III./JG-7 was the primary unit to engage, and the American force lost fourteen B-17s shot down and four written off upon their return to base. One B-24 was lost. During the mission eight F-5 reconnaissance P-38s and four Spitfires were also lost. I./KG-51 was also active and they lost Feldwebel Joachim Fingerloos while he tried to land, shot up by 1st Lt. C. W. Mueller of the 353rd Fighter Group. Mueller nosed down his P-47 after sighting two jets, confirmed as an Me 262 and He 280. Mueller reported that he saw two men parachute from the jet, which was high enough for a bailout even though the wheels were down for the landing. This was undoubtedly the two-seat trainer aircraft (work number 170117, 9K+XL) that KG-51 lost.{7}
The 7th Photo Recon group lost an F-5 Lightning, and the only claim made by a German against a P-38 was Georg-Peter Eder, who shot and then collided with the aircraft, scoring the kill, while losing his jet, becoming wounded in the process, as he explained:
“I was flying this mission to intercept the bombers, but I never quite made it. I saw several aircraft in the distance, and immediately recognized the P-38 for what it was. These were fast aircraft, but I had no trouble closing the range from astern, and they saw me. This one guy broke right, two broke left and one guy decided to climb. This was unwise, as I pulled up to get him, and I fired, but my speed was so great I smashed into him, cutting the fighter in half, and my left engine died. I started to go into spin and decided to leave the 262. I was OK except for a head wound from slamming into the control panel after my restraining harness broke and the glass shattered, cutting me. I got the kill, but lost the jet.”{8}
October 7 saw JG-7 pilots intercept a B-24 formation over Magdeburg. Nowotny was unable to take off, but the JG-7 strike force was led by Oberleutnant Schall, Feldwebel Lennartz, and Oberfähnrich Heinz Russel, each pilot claiming a B-24 destroyed, and four Liberators did in fact fail to return from this mission. JG-7 lost two jets in the initial attack, when two P-47 pilots from the 479th Fighter Group, Col. Hubert Zemke and 1st Lt. N. Benoit, both shot down an Me 262. These were Oberleutnant Bley and Oberfähnrich Russel, who both bailed out.{9}
The second part of this grand show is detailed by Foreman and Harvey, which is quite interesting when compared to the statements by 1st Lt. Urban L. Drew of the 361st Fighter Group, leader supporting a B-17 group hitting Czechoslovakia. Drew’s contact occurred on the return leg near Osnabrück, when he saw two Me 262s taxiing and taking off, and his after-action report was as follows:
“I was leading decoy squadron when I went down to join a fight that was going on under the box of bombers behind our box. When I got there the fight had been dispersed, and I could not locate any E/A [enemy aircraft]. I had left my red section with the bombers, and I had just one flight with me due to a number of previous abortions. I couldn’t locate our bombers so I joined up with some red tailed B-17s that were short on escort fighters. I stayed with them until I spotted two A/C [aircraft] on the A/F [airfield] at Achmer. I watched them for a while and saw one of them start to taxi. The lead ship was in takeoff position on the east-west runway, and the taxiing ship got into position for a formation takeoff.
“I waited until both airborne, then rolled over from 15,000 feet and headed for the attack with my flight following and caught up with the second Me 262 when he was about 1,000 feet off ground. I was indicating 450 mph. Me 262 couldn’t have been going over 200 mph. I started firing from approximately 400 yards, 30 degrees deflection, and, as I closed, saw hits all over the wings and fuselage. Just as I passed him, I saw a sheet of flame come out near the right wing root and as I glanced back, I saw a gigantic explosion and a sheet of red flame over area of 1,000 feet.
“The other Me 262 was 500 yards ahead and had started a fast climbing turn to the left. I was still indicating 440 mph and had to haul back to stay with him. I started shooting from about 60 degrees deflection, and just hitting his tail section. I kept horsing back and hits crept up his fuselage to the cockpit. Just after that, I saw his canopy fly off in two sections, his plane roll over and go into a flat spin. He then hit the ground on his back at 60 degrees angle and exploded violently. I did not see the pilot bail out. Two huge columns of smoke came up from both Me 262s burning on the ground.{10}
“Immediately after shooting down the two Me 262s, the German antiaircraft opened up and it was a terrific barrage. I called to [1st Lt. Robert] McCandliss and ordered him to join up with me and take evasive action at treetop level. He admitted quite candidly in his report to me many years later, that since it was his sixteenth mission, and to that date, he had never had the opportunity to fire at the enemy, he disregarded my instructions and flew off to attack some antiaircraft batteries, destroying them. Unfortunately, he was not aware of the other batteries ringing Achmer, and they picked him off. The last time I saw his aircraft it was blazing from nose to tail and from wingtip to wingtip and I was calling over the RT ‘Roll and bail out, Mac, roll and bail.’ I did not see him bail out.”{11}
McCandliss, who was the only American witness to “Drew’s Two,” managed to escape his burning Mustang and became a prisoner of war by bailing out at very low altitude. One of these kills by Drew was Leutnant Gerhard Kobert, and the most likely candidate for the second kill was Hauptmann Heinz Arnold. (Eder’s postwar comments supported Drew, and through the efforts of German historian Hans Ring, Eder’s statement saw Drew awarded those two belated kills and decorated with the Air Force Cross, albeit thirty-nine years later. This event created the great friendship that emerged between Drew and Eder, which lasted until Eder died of cancer in 1986.)
On October 10, Kommando Nowotny was up despite the lack of any major bombing effort. The only units active were 36th Bomb Squadron that sent six B-24s in conjunction with a few other aircraft dropping leaflets over Holland. The 25th Bomb Group sent four Mosquitoes on a weather reconnaissance mission, while four B-24s did the same over the Atlantic approaches to the United Kingdom.{12}
Oberleutnant Paul Bley, who had bailed out the day of “Drew’s Two,” claimed a Mustang kill on this date, although it may have been a Spitfire from the 341 Squadron over Holland.{13} The only other fighters operating that day were sixteen P-47s and eight P-51s on an anti-submarine reconnaissance, nowhere near Bley’s operational area. Individual British units often flew lone weather or photographic reconnaissance missions, so this kill is not identified.{14}
On October 12, Oberfeldwebel Helmut Lennartz scored a kill over a RAF Mustang III from 129 Squadron, flown by a Warrant Officer Foster, who was reported missing in action. Later, Lennartz and Bley had to both dead stick land their jets at Bramsche and Steenwijk, respectively, due to fuel exhaustion.{15}
October 13 saw the RAF Tempest score its first kill over a 262 when Pilot Officer Bob Cole of 3 Squadron caught the Me 262 flown by Unteroffizier Edmund Delatowski short on fuel, blowing up the jet as the pilot bailed out slightly wounded. The four P-47s of the 356th Fighter Group also engaged chased-off jets going after four B-24s; no kills or claims were made by either side, although a 60th Squadron Mosquito flown by Lt. D. Sheldon and Flying Officer P. Snell was shot down, killing both men. The Me 262 that shot them down could only have been from Ekdo Lechfeld, since no other unit filed a claim against a Mosquito that day, and the pilot is still unknown to this day.{16}