Yeager’s kill was confirmed, and it would appear that the pilot may have been Oberfeldwebel Freutzer, who managed to climb out of the wreckage and fly again. On this day, Kommando Nowotny lost the following Me 262s: work number 110402, when Oberfeldwebel Freutzer crash-landed near Ahlhorn; work number 110389, when Leutnant Spangenberg safely crash-landed low on fuel; work number 170045, when Oberfeldwebel Helmut Baudach safely crash-landed due to engine failure at Hesepe; and work number 110490, when Oberfeldwebel Helmut Lennartz safely crash-landed near Bremen after being damaged by Capt. Robert Foy of the 363rd Squadron, 357th Fighter Group.{28}
Robert Foy’s after-action report describes the event: “Just north of Achmer airdrome, I received a call on R/T at 1100 hours stating that bandits were engaged in area north of Osnabrück. I retraced my course and returned to the area. Flying at 10,000 feet, I saw five Me 262s at 8,000 feet; two of these were about 100 feet lower than the others. I dispatched Cement White and Green flights after the high enemy aircraft and turned to engage the low two Me 262s. The enemy aircraft were closing on two P-51s who were apparently unaware that they were about to be attacked.
“I dove on to the 262s and was closing when the tail-end 262 apparently saw me. He started a gradual climbing turn to the left, and it appeared he climbed at a steeper angle as he gained altitude. During the climb at an altitude of 15,000 feet, I was closing in on him and always gaining during the climb. He continued turning to the left, leveling off as he did so, and pulled away from me gradually. He continued to pull away going into a shallow dive on a straight course. He dived into the clouds and I immediately dove under the under cast.
“The two 262s appeared beneath the clouds and just ahead of me. I took chase but in level flight, their speed was obviously greater than ours. I followed them for several minutes and saw them land on an airfield just southwest of Bremen and very close to town. I hit the deck and started a run to strafe the field. Immediately a wall of flak came between myself and the airfield. I turned off to the right and passed over a small town named Mahndorf.
“I observed as I passed over the town that the houses closest to the airfield were used as gun positions [for machine guns]. I hung to the deck and made 180-degree turn in toward the field. It was during this run that I strafed two flak emplacements and one machine gun emplacement. The flak emplacement personnel were eliminated but heavy accurate fire from the other emplacements made it impossible to hit the field.”{29}
Foy saw two other 262s near Meppen ready for takeoff on the autobahn. These were definitely Kommando Nowotny jets. Also during this time, 1st Lt. J. R. Voss of the 361st Fighter Group claimed one jet destroyed: “One suddenly turned into me and I opened fire. I saw my bullets hitting his canopy and he immediately peeled off and went into the ground.”{30} This account is perplexing when one looks at the actual loss records for all the Me 262 units. It is much more likely that Voss shot down an Ar 234, which would have been operating in that area.
The defining moment for Kommando Nowotny was to arrive and would forever change the dynamics of continued German jet operations. Foy’s description of events was becoming all too familiar to Me 262 and other jet aircraft pilots. Generaloberst Alfred Keller (a World War I Pour le Mérite recipient, as well as a Knight’s Cross holder, and who was already retired in 1943) and Generalmajor Adolf Galland had scheduled an inspection of the jets at Achmer for the afternoon of November 7, 1944.
Generaloberst Günther Korten (Keller’s replacement) was already there to investigate the reports of possible sabotage of engines and fuel quality. Galland had already visited Kommando Nowotny several times and was deeply concerned over the high attrition rate and meager success achieved by the Me 262. Georg-Peter Eder recalled the event of the visit by the generals: “After inspecting the two airfields at Achmer and Hesepe, he [Galland] stayed in the Penterknapp barracks discussing the problems of the past few weeks. Several of the pilots had openly expressed their doubts as to the readiness of the Me 262 for combat operations, mainly due to the engines, replacement parts, fuel shortages, you name it.
“We were flying the most advanced aircraft in the world, but were on a short leash. We were outnumbered perhaps one hundred to one every time we went up, and that does not count the bombers. Sometimes we had five or six jets for a mission. There were that many American or British fighters hanging around our airfields during daylight and maybe four to five hundred enemy fighters passed by during the day, every day. It was incredible, and morale was still high among all of us.”{31}
But fate was to play a cruel joke on Galland and almost jeopardize the Me 262 fighter concept.
CHAPTER 14
The Death of Nowotny
When ‘Nowi’ died I just stood there. It was as if at that very moment, the future of Germany was clear to me.
Galland was pleased that Hitler loved his choice of Nowotny to command the first operational jet fighter unit, and the dashing Austrian was a natural commander. Nowotny’s career and command was to come to an abrupt end, as Galland explained:
“I arrived on that evening [November 7, 1944] to inspect the unit and write a report, plus I spoke with Nowotny that previous evening, and he was going to give me his pilots’ reports concerning their actions for the previous three weeks. The next day [November 8] a flight of American bombers was reported heading our way, and the air raid warning went up. Nowotny smiled and ordered the jets warmed up, and so the unit took off, about six jets, if I remember correctly, in the first wave, then another.”
The day started off with a bad omen, when four Me 262s were prepared for takeoff, Oberfeldwebel Erich Büttner and Major Franz Schall at Hesepe, and Nowotny and Oberleutnant Günther Wegmann at Achmer. At first only Schall and Wegmann managed to take off without any problems, because Büttner had punctured a tire during taxiing and Nowotny’s engines refused to start. Galland recalled the event:
“Nowotny wanted to take off, and had to use a spare aircraft, if I recall, but I could be mistaken. The Fw 190Ds remaining on the ground were waiting on the runway to take off and cover their return, while an additional flight was already airborne, engaging the Allied fighters escorting the bombers, which were sure to follow the jets back to base. I was in the operations shack with [Luftwaffe chief of staff] Generaloberst [Günther] Korten and Eder, and we all stepped outside, where we monitored the radio transmissions over the loud speaker and could get an idea of what was happening.” Also present was Generaloberst Alfred Keller.
Nowotny did take off in his White 8, work number 110400, for the first planned sortie, though that jet was down for an engine replacement. The engine replacement was eventually completed so he could finally take off. He engaged the enemy on his own, with Schall and Wegmann having since retired from the action after sustaining battle damage. Nowotny radioed that he had downed a bomber and a P-51 before he reported one engine failing and made one final garbled transmission containing the word “burning,” as Galland again mentioned: