An hour and thirty-five minutes later at 1341, the fighters of the 20th Fighter Group rendezvoused with their bombers over Osnabruck. Through radio monitoring the Germans knew about this buildup even before the bombers took off. From Osnabrück, 1st Air Division’s bomber stream turned slightly to the left. Heading 70 degrees the aircraft climbed higher and higher as they pushed into German-controlled territory. The two other bomber forces, the 2nd and 3rd Air Divisions with over 800 heavy bombers, would carry out their attacks slightly ahead of the 1st Air Division. These flew against Rechlin and Parchim in the north, against Burg and Zerbst in the south, and with a force of 372 heading for Brandenburg-Briest. The most advanced bombers were the 147 Flying Fortresses of the 3rd Air Division, which went straight against Burg in the south. Both Oberleutnant Stehle’s Staffel and Me 262s of KG(J) 54 scrambled from this place. These fighters were first to intercept the Americans at around 1415 hours and shot down a couple of B-17s. But the Me 262s were too few.
Not many minutes later the bombers arrived over Burg, where they dropped 438 tons of bombs, which completely destroyed the airfield. Hangars and workshops were destroyed, the runway ploughed up by bombs, and sixty aircraft were destroyed on the ground—including ten Me 262s. Meanwhile, the alarm was sounding at the jet airfields at Rechlin-Lärz, Parchim, Brandenburg-Briest, and Oranienburg.
At 1415 hours, the Me 262s of IX./JG 7 and X/JG 7 scrambled from Parchim in the north. U.S. fighters attacked the jets as they were taking off, and two were shot down. Fifteen minutes later, Liberators of the 2nd Air Division bombed Parchim. Later, the damage inflicted on the runway caused a landing Me 262 to overturn and explode. The pilot was immediately killed. His name was Franz Schall, an Oberleutnant with 133 aerial victories on his account.
Some forty miles farther to the southeast, Liberators and Flying Fortresses completely destroyed Rechlin-Lärz aerodrome, with sixty-four aircraft put out of commission on the ground. III./JG 7 took into the air to meet them, but the Me 262s were forced to defend themselves against the large numbers of escort fighters. Fähnrich Pfeiffer claimed the only B-17 destroyed, while two Mustangs and a Thunderbolt were reported shot down. Oberleutnant Walter Wever, the Knight’s Cross holder who commanded VII./JG 7, was killed when his Me 262 was shot down near Stendal.
The 372 B-17s from the 3rd Air Division that were tasked to attack Brandenburg-Briest—of which only 138 were able to complete the attack—were intercepted by Me 262s from Stab/JG 7 and I./JG 7, flying singly. Oberleutnant Hans Grünberg, a former JG 3 ace who ended the war with eighty-two victories, attacked a formation of B-17, which had just bombed Brandenburg-Briest, and shot down two. Taking part in the raid against Brandenburg-Briest, 486th BG lost two and 487th BG four B-17s, most of them due to the concentrated AAA fire. In return, I./JG 7’s Gefreiter Heim and Feldwebel Schwarz were shot down and killed.
One of Germany’s top aces with 202 confirmed aerial victories, Oberleutnant Walter Schuck, commanded the Me 262s of III./JG7 operating out of Oranienberg. At about the same time as the bombers left the English coast, Walter Schuck was instructed to put his seven Me 262 pilots on cockpit alert.
It was a beautiful, sunny, spring day with a clear blue sky. A perfect day for flying. The entire 1st Air Division was heading toward the airfield at Oranienberg along with about 290 P51s providing escort. The whole airspace over Germany was dominated by Allied air. The bulk of the Luftwaffe had been diverted to the Eastern Front to counteract the advancing Russians. About all that was left to defend Germany from the massive bombing attacks were a handful of Me 262s.
In contrast to most of the other fifty-five Me 262s that scrambled against the American bombers, Schuck managed to hold his seven jet fighters together as they shot higher and higher into the blue sky from Oranienburg. Ground control guided them against a large mass of heavy bombers that approached Oranienburg from the northwest at an altitude of 25,000 feet. Schuck managed to evade the Mustangs that crisscrossed the sky and made a wide turn that placed him and his compatriots behind the mass of bombers. Then he attacked!
Walter Schuck remembered the ruins in Hamburg when the nearest B-17 grew rapidly in size in front of his windscreen. He pressed the firing button. The 30mm cannons hammered, and in the next moment the whole giant tailfin of the bomber was dissolved by the exploding shells. Below, explosions and black billowing smoke showed that the bombs were falling over Oranienburg’s aerodrome. Schuck had to pull up to avoid a collision as his Me 262 raced through the bomber formation. Bringing his compatriots along, Schuck aimed at the wing of a bomber in another formation. A quick burst of fire, and as Schuck pulled up to avoid a collision, he caught a glimpse of the B-17 going down in flames.
It was the 303rd Bomb Group’s B-17G Serial No. 44-8427, call code VK-E. It had been baptized Henn’s Revenge in honor of the tail gunner Sgt. Thomas Henn, who had been severely injured by AAA shrapnel in January 1945. The pilot, 1st Lt. Robert “Boss” Murray, was piloting the “ship” on its 22nd combat mission when 30mm shells slammed into the two right engines. The Mission Narrative noted:
An unexpected attack by six to eight ME 262s was encountered just after departing the target. 303rd gunners claimed two destroyed. Henn’s Revenge was hit by the attacking Me 262s coming in on the tail. It burst into flames between the #3 and #4 engines, held course for a few seconds, peeled up, slid over and down to the right, through the formation, apparently out of control. Henn’s Revenge exploded at 2,000 feet and broke up into two main parts and crashed in the small Gross Glasaow Lake between Gross Schonebeck and Liebenwalde 20 km northeast of the target Oranienburg and about 28 km north-northwest of Berlin. A wing and engines fell in the upper part of the lake and the tail and part of the fuselage came down in the lower part of the lake. The wreckage could be seen 50 to 150 feet from the shore.
Seven of the crew members were immediately killed: Murray and his co-pilot 2nd Lt. Lawrence L. Fries, the navigator Flight Officer Harold S. Smith, the Spot Jammer Sgt. Gerald V. Atkinson, Technical Sgt. Theodore A. Bates, Sgt. Nicholas Rodock, and turret gunner Sgt. Robert P. Rennie. Staff Sergeant Vito J. Brunale and Technical Sgt. Carl O. Hammarlund managed to bail out, but only the former would survive. Hammarlund was shot to death by his German captors.
As Schuck pulled up to avoid a collision, his Me 262 raced through the bomber formation. Sergeant Alan Morton, in the top turret of another B-17, froze when he saw the Me 262. “Me 262 at five o’clock, closing fast!” Morton yelled through the intercom as he flipped on all gun switches. Precisely at that same instant, the entire Bomb Group formation was racked up hard left on its side turning off the target; desperately trying to slow down and slip behind them was this Me 262. Meanwhile, there was no way that Morton could react and turn his turret guns around on him. Finally, the Me 262 ended up sitting on the right wing tip of Morton’s B-17. The German and the American made eye contact for a full second, just 50 feet apart. Then the Me 262 increased speed and attacked another section of the bomber stream.