading the 328th FS on a patrol (in his assigned Mustang, which was maintained by the 487th FS) when an Ar 234 was detected by fighter controllers on radar. This aeroplane was duly damaged by future jet killer Capt Donald Bryan before he broke off his attack when Meyer spotted a second Arado bomber closing on the tail of the pursuing Mustang. Meyer chased the second Ar 234 without success, before eventually firing on a third Arado. Even though he observed no hits, Meyer claimed, and was awarded, credit for downing the first Ar 234 to fall to the USAAF.
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P-51D-15 44-15026 CATHY MAE/“KARGER’S DOLLIE” of 1Lt Dale Karger, 364th FS/357th FG, Leiston, January 1945
By the middle of January 1945, the 357th FG had only scored 3.5 aerial victories over Luftwaffe jets. On the 20th of that month the 364th FS swept an area 50 miles southeast of Heilbronn, in Germany, after 3rd Air Division B-17s had hit railway marshalling yards. Near Munich 19-year-old 1Lt Dale Karger and his wingman chased an Me 262 and, using the K-14 gunsight, the future ace fired a burst from long range that shattered the jet’s canopy, forcing the pilot to bail out. This was Karger’s fifth victory, making him the youngest jet killer in the USAAF. He finished the war with 7.5 aerial victories. His mount on this occasion is unknown, for his assigned fighter, 44-15026, had been shot down by flak southwest of Paderborn on 10 January, killing 1Lt Fred McCall.
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P-51D-15 44-15630 JUNIOR MISS of Capt James Browning, 363rd FS/357th FG, Leiston, February 1945
During the 9 February 1945 escort mission flown by the 357th FG, seven-victory ace Capt James Browning was at the controls of 44-15630, which was normally flown by 1Lt Glenwood Zarnke, rather than his assigned P-51D-15 44-14937. Near the village of Fulda, a flight of four Me 262s was called out below the Mustangs from the 363rd, and Browning dived on the jets. During the engagement he collided with the aircraft flown by Oberstleutnant Volprecht Freiherr von Riedesel, commander of KG(J) 54, and both aircraft crashed 60 miles east of the target area. No one in the squadron saw what happened and the details of Browning’s fate remained a mystery for five decades.
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P-51D-15 44-15422 of Capt Donald Bochkay, 363rd FS/357th FG, Leiston, February 1945
Capt Donald Bochkay was flying as wingman to Capt Browning on the 9 February mission that cost the latter his life. When Browning bounced the quartet of Me 262s Bochkay latched on to one and fired a well-aimed burst that caused the jet to slow considerably. He broke right to avoid colliding with the Me 262, which rolled over and went straight in. Bochkay heard Browning’s last transmission that he was covering him, but he never saw his flight leader again. The jet was Bochkay’s 13th aerial victory, and his final kill of the war was another Me 262, which he downed on 18 April 1945. Six days after Bochkay’s first jet victory, 44-15422 was badly damaged in a wheels-up belly landing at
Leiston when the fighter suffered engine failure.
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P-51D-5 44-13818 MAH IDEEL of 2Lt Dudley Amoss, 38th FS/55th FG, Wormingford, February 1945
On 15 February 1945, Amoss was flying one of more than 500 fighters escorting bombers to oil industry targets. Spotting an Me 262 below his flight, Amoss dived on the jet and caught the German completely by surprise. His first burst struck the engines and the second, from just 200 yards astern of the fighter, caused it to explode. Despite this, somehow the pilot still managed to bail out. On 21 March, Amoss ‘made ace’ by destroying three Fw 190s, only to be shot down by flak near Hopsten airfield minutes later. He spent the rest of the war as a PoW. By then 44-13818 had been lost in action, the fighter crashing on 2 March near Limburg, in Germany. Its pilot, 2Lt Samuel Anderson, was killed.
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La-7 ‘White 27’ of Maj Ivan Kozhedub, 176th GIAP, Germany, February 1945
On 19 February 1945, Maj Ivan Kozhedub and his wingman were patrolling an area south of Frankfurt when they spotted an unidentified aircraft flying down the River Oder. As the pair turned in behind the fighter in their La-7s, they identified it as an Me 262. Kozhedub approached with stealth, but his wingman fired too early, which caused the jet’s pilot to break to the left. Kozhedub opened fire with his 20 mm cannon, causing the jet to disintegrate in mid-air. This was Ivan Kozhedub’s 55th of 62 aerial victories – a tally that made him the highest scoring Allied pilot of the war. His La-7 had been issued new to him in late 1944 as a replacement for another aircraft, and he kept it through to war’s end. The fighter was saved for display post-war as part of the Victory against Fascism programme, which preserved historically significant weapons from World War 2. It has been displayed at the Central Air Force Museum at Monino Airfield, east of Moscow, for many years.
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P-51K-5 44-11628 Worra Bird 3/Bashful Betsy of Capt Donald Bryan, 486th FS/352nd FG, A84 Chièvres, Belgium, March 1945
After coming away from three late-1944 engagements with the Ar 234 with just a single ‘damaged’ claim to his name, Capt Donald Bryan finally downed an Arado bomber flying Capt G A Middleton’s P-51K 44-11628 (which had previously served with the 343rd FS/55th FG) on 14 March 1945. Spotting the aeroplane near the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen, he fired almost all of his ammunition in an extended chase that only came to an end when both of the jet’s engines began smoking. As they failed, the Ar 234 rolled over onto its back and Bryan saw the pilot jettison the canopy, but he did not get out. This victory brought Bryan’s final wartime tally to 13.333, making him the second highest scorer in the 328th FS.
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P-51D-15 44-15521 SCREAMIN DEMON of Capt Ray Wetmore, 370th FS/359th FG, East Wretham, March 1945
Following Capt Arthur Jeffrey’s initial victory over the Me 163 on 29 July 1944, USAAF fighter pilots shot down a further four Komets. On 15 March 1945, the 359th FG was escorting a formation of bombers at 25,000 ft near Wittenberg when Capt Ray Wetmore spotted a pair of Me 163s 5000 ft below his section of Mustangs. As he attempted to bounce the rocket fighters, the German pilots saw his Mustang and pulled up into a 70-degree climb. They then nosed their aircraft over and headed for home in a steep dive that saw Wetmore push his Mustang to nearly 600 mph. He fired a number of bursts that blew half the left wing off one of the Komets, forcing the pilot to bail out. This was the final Me 163 to fall to USAAF guns. Having initially served with the 350th FS/353rd FG, 44-15521 was eventually written off on 7 September 1945 when it suffered engine failure and crashed near Great Massingham, in Norfolk.
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P-51D-15 44-15717 WILD WILL of Maj Niven Cranfill, 368th FS/359th FG, East Wretham, March 1945
When Maj Niven Cranfill took off from East Wretham on 19 March 1945, he had four aerial victories to his credit, three of which had been scored on a single mission. South of Dessaun Cranfill helplessly watched as ten Me 262s attacked a formation of B-17s. After shooting a jet off a P-51’s tail, Cranfill bounced another Me 262, firing several bursts from 800 down to 600 yards and getting good hits. The jet rolled into a diving left turn and went straight in. Cranfill received credit for one Me 262 damaged and one destroyed, making him an ace.
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P-51D 44-63621 LITTLE SHRIMP of Maj Robert Foy, 363rd FS/357th FG, Leiston, March 1945
On 19 March 1945 the 363rd FS was escorting B-17s to targets in the Ruhland. Near Giessen, Maj Robert W Foy spotted three Me 262s bouncing a flight of Mustangs. He went in pursuit of one of the aircraft, but it quickly began to accelerate out of range. Using his K-14 gunsight to good effect, Foy fired a long range burst that set the left engine on fire and the jet rolled over and crashed near an airfield. Foy officially finished the war a triple ace with 15 victories, and one of the two aircraft he was credited with damaging was an Me 262.
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P-51D (sub-type and serial number unknown) BUNNIE of 1Lt Roscoe Brown, 100th FS/332nd FG, Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945
On 24 March 1945, the Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd FG flew their longest mission of the war – a 1600-mile round trip to Berlin, where they encountered a force of 25 Me 262s. During a ten-minute dogfight 1Lt Roscoe C Brown shot down a jet fighter from 10./JG 7. During the fight two other Tuskegee Airmen scored confirmed victories, with a third claiming a probable. Brown never ‘made ace’, but he certainly made the most of his one encounter with an Me 262.
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P-47M-1 44-21160 “Devastatin Deb” of Maj George Bostwick and Capt John Fahringer, 63rd FS/56th FG, Boxted, March/April 1945
The P-47M was the fastest piston-engined fighter of World War 2, Republic building just 133 examples – dubbed ‘Sprint’ Thunderbolts and fitted with the Pratt & Whitney R-2800-57 engine rated at 2800 hp with water injection at 32,500 ft – in an attempt to give USAAF pilots a chance of catching the Me 262. The 56th FG received the first of 108 examples of the ultimate Thunderbolt on 3 January 1945. Although the M-model proved mechanically challenging in service, 44-21160 showed its effectiveness by shooting down two Me 262s. The first was claimed on 25 March 1945 when Maj George E Bostwick ‘made ace’ when he shot down a jet that was attempting to land at Parchim airfield. On 5 April, an Me 262 pilot made the fatal mistake of getting into a turning fight with Capt John C Fahringer, who quickly despatched the jet, forcing the pilot to bail out. This was Fahringer’s fourth, and final, victory of the war.
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P-51D-20 44-63668 LIVE BAIT of Capt Clayton Gross, 355th FS/354th FG, Y64 Ober Olm, Germany, April 1945
On 14 April 1945, five-victory ace Capt Clayton K Gross spotted a single Me 262 near Alt Lönnewitz airfield and split-essed into a full throttle dive from 12,000 ft in pursuit of the aeroplane. He was nearly killed when his Mustang was gripped by compressibility as he exceeded 450 mph, but Gross managed to pull out ‘on the deck’. His overtaking speed was so great that he only managed to fire a quick, albeit well-aimed, burst before overshooting. His fire blew the jet’s left wingtip off, forcing its pilot – probably Gefreiter Kurt Lobgesang of 1./JG 7 – to bail out. This was the sixth and final victory for Capt Gross. His aircraft, 44-63668, was subsequently passed on to the 338th FS/55th FG and then transferred to the 308th FS/31st FG, before being sold to the Swiss Air Force as J-2087. It was eventually acquired by the Nicaraguan Air Force in the 1950s and written off there.
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P-51D-20 44-64147 BIG DICK of Capt Richard Hewitt, 82nd FS/78th FG, Duxford, April 1945
In the final weeks of the war there was seemingly no slacking in Luftwaffe jet operations, and on 17 April Capt Richard Hewitt and his wingman, multiple jet killer 1Lt Allen Rosenblum, chased a pair of Me 262s to an airfield in Prague, where Hewitt shot down one of the fighters on short finals for his fifth victory. However, Rosenblum was shot down over the same field and became a PoW, and as there was no clear gun camera film from Hewitt’s Mustang, his ace-making victory was listed as unofficial and remains so to this day. Post-war, 44-64147 was transferred to the Italian Air Force.
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P-47D-28 42-28453 The Irish Shillalah of 1Lt James Finnegan, 10th FS/50th FG, Y90 Giebelstadt, Germany, April 1945
On 25 April 1945 American and French B-26s were heading into southern Germany, escorted by P-47s, when they were subjected to a devastating attacked by five Me 262s from JV 44 that were being led by unit CO, Generalleutnant Adolf Galland. As he attacked the Marauders, Galland’s fighter was hit by a burst of defensive fire from TSgt Henry Dietz, a waist gunner on board Capt Gunther Gurkin’s B-26 from the 34th BS/17th BG. From above, 1Lt James E Finnegan saw the jets and immediately pursued Galland’s ailing Me 262, firing two well aimed bursts that finished the fighter off. Depite being wounded, Galland managed to belly land his jet back at Munich-Riem airfield.
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Tempest V JN817/JF-H of Flt Lt A E Umbers, No 3 Sqn, B80 Volkel, Holland, 21 October 1944
New Zealander Flt Lt Arthur ‘Spike’ Umbers had achieved several victories flying the Typhoon IB with No 486 Sqn in 1942-43, and after joining Tempest V-equipped No 3 Sqn in 1944 he became a V1 ace. After moving with the unit to the Continent, he made one of the first jet claims by a Tempest V pilot when, at the controls of this aircraft, he damaged an Me 262 near Nijmegen on 21 October 1944. Unlike Umbers, who was shot down and killed by flak while leading No 486 Sqn as its CO during an attack on Meppen airfield on 14 February 1945, JN817 survived the war.
Allied Jet Killers of World War 2 Page 13