posted 04-21- 06:39 PM               

"Our job that day was to escort Mustangs carrying a bomb and a drop tank under their wings for attacking underground fuel facilities near Poznan, Poland. We provided top cover, flying at 35,000 feet, while the bomb-carrying Mustangs cruised below. On German radar we were mistaken for a fleet of unescorted heavy bombers, and the Luftwaffe scrambled every available fighter in East Germany and Poland. Andy and I were the first to see them coming; at fifty miles or more, they were a dark cloud moving toward us. "God almighty, there must be a hundred and fifty of them," Andy exclaimed. We couldn't believe our luck. Andy called for a turn left that put me in the lead; we punched our wing tanks and plowed right into the rear of this enormous gaggle of German fighters.

There were sixteen of us and over two hundred of them, but then more Mustangs from the group caught up and joined in. Christ, there were airplanes going every which way. I shot down two very quickly; one of the airplanes blew up, but the pilot bailed out of the other. I saw him jump, but he forgot to fasten his parachute harness; it pulled off in the windstream and he spun down to earth. To this day I can still see him falling.

A dogfight runs by its own clock and I have no idea how long I was spinning and looping in the sky. I wound up 2,000 feet from the deck with four kills. Climbing back to altitude, I found myself alone in an empty sky. But for as far as I could see, from Leipzig to way up north, the ground was littered with burning wreckage. It was an awesome sight

We found out later that we hadn't even attacked their main force; the Germans put up 750 fighters against what they thought was a huge bomber fleet. They ran into two hundred Mustangs from three different fighter groups and lost ninety-eight airplanes. We lost eleven."

posted 04-21- 08:37 PM               

Don't you love the line when there were 16 Mustangs and 150 Luftwaffe and he say "We couldn't believe our luck"! Man, I'd be pissing my pants.

Thanks Raider.

posted 04-21- 08:43 PM            

Ditto what Jerry said..

Hermann!! You got some 'splainin to do!

Werner

posted 04-23- 04:34 PM            

Still, I think my flight suit would need some serious cleaning after an encounter like that...