JG-7 continued the legacy of jet fighters, with some of its stellar members scoring most if not all of their jet kills in the Me 262. However, they also fell victim to their opponents. All pilots knew that altitude was life insurance, although nothing in war is perfect. The Germans also knew that they were most vulnerable during takeoff and landing, and the approach to an airfield was usually a white-knuckled approach for even the most seasoned Luftwaffe veteran, as demonstrated by Dorr and Jones, regarding an Me 262 strafing American troops near Duren on February 22, 1945. The classic “bounce” from higher altitude is chronicled, when pilots of the 388th Squadron of the Hell Hawks responded to the frantic calls from a ground controller:
“‘Any P-47s in the air south of Aachen, we need some help!’ Two Red Flight Thunderbolts were aggressively but vainly pursuing the Me 262 as it headed back into Germany. White Flight leader, 1st Lt. Oliven T. Cowan in Touch Me Not, angled to intercept, but the German pilot sighted the pursuit and fled east at high speed, just above the tree tops.
“Cowan and his wingman rolled in on the jet from eleven thousand feet. ‘I pushed everything forward,’ wrote Cowan. His howling Pratt & Whitney R-2800 using water injection soon had him indicating 530 miles per hour in the dive. The jet’s pilot apparently never saw Cowan, coming in with the sun at his back. Cowan shallowed his dive, lined up the target, and fired.
“At his first burst, the 262 disappeared beneath Cowan’s nose, just three feet off the deck. The pilot, from Lowell, North Carolina, instantly eased his stick forward for another shot. As the jet popped into view above the Thunderbolt’s cowling, Cowan saw the Messerschmitt slam into the ground. A puff of black smoke—no flame—and scattered bits and pieces of wreckage were all that remained of the Messerschmitt. Cowan had used altitude and the Thunderbolt’s superb diving ability to catch the speedy enemy. His downing of the enemy was the 175th aerial victory for the Hell Hawks, and it came exactly a year after the group had flown its first combat mission in the European Theater.”{9}
During March 1945, Me 262 fighter units were thus able, for the first time, to deliver large-scale attacks on Allied bomber formations with some success. For example, on March 18, 1945, thirty-seven Me 262s of JG-7 intercepted a force of 1,221 bombers and 632 escorting fighters. They shot down twelve bombers and one fighter for the total loss of three Me 262s with three more damaged, but repaired.
March 31, 1945, was an interesting day for the pilots of JG-7, when I and II./JG-7 combined to claim eight Lancasters and three Halifaxes in one mission, another six kills scored later that day against another formation. In the words of Walter Schuck: “This was one of the most successful days in the history of Jagdgeschwader 7: even more welcome than almost twenty victories was the fact that they had not cost us a single casualty.”{10}
The jet pilots from JG-7 and KG-54 had in fact, during the entire day, actually carved seventeen Lancasters out of the sky, for a loss of four JG-7 jets (one pilot killed, one safe, two missing) and one each from I and II./KG-54, with a pilot safely bailed out, and Oberleutnant Dr. Oberweg killed in action, respectively. When JG-7 finished the war it had the most impressive record of all jet units in air-to-air kills, but the unit paid a heavy price for that success.
CHAPTER 17
Allied Forces Fight Back
Once [the enemy] learned about our great weaknesses, they were able to smash the hell out of us.
The standard approach against bomber formations, which were traveling at cruise speed, called for the Me 262 to approach the bombers from the rear at a higher altitude, diving in below the bomber’s flight level to get additional speed before gaining altitude again and, on reaching the bomber’s level, opening fire with its four 30 mm cannons at 600-meter (656-yard) range. Some of the jet pilots mastered the art as stated by Krupinski:
“However, this was only successful if you could do it very quickly, since the closing speed was fast, perhaps seven hundred miles per hour, giving perhaps a split second to fire into your target. The great benefit was that it greatly reduced the amount of defensive fire they received during the attack. Eder and Mayer were very good, and I knew Eder had shot down a few bombers in the jet, and even hitting some fighters.”{1}
Allied bomber gunners, even when flying in their tight “box” formations, found that their electric gun turrets had problems tracking the jets, as they were too slow while revolving. Target acquisition was also quite difficult because the jets closed into firing range quickly and could fly into a good firing position only briefly. Bomber losses started to mount slightly since early 1944, when the first complete groups of P-51 Mustang fighters began long-range escorts of the bomber formations. This occurred for a variety of reasons, not just due to the new jets, but the jets were making an impact.
However, the gunners on the bombers did on occasion score some damage upon the jet fighters. One memorable event that Eder experienced was recounted during an interview when JG-7 attacked a B-17 formation late in 1944 before Christmas: “Unfortunately, the gunners hit my right engine, which just stopped, and the canopy shattered. The tail was shot up as I banked right and pulled up, and then I felt many strikes along the underside, just under my armor plated seat. Then I lost power, the left engine blew up internally, and I was flying nothing more than a heavy glider and out of control. I decided to try and roll the fighter upside right, stabilize it, and then roll slightly after dumping the canopy. This would then allow me to pull up, bleed off airspeed, and climb out to jump clear of the tail section, which was the preferred method, and I was used to it.
“As I did this and climbed out, a large bang shook the fighter, and instead of jumping clear I was blown free of the 262; the fuel cells had been ruptured, I guess. I do remember that as my body flew past the dead plane, I looked up and saw there was no tail section at all. I was later told by Franz Schall that when I pulled up I collided with a P-51, the one he shot down, in fact, with the American’s propeller cutting my tail almost off. The P-51 had been shooting me up the whole time with Franz on his tail firing at him, with some of his thirty-millimeter rounds hitting me, which explained the heavy strikes I felt. He asked me if I wanted the victory. I told him no, he could keep it, but that he should claim two, as I was also one of his victims. He said, ‘No, the gunners on that bomber got you first.’”{2}
Attacking bombers was the prime role of the jet fighters; with their collective armament of cannons and rockets, they could wreak havoc on formations, and then, if unscathed in the effort, return for additional passes and elude the enemy fighters protecting the formations. However, this did not always work. Allied pilots had learned to develop their own tactics and work as a team in attacking the jets. This method was to pay off many times. Merle Olmsted provided an example:
“Sometime in December or January, Colonel Irwin Dregne, commander of the 357th Fighter Group, analyzed the meager information on the 262 tactics and wrote the following: “It was found that a flight of four P-51s could box in an Me 262 and prevent it from evading. This tactic is being developed by the Group and will be used when possible. It is considered that if P-51s have initial advantage of altitude and position and a numerical superiority of 4 to 1, jet-propelled planes can be destroyed on every encounter.”{3}