Schuck and his group closed in on another formation of B-17s. Again he aimed at the engines when he opened fire at one of the bombers. The impact of the 30mm cannons was terrible. The giant bomber immediately slopped over and went down. On the next attack 30mm cannons immediately set the bomber burning and then one of the wings was torn off, making this his fourth kill in succession. Second Lieutenant James W. McAfee’s B-17 of 398th Bomb Group was only seconds away from the drop point and already had the bomb bays open when the Me 262s attacked. The 30mm cannon shells hit from astern, blew the tail fin apart, shredded the waist gunner Sgt. Felix H. Tichenor and tore an arm off the ball turret gunner Sgt. Haskell Boyes.
Staff Sergeant Frank E. Lewis remembers that he got a sight of “the horrible scene” where the waist gunner had been massacred by the cannon shells, before he himself got out through the entrance hatch. Three other crew members managed to get out. The tail gunner Max W. Paxton came down safely in his parachute but was killed by German civilians on the ground. The pilot, 2nd Lt. McAfee, his co-pilot, 2nd Lt. Donald J. Jones, and Flight Engineer Technical Sgt. Arthur J. Roit went down with the plane and were killed on impact. Staff Sergeant Lewis and Technical Sgt. Paul Krup were luckier; after bailing out they were captured by German troops.
The impact of Schuck’s ravaging among the heavy bombers was devastating. In a short while, four B-17s were blown out of the sky by Walter Schuck, and one of his pilots destroyed a fifth during the same pass. Schuck now had accumulated 206 aerial victories.
This was my 49th mission and, as it turned out, my last. I was in B Group led by Capt. Riemensnider, and I was filling number four position in Black Flight with Capt. “Dick” Tracy in the lead. Although there were originally four in the flight, numbers two and three aborted, so it was just Tracy and me. We took off at 1150 and rendezvoused with the bombers at 1341 over Osnabruck. All was going well to this point. The bombers visually bombed their targets at Oranienberg at 1438 with excellent results. Then all hell broke loose.
A swarm of Me 262s came barreling at us. I had visually locked onto an Me 262 slicing through the formation I was escorting. I saw Schuck’s cannon fire blow up his third B-17, then on to his fourth B-17, starting it afire. By this time I had rolled over and started down at him. I had about a 5,000-foot altitude advantage and with throttle wide open I was closing on him fast. As he came off his fourth kill, I pulled into his 6 o’clock position and let my .50-caliber machine guns blaze away. I got some good hits on his left wing and engine and saw some smoke. He went into a rolling turn to the right with me in hot pursuit and with Tracy close behind me. The jet headed for the deck, and as I quickly lost my speed advantage, he pulled out of range, disappearing into a cloud bank. Walter Schuck tells of how this mission ended for him:
Just when I had shot down the fourth bomber, I was attacked from the astern by a Mustang which came in from above. I noticed some hits in the left wing and turned to the right in a shallow dive with the Mustang pursuing me. I passed Berlin and after a while the left engine started to emit smoke. I then entered a low cloud bank and as I turned my head, I could see that I had managed to get away from the Mustang. With the engine starting to disintegrate I decided to bail out. My first attempt to get out failed. The air current was too strong. I pulled the stick and climbed from 1,500 metres to 1,800 metres. Then I grabbed the handle with both hands and with one foot I kicked the stick to one corner of the cockpit. The result was that the Me 262 tipped its nose and I was flung out of the cabin. Floating in the airspace, I entered a flat spin. As I rotated, my right arm extended in 90 degrees from the body, and the G forces were too strong to permit me to pull it back. Only by grabbing the sleeve of my leather jacket with my left hand was I able to pull back my right arm, so that I could pull the handle which enveloped the parachute. In the meantime, I had descended to only around 500 metres altitude. The jerk when the parachute unfolded above my head came only a few metres above the ground. Looking down I could see a field with a barbed wire fence which came closer and closer. Desperately, I kicked in the air and pulled the strings of the parachute. The parachute tipped over and I barely dived over the barbed wire. I flung my feet forward and violently hit the ground, spraining both ankles. Although I was in a state of shock, I quickly pulled the parachute together. I had heard that the American fighter pilots would come down to strafe bailed out pilots, aiming at their white parachutes. Then I just lay down.
I lost sight of the Me 262 as it entered the clouds, and I then looked over my left wing and saw a German airfield loaded with all types of aircraft. I called to Dick, “Do you see what I see?”
Dick responded, “Yes, let’s go!”
Tracy took over the lead; the airfield was several miles away so we descended to “cutting grass” level to gain some surprise. We did achieve surprise, and our first strafing pass was a breeze with each of us destroying two aircraft. By the time we came around for a second pass, airfield defenses were up and deadly. On the second strafing pass we each destroyed another aircraft. On the third pass, Tracy got hit just after destroying his fourth enemy aircraft while I went after a gun position. Tracy got a 20mm up the rear through the cockpit and into the engine. I saw a puff of smoke, engine fire, Tracy out, chute deployed and into a river.
This all occurred in a matter of a few seconds at about 300 feet as Dick was coming off target. At this time I decided to lower my seat and get as much armor behind me as possible and continued the attack. Being by myself, all the enemy guns were directed at me. On my fourth pass I destroyed a Ju 88 and set one of the three hangers afire. I also picked up a hit in the right wing, but it did not affect Josephine’s performance. With all those aircraft still left, I just couldn’t pull myself away and decided to make one more pass.
As I came in low and fast I zeroed in on a four-engine Fw 200 Condor. My six .50 calibers raked the huge bird, and it burst into a mass of flames. As I was coming in for the kill on the Condor, I felt a thud, and as I pulled off the target I felt another thud and saw a flash in my engine. I continued my climb off target and was able to make it up to about 10,000 feet. By then the engine had overheated and was smoking. I started manipulating throttle, mixture, and prop controls to get the best I could out of the engine.
I knew that Josephine had it and that I needed to decide which way to go. East toward the Russians or west toward the Americans? While deciding, I called Colonel Montgomery, Group Leader, reported Tracy and my situation, and gave him directions to the German airfield. As I was leaving the target area, I could see a gaggle of P-51s headed toward the airfield to finish what Tracy and I had started.
I decided to head west. We had been briefed that American forces were fighting in the Magdeberg area and figured they were less than 100 miles away. When I was about 15 miles from Magdeberg I saw an Fw 190 coming into my three o’clock position. He was firing his guns and a volley of rockets and fortunately missed. By this time I was descending below 1,000 feet, the aircraft was burning, and I was unable to keep it flying. I was losing altitude fast, and I decided to bail out.
I unstrapped myself and ditched the canopy, looked at the altimeter, and saw I was passing 500 feet. I thought, “Crap, this is too low to bail out,” and I started looking for a place to belly it in. Then I realized I was unstrapped and would kill myself bellying it, so I went over the side at about 300 feet. All this thought process took place in a matter of seconds and when I went over the side I thought again, “Crap! My mom is going to get a telegram about this,” and I remembered how badly she took it when my brother Paul was killed.