13 October 1943
HQ, VIII Bomber Command, 8th AF
High Wycombe, England
General Eaker was pressing Maj.Gen. Anderson to commit to the follow-up raid on Schweinfurt within days but Anderson was faced with a bad week, having lost ninety bombers over the three missions from October 8th through the 10th, just when his group strength had finally recovered from the August mission. Anderson knew that with the continued mission pressure his forces would continue to be whittled away to a point where he would not be able to commit the desired force to Schweinfurt unless he acted quickly.
His hesitance to do so came from the reports of modified German tactics against the bombers. After their success in August against the American bombers, the Luftwaffe fighter wings had started to focus on specific bomb groups instead of spreading out though the bomber stream. This resulted in massive losses to the targeted Bomb Group, even while others may be left untouched. On the 10th, the Germans picked out the 100th Bomb Group, successfully taking down 12 of 13 planes the group sent in the formation. Anderson did not want to send his bombers on another deep penetration raid without round-trip escorts; but, if Eaker ordered it, Anderson would have no course but to comply and accept the massive losses expected.
In preparation for the Schweinfurt raid, Anderson and his staff had been working directly with the Mission Planners to ready the groups. Apart from the normal logistics of organizing the Bombardment Groups and ensuring they had the resources they needed the largest item on Anderson’s ticket was making sure his bomber-boys would have the escorts he knew they so desperately needed. For that, he had been in contact with VIII Fighter Command and had sent a liaison from the 91st Bombardment Group, 1st Bomb Wing, to work directly with the 78th FG to begin developing suitable full-penetration escort plans.
Two squadrons of the 78th Fighter Group, the 83rd and the 84th, were now fully operational with P-38H’s. The 82nd Fighter Squadron was still flying their P-47’s while they were getting rated for the Lightnings and waiting for more to arrive. The transition had been completed as quickly as possible and the training had been limited but as nearly all of the pilots of the 78th were already seasoned combat veterans a quick transition was considered an acceptable risk.
The 84th Fighter Squadron, now re-designated 84th Fighter Squadron (Twin-Engine), were the first to be fully rated and equipped with P-38’s. They had flown their first sweep along the Dutch coast on October 7th. The 83rd was ready on the 8th and joined the 84th on a sweep near Calais. They met minimal resistance but Anderson was sure the Nazi’s now knew some P-38’s were in England.
The 78th FG and the 91st BG flew two mock missions together in the past few days. After three consecutive days of combat raids, the 322nd Bomb Squadron led the 83rd and 84th FS on the 11th along a route which took them east to Bardsey Island, north to Prestwick, and back to East Anglia—a distance of just over 700 miles totaling about 3 ½ hours of flight time. This was repeated on the 12th by bombers of the 401st Bomb Squadron and the same P-38’s plus the P-38’s of the 338th Fighter Squadron from the 55th Fighter Group.
His Mission Planners had done quite a bit of work to figure out how to accommodate the P-38’s for full range escort. In looking at the Flight Operation Instruction Charts that Lockheed sent with the new airplanes the planners were initially excited that they may be able to send the escorts without drop tanks, thereby easing logistics, but that was based on the short-range escort planning they had performed in the past. Once they factored in the need for the fighters to patrol the length of the bomber stream for the entire mission duration they realized that it was the Endurance, rather than the Range, of the fighters that was most critical.
There were two routes planned to get the bombers to Schweinfurt. The northern route starts at Assembly Points near Southwold, heads southeast to cross the Dutch coast and enters Belgium north of Antwerp. The bombers on this route maintain their heading all the way into Germany the turn east to pass north of Frankfurt before making a quick southerly jaunt to reach the Initial Point of the Bomb run and pass the targets from the south west. Once the bombs were released they were to make a broad right turn to the south, then head west into France and northwest back to England.
The southern route route to Schweinfurt for the bombers would take them from the Assembly Points near Harwich, southeast through Belgium, penetrate Germany near Aachen then turn south-southeast to avoid the major anti-aircraft corridors inside the German border. They would stay on that heading for about forty minutes before turning east, near Trier. This would allow them to pass south of Frankfurt and north of Manheim, before turning northeast to the Initial Point and beginning the bomb run on Schweinfurt shortly after the bombers on the north route. Once their payloads were away, they would turn to follow the northern bombers on the same route back to England.
Each route would be about 950 nautical miles, or about 1100 statute miles, and would take the bombers about five and half hours after their initial assembly. The P-38’s could make 1300 miles after their initial climb on internal fuel alone, but with only a 4 hour endurance and at a pace that would leave the bombers far behind. When considering the mission time, instead of the mission distance, they determined the Lightning escorts would each need to carry an extra 280 gallons of external fuel in order to provide full coverage for the duration of the bombers’ flight.
The requirement for each Lighting to carry two 150 Gallon Drop Tanks presented its own problem: there was a very limited supply of the larger tanks available in England. Most the 150-165 gallon tanks had come over with P-38’s during the Bolero flights the previous year and then went with their P-38’s to be used—and eventually abandoned—in North Africa and the Mediterranean. Instead, they only had an adequate supply of 75 gallon tanks for use with the P-38’s which meant the escorts would not be able to patrol the bomber stream for the entire route unless they leave no fuel reserves for combat or weather.
Instead the mission planners would need try a whole new approach to bomber escort, sending the P-38’s out past the bombers to sweep enemy fighter opposition from in front of them on the initial penetration the rejoining the bombers over Germany. Doing this would allow the Lightnings to leave well after the bombers, catch them on the way to the target, sweep in front and then provide nearly three hours of escort patrol during the deepest portion of the bomber penetration—including over the target—before leaving the bombers on the return trip and heading straight back for their own bases. This would allow the fighters to avoid the time and fuel costs of patrolling the bombers during the initial penetration to and the final withdrawal from enemy airspace.
With the assurance that the few squadrons of P-38’s would be able to accompany the bombers to the target, they were able to set out finalizing the Mission Plan.
VIII Bomber Command would send sixteen Heavy Bombardment Groups in two Divisions about ten minutes apart. The First Air Division would be led by the 92nd Bombardment Group (Heavy) and consist of the 305th, 306th, 381st, 91st, 303rd, 379th, and 384th BG’s and would follow the more direct, northern route. Following them would be the Third Air Division on the southern route with the 95th, 100th, 390th, 96th, 388th, 94th, and 385th BG’s. In addition to these two B-17 Air Divisions, two groups of B-24’s, the 93rd and 392nd, would fly a more southerly route and join up with the B-17 near the I.P. Some groups of the 2nd Air Division would fly a diversionary route over the North Sea in advance of the 1st AD to draw German Coastal Defense Forces away from the main attack force. Excluding the diversionary force, Anderson was planning on nearly 300 B-17’s and about 60 B-24’s for the mission.
Supporting them will be about four groups of Spitfires with drop tanks providing escort to just short of Antwerp. These fighters will be bolstered by an additional two groups—the 353rd and 56th—of P-47’s escorting the bombers to the German border, near Aachen. On the return trip the bombers will be picked up in France by another four groups of Spitfires and one of P-47’s for escort back across the channel.
The 78th Fighter Group will provide two over-strength squadrons of P-38’s, the 83rd and 84th Squadrons with four spares each. The group would then be filled out with the HQ squadron, bolstered by additional spares made up of Lightning rated pilots from the 82nd FS and a few individuals on loan from squadrons of the 20th FG and 55th FG. As much as he disliked the idea of the sending green pilots on such a long, critical, mission, the need for escorts out-weighed the risks and he hoped that the support of the more experienced pilots from the 78th FG would balance the inexperience of the pilots from the 55th and 20th. This P-38 group will include a total of 80 P-38’s, personally led by Lt.Col. Stone, C/O of the 78th.
The 78th FG(T) will meet the 1st AD east of Antwerp, after the Spitfires leave but before the P-47’s leave, and will cruise past the bombers to perform the initial penetration into Germany. After the first sweep, going nearly to Cologne, the Lightnings will re-join the Bombers and provide a standard escort patrol through the formation all the way to the target. They will loiter at the target and join up with the 3rd Air Division to provide withdrawal coverage into France, hopefully placing them near the most likely location of attacks on each leg of the raid. Near Reims, or whenever their fuel supply demands it, they will then leave the bombers and return directly to Duxford. By that time the Spitfire and P-47 withdrawal escorts should have re-joined the bombers to provide the final coverage back over the English Channel.
Maj.Gen. Anderson looked at the large clock on the wall of the Mission Planning center: 2147. It was now or never.
He checked the mission log and signed the order as Mission 115.
“Send it out.”
14 October 1943
Churchtime Red Two
Approaching the German Border
1235 hours - 1400 hours
Once more flying in the High Section—called “B Group” in the 78th—of the Squadron, Captain James Heidinger cruised along on the wing of his once-again Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Eugene Roberts. This time, though, he was flying the second position of the first element of the first flight. Since the squadron was a composite of the HQ and 82nd Fighter Squadrons of the 78th, they had adopted the radio call sign of the 82nd for the mission, making Heidinger “Churchtime Red Two.”
Five planes in the composite squadron, two in A Group, “Stedman,” and three in B Group, “Churchtime” were from the HQ Squadron. Leading as Stedman Red 1 was the 78th F.G. C/O, Lt. Col. Stone, who was in overall command of the 80 P-38’s planned for the mission today as “Greywall Lead.” On his wing in Steadman Red 2 was Capt. Hilgert. The rest of the Steadman section was filled out by six pilots of the 82nd Fighter Squadron: Capt. John Hockery (Stedman Red 3), 2/Lt. Richard Kuehner (Stedman Red 4), Maj. Jack Oberhansley, C/O of the 82nd (Stedman Blue 1), with Lt. Eugene Peel, Lt. Roger Hearn, and 2/Lt. Ronald Orr completing Blue Flight (Stedman Blue 2, 3, and 4).
The other three from the HQ Squadron lead the Churchtime group as the High Section. Apart from Roberts and Heidinger was Maj. Ronald Gaffney flying Churchtime Red 3. On his wing was Capt. Archie Hill of the 82nd in Churchtime Red 4. Churchtime Blue flight was composed entirely of personnel from the 82nd: Maj. William May, Lt. William Neel, Lt. Benjamin Watkins, and Lt. Paul Keller (Chruchtime Blue 1, 2, 3, and 4).
Filling out the Stedman section to a full three flights, were a single flight of pilots from the 77th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group using planes borrowed from the 55th Fighter Group and designated Stedman Yellow. Likewise the Churchtime Section was filled out with a flight from the 338th Fighter Squadron of the 55th Fighter Group as Churchtime Yellow. The selected pilots were drawn from those conveniently already at Duxford to build operational experience with the 78th, with the last few having arrived the previous afternoon, including the C/O’s of both attached Squadrons.
Joining the Stedman and Churchtime sections were the two sections from each the 83rd Fighter Squadron (Lockyear and Cleveland), led by their C/O Maj. Jesse Davis, and the 84th Squadron (Bayland and Clinton), led by the 84th C/O, Maj. Jack Price. Each of these sections was planned to have two spares for a total of 14 planes per section, or 28 per squadron.
Heidinger mused that this must be the largest concentration of Field Grade Officers ever assembled into a single group for a single mission. There were three Lieutenant Colonels—Stone (HQ/78), Roberts (HQ/78), and Johnson (77/20)—and six Majors—Oberhansley (82/78), Gaffney (HQ/78), May (82/78), Busching (338/55), Davis (83/78), and Price (84/78). How they were able to sneak that past the VIII Fighter Command planners was a mystery he was sure he would never solve.
The mission requirements called for a full load of internal fuel, plus 150 gallons externally in two 75 gallon droppable tanks. The flight plan called for a cruise up to 20,000 feet as they crossed the Channel and head directly to over-fly the bombers east of Antwerp at 25,000 feet and proceed past to clear the way into Germany between Aachen and Cologne then allow the bombers to catch up and provide escort from the German border on.
At the briefed load and altitudes, they were supposed to maintain an Indicated Airspeed of between 200 and 220 mph, depending on altitude, which should reduce their fuel consumption to less under 100 gallons per hour for a True Airspeed of around 300 mph at altitude. With about an hour to join the bombers and an hour back at the end of the mission that gives them the fuel to escort the bombers for about three hours of their trip, with an allowance for 60 gallons of initial fuel usage, a 20 minute cruising reserve, and five minutes of Combat at Military Power. This should leave each plane with an extra 40 gallons or so, roughly doubling their planned reserve.
Heidinger—who has the most escort time in a P-38 from flying with the 82nd Fighter Group—worked out that by reducing their IAS to about 190 mph (TAS of about 265 mph) on each “downsteam” leg of their escort circuit they could save another 15-20 gallons, which could give them an extra ten minutes of Combat without tapping into their planned Reserve. He was bolstered in this by his work the past week with Tony LeVier in working to overcome the fuel condensation issues. They had arrived at the conclusion that by running higher Manifold Pressure during low-RPM cruising they can keep the induction system above the dew point with similar, or even better, fuel consumption. So, instead of running both legs of the escort circuit at 1850-2050 RPM and 32”Hg M.P. Heidinger made the recommendation at the Briefing to run the “downstream” with M.P. still at 32”Hg but to reduce power exclusively by retarding the engine speed unless it would cause RPMs to drop below the minimum required for altitude. Lt.Col. Stone readily accepted and appended their briefing to include the new instructions.
They were all airborne and en-route by 1235 hours, flying through an English pea-soup of rain until 1300 hours when they approached the Dutch coast. During the climb they had two aborts from Stedman, both 20th FG men; three from the 83rd Squadron and another from the 84th, leaving 74 Lightnings in the formation Heidinger saw around him when the weather cleared. Over the Netherlands, as they continued to climb past 24,000 feet another three had to turn back, two from the 83rd and another from the 84th, leaving just 71 planes.
Capt. Heidinger looked at all the P-38’s around him, painted in standard AAF Dark Olive Drab over Neutral Gray. The planes of the 78th FG had already received the distinctive black and white “checkerboard” on the outboard engine nacelles. The six planes still flying that were assigned to the 55th FG, two with 20th FG pilots, were devoid of any Group markings but could be spotted by the “CL” on their booms, the radio code for the 338th Squadron.
Heidinger’s own plane, #033, was adorned with the name “TIMBER! III” on the nose, in honor of the Battle of Fallen Timbers and Gen. “Mad Anthony” Wayne, namesake for Heidinger’s home in Wayne County, Illinois. This was his third “TIMBER!” The first was scrapped after he crashed it in May and the second, the one he flew on the September 2nd mission, stayed with the 82nd Fighter Group in Tunisia.
By 1315 hours they were quickly gaining on the still climbing bombers and Heidinger was able to hear the first transmissions from the bombers and their P-47 escorts on the Command radio. As he listened to the occasional call of enemy fighters between the groups he took the time to prepare his fuel valves to switch external tanks in a few more minutes. It sounded like the Thunderbolts were giving Jerry the run and keeping the bombers clear but he knew they would soon need to turn back leaving the bombers and the 78th alone as they pushed into Germany itself.
At 1320, with the bombers now in sight below them, Stone came on the radio, “Greywall Group, Greywall Lead, switch to right tank.”
Since it was the first long escort for most of the group they had previously agreed that the Group and Section Leaders would call out reminders to switch their fuel sources on the way in to the Target. Heidinger, having already moved his left side manual fuel valve to CROSS SUCTION, flipped off the right side fuel override, confirmed his fuel pressures held steady, then switched on the left side override. With those couple simple switch changes his airplane was now running completely on the right side drop tank. With the right side override off, he now moved the right side manual valve over to RESERVE so he could still draw fuel if the electrical system failed.
Only a few minutes later, around the time the P-47’s were expected to turn back for England, Heidinger heard the call on the Group frequency, “Bandits! Four-o’Clock Low.”
The call broke through sooner than even Heidinger had expected. With a glance down over his right shoulder he spotted a speckled gray cloud of 15-20 single engine fighters followed by several lines of twin-engine interceptors climbing in the distance. They were circling up through 15,000 feet and heading to intercept the bombers from the rear.
“All Groups, Greywall Lead. Blakehouse, take a top cover position. Greywall Groups, turn to engage.”
The command was to split the six Sections into two groups, the “A” (Low) Sections from each Squadron would now be Greywall and led by Stone while the “B” (High) Sections would be Blakehouse led by Roberts. Stone would take Greywall—consisting of Stedman, Lockyear, and Bayland—down to attack the climbing Bandits while Roberts would keep Blakehouse—Churchtime, Cleveland, and Clinton—on their present course and provide top cover. With only a single Fighter Group to escort the entire 1st Air Division they figured this was the only way to be sure of effective cover.
The Stedman group turned away, dropping their external tanks and circling down to come from the enemies’ 6-o’Clock High with Lt.Col. Stone in the lead. They were followed by the A Sections of 83rd and 84th Squadrons.
As much as Heidinger wanted to watch the initial pass, he knew it was more important now for those in the Blakehouse group to be extra diligent in scanning the sky. First though, he looked out his canopy toward Roberts at his 2 o’Clock and tried to get his Lead’s attention. It was only a matter of time before Blakehouse would also be engaged and he did not want to see a repeat of September 2nd. He had previously worked with the others with the Group HQ to add S.O.P’s for readying aircraft for combat before it became absolutely necessary but as Roberts had not yet made the call, Heidinger was trying to remind him. After a few moments Roberts looked his way and after a wave Heidinger tapped his gunsight, trusting Roberts to get the message.
“Blakehouse, Blakehouse Lead. Ready for Combat.”
Heidinger armed his tank releases and turned on his guns, gunsight, and combat switch. These are three fewer steps he would need to take if they are jumped. The S.O.P. also called for a move to AUTO RICH but for this mission they were briefed to stay on AUTO LEAN as long as possible to conserve even a few more gallons of fuel.
With a slight right hand roll he looked back at the developing action below as Greywall cleared the attacking Germans from the bombers’ path. The fight was beginning to spread out already. P-38’s were diving and zooming among the twin-engine Ju.88’s and Me.110’s while the dozen or so Me.109’s dove and spiraled around the larger airplanes. They were ranging in altitude from well over 20,000 feet to possibly as low as 10,000 with a few smoke trails and many more vapor trails marking where the aircraft had been.
Leveling off, he resumed his visual hunt for the little black specs that would give away more attacking enemies. A large river passed below them which he surmised must be the Rhine. For the first time, he realized, Capt. James Heidinger was taking the fight directly to the Germans in their Fatherland.
A few minutes later, he caught a flash of reflected sunlight to his left and noticed forty or so aircraft moving to the north at about 18,000 feet and heading roughly due west. Heidinger thought they looked like FW-190’s but was not certain from the distance, so he radioed out, “Blakehouse, Churchtime Red Two, Boggies, Nine-O’Clock Low. Can anyone I-D?”
“Blakehouse, Cleveland Blue Four, I think those are the P-47’s heading home”
Heidinger continued watching the distant aircraft and was still unsure of their identity. The sun was glaring off their wings and canopies and directly back to his eyes, washing out details of their shape. He supposed the good thing was that meant he would be in the sun from their perspective, so if they are the enemy there is a good chance his Group had not been spotted yet.
Just then, one of the distant airplanes gave a quarter roll to adjust its position in the formation and Heidinger noted the distinctive trapezoidal shape and square wing-tips of Focke-Wulf 190’s.
“Blakehouse, those aren’t P-47’s, they’re Focke-Wulfs! Nine-Low.”
Roberts did not hesitate for even a moment, “Blakehouse, Blakehouse Lead, Drop Tanks and follow me in.”
Heidinger turned the fuel tank selector dial to LE, flicked off the left side fuel override, and triggered the tank release switch. The other P-38’s around him all started to rain their own tanks down on the Rhineland. The enemy were still a few miles out which gave the Group plenty of time to make the final adjustments for combat: push the mixtures to AUTO RICH, increase RPMs, increase Throttles, and flick the two Booster Pump Emergency switches. With the extra time he scratched down the time, 1343, he dropped the external tanks so he could compensate for the fuel loss later. Luckily, there was no need for full Military Power just yet, the Germans were still too far out and the group had plenty of speed and a 7,000 foot altitude advantage, so he kept his engines at 2600 RPM and 42 inches for now.
Heidinger stayed on Lt. Col Roberts’s wing as he led the Blakehouse group in a left break and set an intercept course. He knew Maj. Gaffney, Churchtime Red 3, would have no trouble staying with him and could mind his own wingman but Heidinger still took a glance behind him to make sure the other two Churstime flights were following. Blue flight, all 82nd Squadron men led by Maj. William May, was sticking right to his 8 o’Clock but Yellow flight with its pilots from 338th FS of the 55th FG had fallen a little behind and drifted from 5 o’clock to almost straight 6 o’clock. Still, they were on their way and soon the entire formation would tangle with the enemy anyway.
The Germans—all FW-190’s—had kept on their heading and speed, intent on setting up an attack on the bombers and apparently not noticing the Lightnings diving at them from out of the sun until the last moment. It was not until the Heidinger’s own Chruchtime Red flight was already firing that the Germans finally scattered, breaking and rolling away as the full danger of their position became apparent. There were 38 Lightings bearing down on them and there was nothing they could do.
Heidinger stayed with Roberts, letting his Lead take the initiative and decide the course. Roberts led them down, straight through the Germans, and opened a burst of gun-fire just wide of a turning 190 as they sped past. Heidinger did the same, centering a 190 in his sight reticle and squeezing off a one second burst. He saw a few strikes behind the cockpit and back almost all the way to the yellow painted rudder as the lithe German turned away but could not be sure if they had any effect.
A puff of blue-gray smoke from Roberts’s exhaust told Heidginger his lead had just pushed his throttles forward and he followed suit, moving his engines up to a full 3000 rpm and throttling up to 54 inches. They reversed their dive into a full power zoom-climb and Roberts led the flight around in a right turn.
Looking back at the 190’s he saw at least two going down in flames and a large black cloud where a third had exploded. Several more were smoking and he saw one German pilot already struggling to get his canopy open. Blakehouse had achieved total surprise on the enemy formation and Jerry was receiving just punishment for the havoc wreaked on the 82nd Group on September 2nd.
Heidinger followed Roberts around to line up for another pass on the FW’s with Gaffney and Hill trailing another hundred yards farther back. Unlike Churchtime Red flight, the other P-38’s were mostly scattered into their individual two-plane elements with only a few other full four-plane flights still working together. The Germans were splitting off into small groups of two to six planes with a few single FW-190’s making hard defensive maneuvers to avoid the P-38’s now chasing them down.
On their second pass, Churchtime Red focused in on five Focke-Wulfs already trying to set up a luftbery on the north of combat. Heidinger noted that these planes were armed with small bombs which confused him until he remembered the 78th Pilots talking a few weeks back about how over the summer some of the Germans would drop aerial bombs into the Bomber formation to break them up. Roberts, having experienced fighting in this theatre before, must have recognized this and known that it makes the 190’s more vulnerable to fighters.
“Churchtime Red, Red Three, reduce speed and drop Combat Flaps.” Maj. Gaffney, with six months experience flying P-38’s against the Germans and Italians in the Mediterranean, made a quick assessment of the situation and sent the reminder out for the P-38 neophytes in the flight, Roberts and Hill. This was exactly why Hilgert, Gaffney, and Heidinger were here.
Red Flight dove down into the nascent luftbery. While Roberts unleashed a steady stream of machinegun and cannon fire at the perigee of the luftbery and letting the Germans fly into his fire, Heidinger drifted across Roberts’s wake to move to his right side and focus on the F-W turning away in the circuit.
He fired from dead astern at 250 yards, leading the 190’s turn with a little rudder and left roll. Smoke streamers from his cannon shells guided his fire into the engine cowl and down the left wing root. His two-and-half second sustained burst was rewarded with a large gout of flame as 140 fifty-caliber armor-piercing incendiaries and over 40 20mm cannon shells tore into the German fighter. One of those cannon shells must have gone straight though because just as he released his trigger the entire airplane disintegrated in massive burst of duralumin and iron as the bomb on the plane’s belly went off.
Heidinger flew right into the concussion of the explosion, Timber! III jerked from the force of the blast and only narrowly missed a smoking landing gear strut as it rocketed past the left wing. Heidinger pulled up and kicked right as hard as he could to clear the center of the blast and the wreckage of the plane that caused it.
Knowing he was still only under partial power, Heidigner kept pulling the yoke after he cleared the explosion and turned his climb into a tight right-hand chandelle. The airplane started to shudder a little at the top of the loop as it slowed to just above a full stall, then it dropped back down to the right as he transitioned into a low Yo-yo. He gave it a little more throttle, increasing the manifolds to about 50 inches to regain some energy in his shallow dive.
The luftbery was broken, the three remaining 190’s had jettisoned their bombs and were turning to either escape or engage the P-38’s. One was nose down, diving away from the attackers while the other two were trying to come around, together, on Gaffney and Hill. Heidinger saw Roberts climbing back up from his dive alone but knew he was too far out of position to drive the 190’s away from their flight-mates.
After a quick check to confirm his own six was clear, he committed to coming back on the 190’s. The enemy aircraft were trying to line up on Hill who was kicking his rudder left and right to shake them while Gaffney led them all into a powered climb. Correctly anticipating Gaffney’s plan, Heidinger lifted his flaps, pulled into a shallow climb, and pushed up to full Military Power to get his plane positioned to intercept the F-W’s as they climbed past.
They met at about 21,000 feet, Timber! III sending a short burst at the lead Jerry before rolling in to cut between the two. The lead E/A heard the hits on his fuselage and immediate gave up the chase and rolled over out of his climb. The second one just nosed straight over into a shallow dive to avoid Heidinger’s Lightning.
Heidinger turned his head to keep an eye on the lead plane as is came around to turn behind him. Heidinger rudder-rolled right but kept his nose up into a rolling scissors. Instead of continuing it into a series of scissors, however, once his wings were level he pulled up even more and climbed away from the FW-190. In seconds he had passed the critical altitude for full Military Power and his pressures dropped but nevertheless, the powerful Lightning with its new up-rated Allison 89/91’s pulled away from the radial powered German. In less than a minute he was approaching 25,000 feet and the German surrendered the chase.
He leveled off to discover he was alone, the final stages of the engagement were playing out thousands of feet below him as the Luftwaffe fighters broke away to escape the American onslaught. To his right, the bombers of the 1st Air Division were coming on, about three miles away. He throttled back to 35 inches and dropped his RPMs to 2300, keeping in AUTO RICH until he was certain the fight was over.
“Chruchtime Lead, Churchtime Red Two, I’ve lost you. I am at twenty-six thousand feet, heading one-hundred.”
It took a moment for Roberts to respond through the other chatter on the radio—element leads and wingmen and flights all identifying to re-assemble. “Churchtime Red Two, Churchtime Red One, I see you. I am at your Eight-o’Clock low, two-two thousand about eight-hundred yards back.”
“Churchtime Red One, Red Two, I have the bombers to my Three-o’Clock, three miles out.”
“Roger, Red Two. Blakehouse Group, Blakehouse Lead, all elements re-group Nine-o’Clock on the Lead Bomb Group, two-six-thousand feet.”
Being closest, Heidinger was at the re-assembly point before the rest of the group. He dropped his throttles and RPMs back to cruising condition of 2000 RPM and 32 inches of manifold pressure, then pulled his mixtures back into AUTO LEAN. As the Blakehouse sections came to join Heidinger he took the time to run some quick numbers on his fuel use, realizing he had jettisoned almost 40 gallons with his drop tanks and had burned another 25 gallons or so during his four minutes of combat and in the time since. It was nearly the full allowance planned for combat for the entire mission and they had only just entered Germany.
He heard the Greywall group over the radio organize their own re-grouping on the opposite side of the bomber stream. Looking past the bombers he saw the other P-38’s start to form up and estimated around 30 of them were still there, meaning they had lost three or so.
As the Blakehouse P-38’s came up, he counted them. After ten minutes, with no stragglers in sight he counted 36, two short of what they had at the start of the attack. Still, he saw at least five Germans go down, including the one he got, and had seen another with the pilot trying to bail out. Even if those were the only kills during the fight, Blakehouse gave better that it got.
More importantly, though—they had driven off the first two waves of enemy aircraft before they were able to attack the bombers.
Little did he know…his day was only beginning.
