Sorry about this, but it will be another day. I need to go through, again, and make adjustments to fix the chronology of the mission as I was running 10 minutes off plan. This wouldn't be too big an issue except it messes with the fuel schedule and thus requires me to recalculate when tanks run dry and where.
Anybody who takes the trouble to get the math right has no reason to apologize.
Did I miss France conquering England (again...Merde. J'emmerde respectueusement la langue anglaise.
), or something?Te French have never conquered England as detailed in My Favourite book "a Thousand Years of Annoying The French" !!!!!
Ch.23b - Another Thursday, Part II (14 Oct 1943)
14 October 1943
Churchtime Red Two
1400 – 1435 hours
After the groups were all situated they started a standard patrol pattern along the bomber stream of the 1st Air Division. Stone and Roberts had a brief discussion about re-forming the Group by Squadron to spread out the patrol farther, but finally decided against it due the size of enemy forces they had already encountered. If the Germans continued to attack with such force, there would little a single Squadron could do to stop them. Instead, they decided to keep the Group split by Sections with the A Section Greywall group patrolling right (South) of the bombers and the B Section Blakehouse group staying on the left (North) side.
As their patrol continued, the high altitude and combat damage took their toll on more of the Group. One suffered from an over-heating engine after the cooling system had been shot out, another experienced a turbo-regulator sticking in low-boost, and two more had fuel supply issues. If they had been on the return trip it would have been safer to stay with the bombers for mutual protection but since they still had more than three hours to go it was decided the four of them should turn back and return directly to Duxford together. Their loss now left the 78th with 62 planes—29 with Greywall and 33 in Blakehouse.
Cruising along at 26,000 feet, Heidinger was surprised at just how well these new Lightnings handled the altitude. The cockpit temperature was fairly comfortable, even with the outside air showing -34°F, but he was still happy for the D1 jacket his crew chief lent him. He had been waiting for his own B3 or B6 Jacket, but apparently there was a shortage and those that came over went first to bomber crews. He and Hilgert were planning on hitting up some RAF boys or some of the Bomber boys on their next weekend pass and see if they could trade or buy one of their jackets but the day’s mission had come before they had the opportunity. He was going to fly today with just a heavy knit pullover under his A2, but S/Sgt. Thompson had tossed over his D1 with the instruction that both it and “his” airplane better come back in the same condition in which they were leaving.
The only complaint Heidinger could level at the P-38H was that at these bomber altitudes the airplane was above its critical altitude for maximum Military and War Emergency power. According to Lockheed, the B-13 Turbos could only pull Military Power up to just less-than 25,000 feet in level flight and only about 51”Hg. at 30,000. Still, even at 51 inches the P-38 could produce more power than anything it was likely to be fighting, so it was not a major failure. Tony LeVier had mentioned that the next P-38H, the Dash-Fifteens, had upgraded turbos capable of pulling 60”Hg of War Emergency Power at nearly 26,000 feet and 54”Hg of Military Power up to 29,000 feet. Part of him envied the pilots in the 20th and 55th who would be getting those.
On a downstream trip past the bombers he finally had the chance to look at the entire stream of B-17’s. They were beautiful in the sky, charging forward in their carefully arranged combat-boxes. The high Groups visible for miles and miles from the white fingers of condensation trails pointing at them. In all of his time providing escort for the B-25s over the Med he had never seen so many airplanes gathered together. He estimated there to be around 150 Forts in this Division, more than twice the number of B-25s he had ever seen on a single mission. Even more amazing was that this was less than half of the force that would be hitting Schweinfurt today.
The radio interrupted his thoughts.
“Greywall, Bayland Yellow One. Bandits, Twelve-o’Clock low.”
The voice was perfectly measured and calm, the sound of a veteran pilot spending another day at the office.
“I count about thirty one-nineties, twenty one-tens.”
“Blakehouse, Greywall Lead, we’ll need your help up here.”
“Blakehouse, Blakehouse Lead, come left one-eighty. Ready to engage.”
Heidinger noted the time, 1402, then moved his mixtures back up to AUTO RICH. He followed Roberts in a broad left-turn as he adjusted his engine speeds and throttles to keep pace with the Lead. They were heading straight over the tops of the bombers, accelerating up to combat speed with the bombers passing progressively quicker beneath.
With his engines now at Rated power of 2600 RPM and 44 inches, he was indicating almost 250 mph—about 400 mph True Airspeed—as they cleared the bombers. He saw the Greywall P-38’s nosed over to dive directly through the German formation. The two forces were closing at incredible speeds. Only seconds later the two clouds of aircraft merged, passing through each other spewing fire and smoke.
The lead wave of the enemy, the Focke-Wulf 190s, turned to follow and engage the speeding Lightnings while the second wave of twin-engine heavy fighters did their best to avoid the American fighters and continue on to the bombers.
“Greywall, Blakehouse Lead, we’ll take the Heavies.” Roberts knew Stone was busy so did not wait for a response before continuing, “Blakehouse, Lead, focus on the twin-engine fighters. Break!” Only a few of the group bothered with a “Wilco” acknowledgement, the rest being reluctant to take up signal time when their brothers in the Greywall flights were embroiled in a growing melee.
The Messerschmitt Bf.110’s were climbing to the south of the bombers, aiming to pass out of range of the bombers’ defensive fire. At these speeds it would be almost impossible to make a quick break to intercept the enemy formation before they closed on the bombers, so instead Roberts led Red flight into a lag pursuit of the 110’s with a more controlled right roll.
As he came closer to the enemy aircraft, Heidinger saw stout tubes suspended under the wings of the twin-engine fighters. He had seen these before, over Italy, and recognized them as aerial mortars. After the September 2nd mission, he heard that a group of German aircraft had launched some of these at the B-25’s while most of the fighters were busy. One of the P-38 pilots who had rejoined the bombers by that time, a squadron-mate of his, told him before he left Tunisia that the Germans had snuck around behind the bombers and tried lobbing the rocket-propelled mortars into the rear of the bomber formation. The handful of P-38’s with the bombers were able to keep the attackers from getting close enough to use them effectively.
“Blakehouse Lead, Churchtime Red Two. Those one-tens are carrying mortar tubes. They usually attack from behind.”
“Roger, Red Two. Blakehouse, engage the enemy before they come around.”
The Messerschmitts were just passing the bombers’ position 1,000 yards to their 3 o’Clock, about 2,000 feet lower, heading the opposite direction. The Churchtime section was in a high pursuit position, quickly gaining on the enemies’ 6 o’Clock and diving down to their altitude. Roberts adjusted their dive so they would fall directly behind them in about 30 seconds and ordered the group to attack.
About 20 seconds later the P-38’s were spotted by the rear gunners of the 110’s. The German formation broke and turned directly up toward the bombers in the middle of the Division. Heidinger, recognizing the risk to the bombers, did not wait for Roberts’s command but mashed in throttles forward, though the wire, and into War Emergency Power. Even though the turbos were limited at such a high altitude, they were set to over speed when in War Emergency which gave Timber! III an extra four inches of boost at 22,500 feet and a couple hundred more horsepower than it would be able to get at the lower Military Power speed limit.
Heidinger pulled ahead of Roberts as his Lightning quickly hit 280 IAS and kept accelerating. He found himself at the tip of the American formation while the other pilots reacted to his action and followed suit. He applied a little right rudder and started a right roll to guide his airplane into a firing position on the lead Bf.110. When he was 1,000 yards out, with the enemy almost in firing position at the nearest bomber, he pulled the throttles back and lowered his combat flaps to bleed a little speed. It was a clumsy moment, having to switch hands on the yoke to reach the flap lever to his right but one that he had done many times before and that was accomplished in little more than two seconds.
By that time, he was only 600 yards from his target. He skidded right a little farther to lead his sight in front the Messerschmitt and let off a one second burst from 550 to 350 yards at an almost full 90 degree deflection while partially inverted at a 100 degree right bank. His aim was poor and his fire passed harmlessly below the German as he continued his roll, fighting the weight of the ailerons at such a speed to complete his inversion and pull beneath the enemy.
The distance closed at nearly 200 yards per second, and each half second Timber! III rolled only a little more...113 degrees…125 degrees…Images of Korkowski’s P-38 cutting into the 109 six weeks earlier came unbidden to Heidinger’s mind as his arms strained against the control forces. Finally, with less than 75 yards between him and a catastrophic collision he rolled through 135 degrees and pulled back on the yoke to angle the airplane down and was able to just clear the belly of the twin-engine Jerry by mere feet. It took another six seconds to complete the full roll.
Just before he was level, with the airplane in a 30 degree left bank, he applied back pressure on the yoke and reversed his roll to the left with a little matching rudder so he could come around on the enemy again without risk of passing into the bomber formation. A look over his should and he saw that although his first attack missed its mark, it served its purpose—the lead 110 had launched off its rockets early and they fell short of the bombers to explode below them. The rest of the enemy attackers had seen the P-38 drive past and followed suit. Aerial mortars were bursting to the right of and below the bombers but none of them passed into the formation itself.
Two of the Jerrys were nosed over, one pouring smoke from an engine and the other engulfed in flames. Heidinger watched as a man jumped from the burning airplane, his back aflame and black smoke billowing from his parachute pack. Even if he survived the fire, Heidinger knew, his parachute was useless and he had five miles of sky to anticipate his death, the poor bastard.
The rest of the Messerschmitts were breaking left and right, heading up and down the right side of the bomber stream. One pulled up to pass directly through the combat boxes of the B-17’s, firing cannons from its nose and the rear gunner squeezing off a few rounds at the bombers as it passed. Heidinger continued his climbing left turn to cross over the top of the bombers once more, hoping to catch the bloodsucker when he came out the other side if the bombers’ gunners did not get it first.
“Churchtime Red Two, Red Lead, I’m at your six.”
Heidinger looked behind him and was impressed to see Roberts had stayed with him through his power slash under the enemy. He copied Roberts’s transmission and added, “I am heading to intercept the one-ten in the bombers.” Then, he pulled up, steepening his climb to get over the bombers as quickly as possible.
The five-thousand foot climb to clear the top of bombers bled off a lot of speed but it left him at a good fighting pace and in a position to intercept. The Bf.110 had scored a few hits with cannon on the B-17s but Heidinger did not see any in immediate threat of falling out of formation. The bomber gunners were sending crisscrossing lines of tracers past the German airplane. The top turret of one of the Forts scored a good series of hits on the airplane and a few seconds later its right engine started streaming glycol and blue smoke. Then the German was clear of the formation.
Heidinger nosed Timber! III over, pulling throttles back to 50 inches, and lined up to catch the damaged airplane in a full pursuit. The German started a slow left roll, so ponderously slow as to make Heidinger’s earlier roll seem fast by comparison, and aimed to nose over clear of the American forces. What the Luftwaffe Pilot failed to anticipate, or chose to ignore, was that a Bf.110 had no hope of out running a P-38 even with two good engines—with only a single engine at full power, it was doomed.
The sight of Roberts behind him, reflected in his mildly vibrating rear-view mirror, gave him an idea to avoid the M-E’s rear gunner. He thumbed his mic button, “Churchtime Lead, Red Two. Attack right, I’ll go left.”
Heidinger and Roberts split apart, Roberts drifting to Heidinger’s 4 o’Clock. Once they were about 500 yards behind Jerry, Heidinger cut right and dragged a line of fire across the twin tails of the 110. Only a second later, once Timber! III was clear, Roberts did the same, cutting left. Back and forth they weaved, two, three times, each pass scoring a few more hits as the rear gunner jerked back and forth between the two Lightnings without ever having the opportunity to properly train his sights on either attacker.
On Roberts’s third pass his line of fire cut right through the forward fuselage of the enemy aircraft, just below the canopy. The rear gun fell silent with its barrel pointed almost straight up. Moments later the airplane gave a violent left jerk and its nose fell as the elevators dropped to maximum downward deflection. The rolling dive soon devolved into an uncontrolled spin—the pilot was dead.
Roberts and Heidinger turned back toward the bomber formation together, Roberts once more in Lead. They were about two miles north of and 6,000 feet lower than the bombers. In the 90 seconds they had chased down the fleeing German the rest of the German attackers had completed their pass and retreated. Some P-38s were chasing down the a few stragglers at the back of the pack, but otherwise the attack was spent after the single pass. Heidinger saw them, about seven miles away, drifting down through the haze to lower altitudes.
Heidinger reduced his airplane back to cruising speed and continued following Roberts in a gradual climb back to rejoin the formation. It was 1406 on his clock and he figured about two and half minutes of that was at Military Power or better. Without fuel gauges for the Leading Edge tanks he could not be sure of just how much fuel he had burned through, but he estimated he must have lost another 20 or 25 gallons. All of his planned reserves and combat allowance were now gone and with the loss of the fuel from his Right Drop Tank, he was already burning into the unplanned fuel allowance. If the enemy kept hitting at this rate, we was beginning to worry about his ability to make it home.
A glance down at the ammunition counters was slightly better. With the unification of the machine gun and cannon triggers he had already used up more cannon shells than he was used to, with only 65 rounds of 150 remaining. His machine guns were still good, 392, 394, 393, and 394 rounds remaining as indicated on the counters.
The bombers were making their eastward turn, north of Frankfurt, and the Fighter Group was still reforming, with a few stragglers from Greywall—less one who had to turn back due to damage—working to climb back up after following their 190’s down, when another call of Bandits rang out ten minutes later. They were coming up from 10 o’Clock low and appeared to be the same ones that had just hit, a mix of 190’s and 110’s.
“Blakehouse Lead, Greywall Lead, you take the escorts, we’ll head off the heavies.”
The 25 planes still flying with Greywall peeled off and dove down to intercept the 12 or 15 Me.110’s trailing more than 20 of 190’s. Roberts gave the order for Blakehouse to attack the fighters and soon all 33 Blakhouse Lightnings were diving down to clear the way for Greywall to follow.
A group of six 190’s veered off the main force and angled down toward the three Greywall Lightnings still climbing to join the main group.
“Steadman Red Two, Red Lead. Six Fox-Williams coming to your Nine-o’Clock.” It was Hilgert and two others that were out on their own. The group was too far away to provide any immediate help so Heidinger could do nothing but watch and wait. The F-Ws had altitude and speed advantage on the P-38s and Heidinger recognized a desperate situation developing for his old friend.
“Roger, Lead. Stedman Yellow One and Two, Red Two. We’re going to have to turn into them. Make them turn after you and out-climb them.”
“Roger, Red Two.”
“Red Two, Yellow Two. Wilco.”
Heidinger watched as the three P-38’s, Hilgert and the two remaining pilots from the 20th FG, turned directly into the attackers, going nose to nose while outnumbered two to one. The combatants closed quickly, their noses flickering as they opened fire—prize fighters taking their first swings in a fresh Round. The lead P-38, Heidinger could only assume it was Hilgert, torched one of the 190’s which nosed down with flames covering it from cowl to canopy. After the first pass, the Germans snap rolled this way and that, coming around as quick as they could as the Americans accelerated into a sweeping right hand climb.
One of the P-38’s started leaving a trail of grey smoke behind its right engine and struggled to keep pace with the others. The Focke-Wulfs steadied out and started their chase, two climbing higher to pursue the undamaged Lightnings and the other three singling out the smoker. Hilgert’s P-38 increased its climb, going straight vertical and around into a full loop. He dove straight onto the three hunters going after the damaged Lightning. They scattered to avoid his fire but the other two turned to follow Hilgert, giving up the chase on remaining P-38. Now Hilgert had only himself and a damaged wingman to contend with five enemy fighters until the Blakehouse cavalry arrived.
Instead of leaving the damaged P-38 on its own and trying to tail the attacking Jerrys, Hilgert surprised Heidinger by slipping between the enemy and his damaged section-mate. It seemed folly to deliberately put oneself in a position to take fire but Hilgert must have had a plan because he was immediately on the radio, “Yellow One, Red Two. On my mark, break right.”
Heidinger and Chruchtime were still five thousand yards out from the main force of enemy fighters, a little less than 15 seconds at their combined closing speed; but it would take nearly 30 seconds to catch Hilgert’s flight. Three planes of the Stedman flight were angling off of the main Greywall attack to catch Hilgert’s pursuers but even they had another 20 to 30 seconds until they could intervene.
“Yellow One…”
With his heart in his throat Heidinger waited for his friend’s demise.
“…Break!”
The damaged P-38, that of Lt. Col. Herbert Johnson, C/O of the 77th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group, made a fairly quick rudder-assisted right break. The plane started its roll and right turn, Hilgert’s seeming at first to follow. Little more than a second later, as the pursuing enemies were joining in the turn to line up their shots, Hilgert’s plane snap rolled right faster than anything Heidinger had ever seen a P-38 complete, falling a few hundred feet, it appeared to flat-spin and quickly dropped below the enemy to almost immediately reverse direction. Hilgert pulled up, a cloud of grey smoke erupting from the right engine exhaust as it was firewalled to match the left, and executed a perfect Immelmann to come up directly under the turning Focke-Wulfs.
Hilgert was still vertical, having not reached the top of the Immelmann and his guns were blazing. Half a wing came off of one Focke-Wulf before Heidinger even fully registered what he had just witnessed and as he came over the top of the half-loop and started his roll to level off behind the enemy, Hilgert blasted another 190 in the middle of a hard right bank, its pilot immediately launching himself from the cockpit to cannon-ball away from his stricken airplane in a tight fetal position.
The other three F-Ws broke away from their pursuit of Johnson, none of them sure if he was the next target of the impossible maneuvering of the American fighter.
Then it was too late, Heidinger was only seconds away from his own fight and could give no more attention to Hilgert and Johnson.
Instead of lining up to pass head-on through the enemy formation, Roberts led Blakehouse over the enemy and around to intercept them from above their rear quarter. It took another 10 seconds to make the turn, during which the enemy must have calculated the angles and determined advancing on the bombers was not worth the risk of leaving the larger American force of Lightnings on their tail and the gaggle of FW-190’s broke away.
Roberts ordered Blakehouse to engage and led Churchtime to the left, trying to cut inside the circle of four 190’s coming around. Even though the Germans could still flick back and forth between banks considerably faster than the P-38, at 24,000 feet the American Lightnings had the advantage over the little Focke-Wulfs in a committed turn. Heidinger and Roberts dropped their Combat Flaps and, with Gaffney and Hill still trailing them, had little trouble turning inside the 190’s to line up narrow angle deflection shots on the flight of four.
Roberts fired first, sending steel out at the lead F-W. He recording a few hits, but Heidinger did not see any critical damage. His bust was followed by a matching one from Gaffney at the second F-W in the flight but these went to the inside, passing in front of the little fighter.
Heidinger was working on sliding Timber! III a little more to the inside to set up a good lead but the the moment was lost as the 190 reversed his turn, snap rolling right and pulling a high-G descending right turn. Instead he worked to line up on the next 190, but it too was rolling out of the turn. All four the Jerrys turned away, one going right, two carried through to a Split-S and the other pulling up to loop over the Americans.
He had lost his advantage. Now the enemy were able to freely maneuver on Heidinger and the rest Churchtime Red flight. Roberts led them into a speeding climb, using their planes’ superior high-altitude acceleration to pull away from the Germans. Gaffney led Hill away from Roberts and Heidinger, sliding left to open up a few hundred yards between the two elements.
After a quick 3,000 foot climb Roberts and Gaffney coordinated opposite turns to come back down on the enemy, ordering Heidinger and Hill to peel after them. This would spread the flight out more and permit Heidinger and Hill to weave behind their opposite leads to clear their sixes while at the same time the lead planes will be able to continue their turns and clear Heidinger and Hill’s tails in an impromptu double weave.
Their tails were clear and the four Focke-Wulfs were instead passing quickly under the Lightnings going for the bombers. They had spread out so that the lead two planes were about 800 yards line abreast from each other and the other two trailing a few hundred yards astern. Heidinger completed his circle and followed 600 yards to Roberts’s 5 o’Clock as they increased throttle to catch the Jerrys before they could make a pass on the bombers.
The move toward the bombers was only a feint to draw Lightnings in. Heidinger figured it out almost too late when the two lead 190s turned toward each other and Roberts went to follow. Roberts nosed down to pull lead pursuit on the running Jerry while Gaffney did the same on its opposite number, the Germans leading the Americans directly toward each other even as the trailing Germans circled around to gain the tail of the attacking P-38s.
Heidinger recognized the maneuver for what it was and turned to focus on the trailing 190 now coming around on Roberts. He was almost on him when the two flights passed each other, Roberts’s target taking shots at Gaffney and vice versa. The 190’s snap rolled as they passed, forcing the Americans to skid hard to avoid colliding.
Heidinger let out a half-second burst at his target as it banked left but his shots passed harmlessly beyond its belly. The Focke-Wulf pulled up into an over-the-top high-G roll forcing Heidinger to crank up on his yoke to maintain his altitude advantage. The enemy aircraft completed his roll and came back down while maintaining his left turn, now 200 yards to Heidinger’s 10 o’Clock and a few hundred feet lower. Heidinger was left completely out of position—unable to nose down to attack for risk of over-shooting and too close to roll away without giving the 190 the chance to gain his tail.
The white puffs of exploding cannon shells and the ping of shrapnel on his tail forced his decision as the fourth 190 came up at him, chased by Hill. Heidinger leveled Timber! III from her bank and pulled vertical with full power, going where the enemy could not follow at such high altitude. He tracked the counter-attacking 190 over his shoulder and saw Hill take a piece off it.
The F-W he had been following was rolling into a High Yo-yo to get in firing position on Hill using the loss of speed from the vertical maneuver to tighten his turn inside that of Hill’s speeding Lightning. His attention was momentarily drawn back inside his cockpit by the flickering glow of his right-side fuel level warning lamp.
Without time to mess with switching tanks, Heidinger pulled his throttles back and kicked his left rudder to wing-over, hoping to dive back down on the 190 before it could get Hill. Timber! III shook and shuddered as it stalled at the top of the climb but Heidinger held on and as its nose came over he was able to steady the decent.
The low airspeed worked to his advantage now as he was able to roll the plane around to get a high-side pass at the 190 behind Hill, unleashing a two-second torrent of fire in its path. Heidinger’s fire was good and the FW-190’s propeller shredded from the hits and pieces and panels came of the cowling as the bullets walked diagonally across its nose. More hits found the left wing and he saw scraps of the landing gear door eject from under it. He rolled left so he could watch the Jerry and was happy to see it shake and nose over leaving nothing but a trail of smoke as it fell below the fight.
Heidinger’s left side fuel level warning lamp came on. With a muffled curse he turned his fuel selector from LE to MAIN and both lamps turned off.
“Group, Clinton Blue Two. Stukas coming up on the lower bomb group!”
Heidinger, Hill, Roberts, and Gaffney were still busy with their Focke-Wulfs when the call came. It was shortly followed by more.
“…Heinkels, Eight-o’Clock on the bombers, twenty-three-thousand feet, two miles out.”
“…How-Easy one-seven-sevens, Seven-o’Clock, two-four thousand.”
“…More one-tens and Jig Eight-Eights, three-low on the bombers, coming up.”
What the hell is going on!?
Roberts and Gaffney were still trying to catch the lead Focke-Wulfs but Hill had already driven the other 190 away, leaving Heidinger and Hill free to intervene on their leads’ behalf. Before they could coordinate an action between them, the two F-W rolled nose down and dove straight for the deck to escape the fight. Roberts started to roll to follow but Gaffney injected.
“Churchtime Red One, Red Three. Taking Red Four to intercept the Heinkels. Red Four, follow me in.”
The reminder of the bigger threat to the bombers was enough to halt Roberts’s pursuit and he leveled off with a call to Heidinger to join up with him so they can provide support to Reds Three and Four. Roberts continued with additional orders for the group.
“Blakehouse, Blakehouse Lead, engage the enemy bombers.”
“Greywall Group, Greywall Lead, head south of the bomber stream, target the heavy fighters.”
Stone played off of Roberts’s order and without the need to fully coordinate between them was able to get the badly outnumbered American escort force directed to interdict the attacking Germans as best they could.
“Greywall Lead, Lockyear Red One. Looks like a Fox-William two-hundred following four miles south. I think he’s sending the bombers’ position to ground control.”
“Roger, Lockyear Red One. Take your flight and chase him off.”
“Lockyear Red Flight, Red Lead. Climb two-seven-thousand, turn to one-eight-zero, make two-three-zero indicated.”
While Greywall was busy coordinating their own force, the scattered P-38s of the Blakehouse group started converging north of the bomber steam, heading back to the German bombers trailing the formation. A few independent P-38’s, either still engaged in their previous fights or already on their way, went down to unleash hell on the Junkers 87 Stuka dive bombers.
The two formations of Heinkels, one of about twenty He.111s and the other of a dozen or so He.177s continued their climb to get enough altitude over the American bombers but did not advance. Instead, they hung back, shadowing the 1st Air Division heavy bombers while keeping a cautious eye on their twin-boom escorts. With some of the group still involved with the 190s and others going after the Stukas, only 23 P-38s were heading to engage the bombers but even these were enough to give the bomber pilots pause.
“Blakehouse, Blakehouse Lead. All Red flights engage the one-elevens, Yellow flights engage the one-seven-sevens. Blue flights, provide top cover and support make sure none of them get through to the Fortresses.”
So it was that ten P-38s moved to catch the group of larger He.111s and eight went to intercept the He.177s while five—the entirety of Clinton Blue Flight with Churchtime Blue 4—pulled back and see where they would be needed most.
Heidinger’s arms were still aching from last few engagements but the hard drumming of his heart kept the adrenaline of combat flowing through his body. He fell back into his support position off Roberts’s left wing and paced Timber! III to his lead. Gaffney and Hill had similarly rejoined the flight, taking position off Heidinger’s left in echelon but the other Red Flights, Cleveland Red and Clinton Red, were spread out and still converging on an intercept course.
The German bombers accelerated to make their attack. Heidinger figured they must have decided that the risk of being shot down by the P-38’s was minor compared to what would happen to them if they returned to their airbases with bellies full bombs.
Roberts kept Churchtime Red Flight below the level of the He.111s, directing his flight to the right of German bombers instead of heading directly at them and face their nose gunners. When they German were at about 10 o’Clock to Churchtime Red, Roberts ordered the attack. The flight peeled off, Roberts first, then Heidinger, Gaffney, then Hill, each waiting an extra second so they could space their attacks.
Roberts timed his attack to hit the lead bombers from their 10 o’Clock low, then climb to pass behind them and zoom up through the German formation relying on his speed to keep him safe. Heidinger was coming a few seconds later than Roberts and was instead lined up to hit the enemies’ 9 o’Clock. Farther back were Gaffney and Hill would mirror Roberts’s and Heidinger’s attacks but on the second line of E/A rather than the first.
Meanwhile three planes of Cleveland Red and the remaining two of Clinton Red were coming from different angles, several high, a few more low; some right, others head-on. They goal was not only to knock the bombers from the sky but even more importantly to break up their attack and scatter them so they would not be able to make accurate drops into the American bomber formation.
Clinton Reds One and Two were the first to engage the 111’s from their 12 o’Clock high. The two planes dove over the top of the enemy, riddling them with machine gun and cannon fire. Their attack kept the guns off of Roberts and Heidinger as they came from their side. Roberts shattered the glass nose of the far left plane and Heidinger holed its waist and tail as they passed. The dorsal gunner was busy tracking Clinton Red Two so Roberts climbed past the tail un-harassed, but the ventral gunner took a pot shot at Heidinger as he sped underneath which thankfully missed.
Once they were above the formation, Roberts took them around in a left chandelle to come back on them. During the turn Heidinger looked to see one Heinkel smoking from its left engine, another drifting low and out of formation with its cockpit glass completely mangled, and a third that was already starting to turn over with a wing in flames. The first pass was significant but it still was not enough to break the formation.
Roberts was too far ahead to hit the first few 111’s in the line so instead of walking his fire along the entire line he focused on just the last one, the same bomber he had hit on his pass up. Heidinger did not have time to watch Roberts’s attack in detail as he was setting up his own to do what Roberts had originally anticipated.
Heidinger fired a series of bursts at each plane as he lined over it. The first burst missed entirely but on the second plane he watched his bullets go into the right wing and engine nacelle. He could not stay to see if he was able to knock the engine out because the third plane was already coming into his sights. Another one second burst into this one shot the left aileron off but at the end of the burst his cannon stopped firing.
He pulled up to stay above the enemy and saw the last plane in line tumbling out of the formation from Roberts’s fire. A look over his shoulder showed him the second plane losing speed and altitude with a growing fire shooting from its right engine where he had hit it.
The other Lightings had similar success. Half of the enemy formation was showing visible damage, many with smoking engines or fires. Heidinger could see at least four definitely going down, including Roberts’s kill. As he and Roberts came around for another pass, he saw men jumping from the one he had damaged…one…two…three…no more came out but the airplane appeared to still have its pilot from the way it was flying. The rest of the enemy formation was taking evasive action as best they could with their bomb loads, their formation spreading out.
One Lightning, with the “WZ” tail code of the 84th Squadron drifted away from the fight with its right engine nacelle wrapped in flame. Seconds later, the canopy flew away from the airplane and the pilot climbed out to slide off the left wing. Heidinger held off his attack to bank over and watch the falling airman. He unconsciously counted the seconds and at eleven was relieved to see the white canopy of a parachute obscure the falling figure. He noted the time, 1422.
Remembering now that his cannon stopped on his last burst he reached for the priming handle only to find it was not there. The P-38H has the marginally more reliable A/N-M2C cannon and they removed the priming handle from the cockpit, which he had forgotten about after his six months of combat in older model airplanes. Instead, he looked down at his ammunition counter and saw the Cannon was, indeed, empty, showing 0 rounds remaining.
His machine guns were showing 307, 311, 308, 310 from left to right. They were not yet half way through the mission and his cannon was empty and his guns were down to about 60%. He would have to be careful to make sure they lasted.
The 111s were now almost on top of the B-17s.
Heidinger, already in a long right turn at a 90 degree bank from following the 84th pilot down had only to slide Timber! III over to line up once more on the lead line of Heinkels. As his pip came over the enemy, though, he noticed that immediately beyond, only a few hundred yard farther away and lower, were the Flying Fortresses. He pulled up, dropping his throttle and skidding right to stay away and avoid over shooting the enemy formation. Then he slowly rolled the airplane through the other direction to keep the enemy in view and start planning for another attack once they were clear of the Forts.
He was in perfect position to watch the Germans drop their aerial bombs into the American bomber formations. They burst randomly and sporadically, some high, others low, and all spread out from the absence of cohesion in the German formation. Two burst amidst the B-17s.
The first narrowly missed a direct hit on a low element ship buts it shock and shrapnel did the trick. The giant four engine bomber jerked its tail upward from the force of the blast, its left horizontal stabilizer mangled and its cloth rudder left in tatters. The nose-over caused the Fort to quickly loose a few hundred feet and fall behind its element. Before it could begin to recover it veered left, its dive soon devolving into a spin.
Heidinger could not watch for ‘chutes from the airplane as a second near miss burst right in the middle of another three-ship element. All three shifted and jostled. The left most, high, B-17 in the flight dropped off and slid left…directly into the path of the trailing fourth element of the squadron. Heidinger’s breath caught in his chest as the lead and right planed of the fourth element both took an evasive dive to avoid colliding with the skidding airplane. After a moment the planes steadied, slowly climbing back into their places and Heidinger released a sigh of relief.
He made one final pass at the Heinkel 111s as they left the bombers but by that time he was attacking alone and there was nowhere else for the German gunners to shoot so he held back and could not get into a safe firing position. It was irrelevant anyway, the bombers were no longer a threat to the American formation.
Indeed, as the 1st Air Division started its hard right turn to the south toward the I.P. none of the German counter-attackers were a threat. They had all been run off, withdrew of their own, or had been shot down by the B-17s’ gunners and their escorts.
It was 1426 when Heidinger returned to a full cruising condition. The Main tank fuel gauges read about 77 gallons each. So long as he could avoid any more fighting, that should be enough to get him into France and if he was careful it could even get him to Reims from where he could head straight to Duxford.
At 1430 the lead bombers made their left turn to begin their bomb run. It was a few minutes later that the flak started.
Churchtime Red Two
1400 – 1435 hours
After the groups were all situated they started a standard patrol pattern along the bomber stream of the 1st Air Division. Stone and Roberts had a brief discussion about re-forming the Group by Squadron to spread out the patrol farther, but finally decided against it due the size of enemy forces they had already encountered. If the Germans continued to attack with such force, there would little a single Squadron could do to stop them. Instead, they decided to keep the Group split by Sections with the A Section Greywall group patrolling right (South) of the bombers and the B Section Blakehouse group staying on the left (North) side.
As their patrol continued, the high altitude and combat damage took their toll on more of the Group. One suffered from an over-heating engine after the cooling system had been shot out, another experienced a turbo-regulator sticking in low-boost, and two more had fuel supply issues. If they had been on the return trip it would have been safer to stay with the bombers for mutual protection but since they still had more than three hours to go it was decided the four of them should turn back and return directly to Duxford together. Their loss now left the 78th with 62 planes—29 with Greywall and 33 in Blakehouse.
Cruising along at 26,000 feet, Heidinger was surprised at just how well these new Lightnings handled the altitude. The cockpit temperature was fairly comfortable, even with the outside air showing -34°F, but he was still happy for the D1 jacket his crew chief lent him. He had been waiting for his own B3 or B6 Jacket, but apparently there was a shortage and those that came over went first to bomber crews. He and Hilgert were planning on hitting up some RAF boys or some of the Bomber boys on their next weekend pass and see if they could trade or buy one of their jackets but the day’s mission had come before they had the opportunity. He was going to fly today with just a heavy knit pullover under his A2, but S/Sgt. Thompson had tossed over his D1 with the instruction that both it and “his” airplane better come back in the same condition in which they were leaving.
The only complaint Heidinger could level at the P-38H was that at these bomber altitudes the airplane was above its critical altitude for maximum Military and War Emergency power. According to Lockheed, the B-13 Turbos could only pull Military Power up to just less-than 25,000 feet in level flight and only about 51”Hg. at 30,000. Still, even at 51 inches the P-38 could produce more power than anything it was likely to be fighting, so it was not a major failure. Tony LeVier had mentioned that the next P-38H, the Dash-Fifteens, had upgraded turbos capable of pulling 60”Hg of War Emergency Power at nearly 26,000 feet and 54”Hg of Military Power up to 29,000 feet. Part of him envied the pilots in the 20th and 55th who would be getting those.
On a downstream trip past the bombers he finally had the chance to look at the entire stream of B-17’s. They were beautiful in the sky, charging forward in their carefully arranged combat-boxes. The high Groups visible for miles and miles from the white fingers of condensation trails pointing at them. In all of his time providing escort for the B-25s over the Med he had never seen so many airplanes gathered together. He estimated there to be around 150 Forts in this Division, more than twice the number of B-25s he had ever seen on a single mission. Even more amazing was that this was less than half of the force that would be hitting Schweinfurt today.
The radio interrupted his thoughts.
“Greywall, Bayland Yellow One. Bandits, Twelve-o’Clock low.”
The voice was perfectly measured and calm, the sound of a veteran pilot spending another day at the office.
“I count about thirty one-nineties, twenty one-tens.”
“Blakehouse, Greywall Lead, we’ll need your help up here.”
“Blakehouse, Blakehouse Lead, come left one-eighty. Ready to engage.”
Heidinger noted the time, 1402, then moved his mixtures back up to AUTO RICH. He followed Roberts in a broad left-turn as he adjusted his engine speeds and throttles to keep pace with the Lead. They were heading straight over the tops of the bombers, accelerating up to combat speed with the bombers passing progressively quicker beneath.
With his engines now at Rated power of 2600 RPM and 44 inches, he was indicating almost 250 mph—about 400 mph True Airspeed—as they cleared the bombers. He saw the Greywall P-38’s nosed over to dive directly through the German formation. The two forces were closing at incredible speeds. Only seconds later the two clouds of aircraft merged, passing through each other spewing fire and smoke.
The lead wave of the enemy, the Focke-Wulf 190s, turned to follow and engage the speeding Lightnings while the second wave of twin-engine heavy fighters did their best to avoid the American fighters and continue on to the bombers.
“Greywall, Blakehouse Lead, we’ll take the Heavies.” Roberts knew Stone was busy so did not wait for a response before continuing, “Blakehouse, Lead, focus on the twin-engine fighters. Break!” Only a few of the group bothered with a “Wilco” acknowledgement, the rest being reluctant to take up signal time when their brothers in the Greywall flights were embroiled in a growing melee.
The Messerschmitt Bf.110’s were climbing to the south of the bombers, aiming to pass out of range of the bombers’ defensive fire. At these speeds it would be almost impossible to make a quick break to intercept the enemy formation before they closed on the bombers, so instead Roberts led Red flight into a lag pursuit of the 110’s with a more controlled right roll.
As he came closer to the enemy aircraft, Heidinger saw stout tubes suspended under the wings of the twin-engine fighters. He had seen these before, over Italy, and recognized them as aerial mortars. After the September 2nd mission, he heard that a group of German aircraft had launched some of these at the B-25’s while most of the fighters were busy. One of the P-38 pilots who had rejoined the bombers by that time, a squadron-mate of his, told him before he left Tunisia that the Germans had snuck around behind the bombers and tried lobbing the rocket-propelled mortars into the rear of the bomber formation. The handful of P-38’s with the bombers were able to keep the attackers from getting close enough to use them effectively.
“Blakehouse Lead, Churchtime Red Two. Those one-tens are carrying mortar tubes. They usually attack from behind.”
“Roger, Red Two. Blakehouse, engage the enemy before they come around.”
The Messerschmitts were just passing the bombers’ position 1,000 yards to their 3 o’Clock, about 2,000 feet lower, heading the opposite direction. The Churchtime section was in a high pursuit position, quickly gaining on the enemies’ 6 o’Clock and diving down to their altitude. Roberts adjusted their dive so they would fall directly behind them in about 30 seconds and ordered the group to attack.
About 20 seconds later the P-38’s were spotted by the rear gunners of the 110’s. The German formation broke and turned directly up toward the bombers in the middle of the Division. Heidinger, recognizing the risk to the bombers, did not wait for Roberts’s command but mashed in throttles forward, though the wire, and into War Emergency Power. Even though the turbos were limited at such a high altitude, they were set to over speed when in War Emergency which gave Timber! III an extra four inches of boost at 22,500 feet and a couple hundred more horsepower than it would be able to get at the lower Military Power speed limit.
Heidinger pulled ahead of Roberts as his Lightning quickly hit 280 IAS and kept accelerating. He found himself at the tip of the American formation while the other pilots reacted to his action and followed suit. He applied a little right rudder and started a right roll to guide his airplane into a firing position on the lead Bf.110. When he was 1,000 yards out, with the enemy almost in firing position at the nearest bomber, he pulled the throttles back and lowered his combat flaps to bleed a little speed. It was a clumsy moment, having to switch hands on the yoke to reach the flap lever to his right but one that he had done many times before and that was accomplished in little more than two seconds.
By that time, he was only 600 yards from his target. He skidded right a little farther to lead his sight in front the Messerschmitt and let off a one second burst from 550 to 350 yards at an almost full 90 degree deflection while partially inverted at a 100 degree right bank. His aim was poor and his fire passed harmlessly below the German as he continued his roll, fighting the weight of the ailerons at such a speed to complete his inversion and pull beneath the enemy.
The distance closed at nearly 200 yards per second, and each half second Timber! III rolled only a little more...113 degrees…125 degrees…Images of Korkowski’s P-38 cutting into the 109 six weeks earlier came unbidden to Heidinger’s mind as his arms strained against the control forces. Finally, with less than 75 yards between him and a catastrophic collision he rolled through 135 degrees and pulled back on the yoke to angle the airplane down and was able to just clear the belly of the twin-engine Jerry by mere feet. It took another six seconds to complete the full roll.
Just before he was level, with the airplane in a 30 degree left bank, he applied back pressure on the yoke and reversed his roll to the left with a little matching rudder so he could come around on the enemy again without risk of passing into the bomber formation. A look over his should and he saw that although his first attack missed its mark, it served its purpose—the lead 110 had launched off its rockets early and they fell short of the bombers to explode below them. The rest of the enemy attackers had seen the P-38 drive past and followed suit. Aerial mortars were bursting to the right of and below the bombers but none of them passed into the formation itself.
Two of the Jerrys were nosed over, one pouring smoke from an engine and the other engulfed in flames. Heidinger watched as a man jumped from the burning airplane, his back aflame and black smoke billowing from his parachute pack. Even if he survived the fire, Heidinger knew, his parachute was useless and he had five miles of sky to anticipate his death, the poor bastard.
The rest of the Messerschmitts were breaking left and right, heading up and down the right side of the bomber stream. One pulled up to pass directly through the combat boxes of the B-17’s, firing cannons from its nose and the rear gunner squeezing off a few rounds at the bombers as it passed. Heidinger continued his climbing left turn to cross over the top of the bombers once more, hoping to catch the bloodsucker when he came out the other side if the bombers’ gunners did not get it first.
“Churchtime Red Two, Red Lead, I’m at your six.”
Heidinger looked behind him and was impressed to see Roberts had stayed with him through his power slash under the enemy. He copied Roberts’s transmission and added, “I am heading to intercept the one-ten in the bombers.” Then, he pulled up, steepening his climb to get over the bombers as quickly as possible.
The five-thousand foot climb to clear the top of bombers bled off a lot of speed but it left him at a good fighting pace and in a position to intercept. The Bf.110 had scored a few hits with cannon on the B-17s but Heidinger did not see any in immediate threat of falling out of formation. The bomber gunners were sending crisscrossing lines of tracers past the German airplane. The top turret of one of the Forts scored a good series of hits on the airplane and a few seconds later its right engine started streaming glycol and blue smoke. Then the German was clear of the formation.
Heidinger nosed Timber! III over, pulling throttles back to 50 inches, and lined up to catch the damaged airplane in a full pursuit. The German started a slow left roll, so ponderously slow as to make Heidinger’s earlier roll seem fast by comparison, and aimed to nose over clear of the American forces. What the Luftwaffe Pilot failed to anticipate, or chose to ignore, was that a Bf.110 had no hope of out running a P-38 even with two good engines—with only a single engine at full power, it was doomed.
The sight of Roberts behind him, reflected in his mildly vibrating rear-view mirror, gave him an idea to avoid the M-E’s rear gunner. He thumbed his mic button, “Churchtime Lead, Red Two. Attack right, I’ll go left.”
Heidinger and Roberts split apart, Roberts drifting to Heidinger’s 4 o’Clock. Once they were about 500 yards behind Jerry, Heidinger cut right and dragged a line of fire across the twin tails of the 110. Only a second later, once Timber! III was clear, Roberts did the same, cutting left. Back and forth they weaved, two, three times, each pass scoring a few more hits as the rear gunner jerked back and forth between the two Lightnings without ever having the opportunity to properly train his sights on either attacker.
On Roberts’s third pass his line of fire cut right through the forward fuselage of the enemy aircraft, just below the canopy. The rear gun fell silent with its barrel pointed almost straight up. Moments later the airplane gave a violent left jerk and its nose fell as the elevators dropped to maximum downward deflection. The rolling dive soon devolved into an uncontrolled spin—the pilot was dead.
Roberts and Heidinger turned back toward the bomber formation together, Roberts once more in Lead. They were about two miles north of and 6,000 feet lower than the bombers. In the 90 seconds they had chased down the fleeing German the rest of the German attackers had completed their pass and retreated. Some P-38s were chasing down the a few stragglers at the back of the pack, but otherwise the attack was spent after the single pass. Heidinger saw them, about seven miles away, drifting down through the haze to lower altitudes.
Heidinger reduced his airplane back to cruising speed and continued following Roberts in a gradual climb back to rejoin the formation. It was 1406 on his clock and he figured about two and half minutes of that was at Military Power or better. Without fuel gauges for the Leading Edge tanks he could not be sure of just how much fuel he had burned through, but he estimated he must have lost another 20 or 25 gallons. All of his planned reserves and combat allowance were now gone and with the loss of the fuel from his Right Drop Tank, he was already burning into the unplanned fuel allowance. If the enemy kept hitting at this rate, we was beginning to worry about his ability to make it home.
A glance down at the ammunition counters was slightly better. With the unification of the machine gun and cannon triggers he had already used up more cannon shells than he was used to, with only 65 rounds of 150 remaining. His machine guns were still good, 392, 394, 393, and 394 rounds remaining as indicated on the counters.
The bombers were making their eastward turn, north of Frankfurt, and the Fighter Group was still reforming, with a few stragglers from Greywall—less one who had to turn back due to damage—working to climb back up after following their 190’s down, when another call of Bandits rang out ten minutes later. They were coming up from 10 o’Clock low and appeared to be the same ones that had just hit, a mix of 190’s and 110’s.
“Blakehouse Lead, Greywall Lead, you take the escorts, we’ll head off the heavies.”
The 25 planes still flying with Greywall peeled off and dove down to intercept the 12 or 15 Me.110’s trailing more than 20 of 190’s. Roberts gave the order for Blakehouse to attack the fighters and soon all 33 Blakhouse Lightnings were diving down to clear the way for Greywall to follow.
A group of six 190’s veered off the main force and angled down toward the three Greywall Lightnings still climbing to join the main group.
“Steadman Red Two, Red Lead. Six Fox-Williams coming to your Nine-o’Clock.” It was Hilgert and two others that were out on their own. The group was too far away to provide any immediate help so Heidinger could do nothing but watch and wait. The F-Ws had altitude and speed advantage on the P-38s and Heidinger recognized a desperate situation developing for his old friend.
“Roger, Lead. Stedman Yellow One and Two, Red Two. We’re going to have to turn into them. Make them turn after you and out-climb them.”
“Roger, Red Two.”
“Red Two, Yellow Two. Wilco.”
Heidinger watched as the three P-38’s, Hilgert and the two remaining pilots from the 20th FG, turned directly into the attackers, going nose to nose while outnumbered two to one. The combatants closed quickly, their noses flickering as they opened fire—prize fighters taking their first swings in a fresh Round. The lead P-38, Heidinger could only assume it was Hilgert, torched one of the 190’s which nosed down with flames covering it from cowl to canopy. After the first pass, the Germans snap rolled this way and that, coming around as quick as they could as the Americans accelerated into a sweeping right hand climb.
One of the P-38’s started leaving a trail of grey smoke behind its right engine and struggled to keep pace with the others. The Focke-Wulfs steadied out and started their chase, two climbing higher to pursue the undamaged Lightnings and the other three singling out the smoker. Hilgert’s P-38 increased its climb, going straight vertical and around into a full loop. He dove straight onto the three hunters going after the damaged Lightning. They scattered to avoid his fire but the other two turned to follow Hilgert, giving up the chase on remaining P-38. Now Hilgert had only himself and a damaged wingman to contend with five enemy fighters until the Blakehouse cavalry arrived.
Instead of leaving the damaged P-38 on its own and trying to tail the attacking Jerrys, Hilgert surprised Heidinger by slipping between the enemy and his damaged section-mate. It seemed folly to deliberately put oneself in a position to take fire but Hilgert must have had a plan because he was immediately on the radio, “Yellow One, Red Two. On my mark, break right.”
Heidinger and Chruchtime were still five thousand yards out from the main force of enemy fighters, a little less than 15 seconds at their combined closing speed; but it would take nearly 30 seconds to catch Hilgert’s flight. Three planes of the Stedman flight were angling off of the main Greywall attack to catch Hilgert’s pursuers but even they had another 20 to 30 seconds until they could intervene.
“Yellow One…”
With his heart in his throat Heidinger waited for his friend’s demise.
“…Break!”
The damaged P-38, that of Lt. Col. Herbert Johnson, C/O of the 77th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group, made a fairly quick rudder-assisted right break. The plane started its roll and right turn, Hilgert’s seeming at first to follow. Little more than a second later, as the pursuing enemies were joining in the turn to line up their shots, Hilgert’s plane snap rolled right faster than anything Heidinger had ever seen a P-38 complete, falling a few hundred feet, it appeared to flat-spin and quickly dropped below the enemy to almost immediately reverse direction. Hilgert pulled up, a cloud of grey smoke erupting from the right engine exhaust as it was firewalled to match the left, and executed a perfect Immelmann to come up directly under the turning Focke-Wulfs.
Hilgert was still vertical, having not reached the top of the Immelmann and his guns were blazing. Half a wing came off of one Focke-Wulf before Heidinger even fully registered what he had just witnessed and as he came over the top of the half-loop and started his roll to level off behind the enemy, Hilgert blasted another 190 in the middle of a hard right bank, its pilot immediately launching himself from the cockpit to cannon-ball away from his stricken airplane in a tight fetal position.
The other three F-Ws broke away from their pursuit of Johnson, none of them sure if he was the next target of the impossible maneuvering of the American fighter.
Then it was too late, Heidinger was only seconds away from his own fight and could give no more attention to Hilgert and Johnson.
Instead of lining up to pass head-on through the enemy formation, Roberts led Blakehouse over the enemy and around to intercept them from above their rear quarter. It took another 10 seconds to make the turn, during which the enemy must have calculated the angles and determined advancing on the bombers was not worth the risk of leaving the larger American force of Lightnings on their tail and the gaggle of FW-190’s broke away.
Roberts ordered Blakehouse to engage and led Churchtime to the left, trying to cut inside the circle of four 190’s coming around. Even though the Germans could still flick back and forth between banks considerably faster than the P-38, at 24,000 feet the American Lightnings had the advantage over the little Focke-Wulfs in a committed turn. Heidinger and Roberts dropped their Combat Flaps and, with Gaffney and Hill still trailing them, had little trouble turning inside the 190’s to line up narrow angle deflection shots on the flight of four.
Roberts fired first, sending steel out at the lead F-W. He recording a few hits, but Heidinger did not see any critical damage. His bust was followed by a matching one from Gaffney at the second F-W in the flight but these went to the inside, passing in front of the little fighter.
Heidinger was working on sliding Timber! III a little more to the inside to set up a good lead but the the moment was lost as the 190 reversed his turn, snap rolling right and pulling a high-G descending right turn. Instead he worked to line up on the next 190, but it too was rolling out of the turn. All four the Jerrys turned away, one going right, two carried through to a Split-S and the other pulling up to loop over the Americans.
He had lost his advantage. Now the enemy were able to freely maneuver on Heidinger and the rest Churchtime Red flight. Roberts led them into a speeding climb, using their planes’ superior high-altitude acceleration to pull away from the Germans. Gaffney led Hill away from Roberts and Heidinger, sliding left to open up a few hundred yards between the two elements.
After a quick 3,000 foot climb Roberts and Gaffney coordinated opposite turns to come back down on the enemy, ordering Heidinger and Hill to peel after them. This would spread the flight out more and permit Heidinger and Hill to weave behind their opposite leads to clear their sixes while at the same time the lead planes will be able to continue their turns and clear Heidinger and Hill’s tails in an impromptu double weave.
Their tails were clear and the four Focke-Wulfs were instead passing quickly under the Lightnings going for the bombers. They had spread out so that the lead two planes were about 800 yards line abreast from each other and the other two trailing a few hundred yards astern. Heidinger completed his circle and followed 600 yards to Roberts’s 5 o’Clock as they increased throttle to catch the Jerrys before they could make a pass on the bombers.
The move toward the bombers was only a feint to draw Lightnings in. Heidinger figured it out almost too late when the two lead 190s turned toward each other and Roberts went to follow. Roberts nosed down to pull lead pursuit on the running Jerry while Gaffney did the same on its opposite number, the Germans leading the Americans directly toward each other even as the trailing Germans circled around to gain the tail of the attacking P-38s.
Heidinger recognized the maneuver for what it was and turned to focus on the trailing 190 now coming around on Roberts. He was almost on him when the two flights passed each other, Roberts’s target taking shots at Gaffney and vice versa. The 190’s snap rolled as they passed, forcing the Americans to skid hard to avoid colliding.
Heidinger let out a half-second burst at his target as it banked left but his shots passed harmlessly beyond its belly. The Focke-Wulf pulled up into an over-the-top high-G roll forcing Heidinger to crank up on his yoke to maintain his altitude advantage. The enemy aircraft completed his roll and came back down while maintaining his left turn, now 200 yards to Heidinger’s 10 o’Clock and a few hundred feet lower. Heidinger was left completely out of position—unable to nose down to attack for risk of over-shooting and too close to roll away without giving the 190 the chance to gain his tail.
The white puffs of exploding cannon shells and the ping of shrapnel on his tail forced his decision as the fourth 190 came up at him, chased by Hill. Heidinger leveled Timber! III from her bank and pulled vertical with full power, going where the enemy could not follow at such high altitude. He tracked the counter-attacking 190 over his shoulder and saw Hill take a piece off it.
The F-W he had been following was rolling into a High Yo-yo to get in firing position on Hill using the loss of speed from the vertical maneuver to tighten his turn inside that of Hill’s speeding Lightning. His attention was momentarily drawn back inside his cockpit by the flickering glow of his right-side fuel level warning lamp.
Without time to mess with switching tanks, Heidinger pulled his throttles back and kicked his left rudder to wing-over, hoping to dive back down on the 190 before it could get Hill. Timber! III shook and shuddered as it stalled at the top of the climb but Heidinger held on and as its nose came over he was able to steady the decent.
The low airspeed worked to his advantage now as he was able to roll the plane around to get a high-side pass at the 190 behind Hill, unleashing a two-second torrent of fire in its path. Heidinger’s fire was good and the FW-190’s propeller shredded from the hits and pieces and panels came of the cowling as the bullets walked diagonally across its nose. More hits found the left wing and he saw scraps of the landing gear door eject from under it. He rolled left so he could watch the Jerry and was happy to see it shake and nose over leaving nothing but a trail of smoke as it fell below the fight.
Heidinger’s left side fuel level warning lamp came on. With a muffled curse he turned his fuel selector from LE to MAIN and both lamps turned off.
“Group, Clinton Blue Two. Stukas coming up on the lower bomb group!”
Heidinger, Hill, Roberts, and Gaffney were still busy with their Focke-Wulfs when the call came. It was shortly followed by more.
“…Heinkels, Eight-o’Clock on the bombers, twenty-three-thousand feet, two miles out.”
“…How-Easy one-seven-sevens, Seven-o’Clock, two-four thousand.”
“…More one-tens and Jig Eight-Eights, three-low on the bombers, coming up.”
What the hell is going on!?
Roberts and Gaffney were still trying to catch the lead Focke-Wulfs but Hill had already driven the other 190 away, leaving Heidinger and Hill free to intervene on their leads’ behalf. Before they could coordinate an action between them, the two F-W rolled nose down and dove straight for the deck to escape the fight. Roberts started to roll to follow but Gaffney injected.
“Churchtime Red One, Red Three. Taking Red Four to intercept the Heinkels. Red Four, follow me in.”
The reminder of the bigger threat to the bombers was enough to halt Roberts’s pursuit and he leveled off with a call to Heidinger to join up with him so they can provide support to Reds Three and Four. Roberts continued with additional orders for the group.
“Blakehouse, Blakehouse Lead, engage the enemy bombers.”
“Greywall Group, Greywall Lead, head south of the bomber stream, target the heavy fighters.”
Stone played off of Roberts’s order and without the need to fully coordinate between them was able to get the badly outnumbered American escort force directed to interdict the attacking Germans as best they could.
“Greywall Lead, Lockyear Red One. Looks like a Fox-William two-hundred following four miles south. I think he’s sending the bombers’ position to ground control.”
“Roger, Lockyear Red One. Take your flight and chase him off.”
“Lockyear Red Flight, Red Lead. Climb two-seven-thousand, turn to one-eight-zero, make two-three-zero indicated.”
While Greywall was busy coordinating their own force, the scattered P-38s of the Blakehouse group started converging north of the bomber steam, heading back to the German bombers trailing the formation. A few independent P-38’s, either still engaged in their previous fights or already on their way, went down to unleash hell on the Junkers 87 Stuka dive bombers.
The two formations of Heinkels, one of about twenty He.111s and the other of a dozen or so He.177s continued their climb to get enough altitude over the American bombers but did not advance. Instead, they hung back, shadowing the 1st Air Division heavy bombers while keeping a cautious eye on their twin-boom escorts. With some of the group still involved with the 190s and others going after the Stukas, only 23 P-38s were heading to engage the bombers but even these were enough to give the bomber pilots pause.
“Blakehouse, Blakehouse Lead. All Red flights engage the one-elevens, Yellow flights engage the one-seven-sevens. Blue flights, provide top cover and support make sure none of them get through to the Fortresses.”
So it was that ten P-38s moved to catch the group of larger He.111s and eight went to intercept the He.177s while five—the entirety of Clinton Blue Flight with Churchtime Blue 4—pulled back and see where they would be needed most.
Heidinger’s arms were still aching from last few engagements but the hard drumming of his heart kept the adrenaline of combat flowing through his body. He fell back into his support position off Roberts’s left wing and paced Timber! III to his lead. Gaffney and Hill had similarly rejoined the flight, taking position off Heidinger’s left in echelon but the other Red Flights, Cleveland Red and Clinton Red, were spread out and still converging on an intercept course.
The German bombers accelerated to make their attack. Heidinger figured they must have decided that the risk of being shot down by the P-38’s was minor compared to what would happen to them if they returned to their airbases with bellies full bombs.
Roberts kept Churchtime Red Flight below the level of the He.111s, directing his flight to the right of German bombers instead of heading directly at them and face their nose gunners. When they German were at about 10 o’Clock to Churchtime Red, Roberts ordered the attack. The flight peeled off, Roberts first, then Heidinger, Gaffney, then Hill, each waiting an extra second so they could space their attacks.
Roberts timed his attack to hit the lead bombers from their 10 o’Clock low, then climb to pass behind them and zoom up through the German formation relying on his speed to keep him safe. Heidinger was coming a few seconds later than Roberts and was instead lined up to hit the enemies’ 9 o’Clock. Farther back were Gaffney and Hill would mirror Roberts’s and Heidinger’s attacks but on the second line of E/A rather than the first.
Meanwhile three planes of Cleveland Red and the remaining two of Clinton Red were coming from different angles, several high, a few more low; some right, others head-on. They goal was not only to knock the bombers from the sky but even more importantly to break up their attack and scatter them so they would not be able to make accurate drops into the American bomber formation.
Clinton Reds One and Two were the first to engage the 111’s from their 12 o’Clock high. The two planes dove over the top of the enemy, riddling them with machine gun and cannon fire. Their attack kept the guns off of Roberts and Heidinger as they came from their side. Roberts shattered the glass nose of the far left plane and Heidinger holed its waist and tail as they passed. The dorsal gunner was busy tracking Clinton Red Two so Roberts climbed past the tail un-harassed, but the ventral gunner took a pot shot at Heidinger as he sped underneath which thankfully missed.
Once they were above the formation, Roberts took them around in a left chandelle to come back on them. During the turn Heidinger looked to see one Heinkel smoking from its left engine, another drifting low and out of formation with its cockpit glass completely mangled, and a third that was already starting to turn over with a wing in flames. The first pass was significant but it still was not enough to break the formation.
Roberts was too far ahead to hit the first few 111’s in the line so instead of walking his fire along the entire line he focused on just the last one, the same bomber he had hit on his pass up. Heidinger did not have time to watch Roberts’s attack in detail as he was setting up his own to do what Roberts had originally anticipated.
Heidinger fired a series of bursts at each plane as he lined over it. The first burst missed entirely but on the second plane he watched his bullets go into the right wing and engine nacelle. He could not stay to see if he was able to knock the engine out because the third plane was already coming into his sights. Another one second burst into this one shot the left aileron off but at the end of the burst his cannon stopped firing.
He pulled up to stay above the enemy and saw the last plane in line tumbling out of the formation from Roberts’s fire. A look over his shoulder showed him the second plane losing speed and altitude with a growing fire shooting from its right engine where he had hit it.
The other Lightings had similar success. Half of the enemy formation was showing visible damage, many with smoking engines or fires. Heidinger could see at least four definitely going down, including Roberts’s kill. As he and Roberts came around for another pass, he saw men jumping from the one he had damaged…one…two…three…no more came out but the airplane appeared to still have its pilot from the way it was flying. The rest of the enemy formation was taking evasive action as best they could with their bomb loads, their formation spreading out.
One Lightning, with the “WZ” tail code of the 84th Squadron drifted away from the fight with its right engine nacelle wrapped in flame. Seconds later, the canopy flew away from the airplane and the pilot climbed out to slide off the left wing. Heidinger held off his attack to bank over and watch the falling airman. He unconsciously counted the seconds and at eleven was relieved to see the white canopy of a parachute obscure the falling figure. He noted the time, 1422.
Remembering now that his cannon stopped on his last burst he reached for the priming handle only to find it was not there. The P-38H has the marginally more reliable A/N-M2C cannon and they removed the priming handle from the cockpit, which he had forgotten about after his six months of combat in older model airplanes. Instead, he looked down at his ammunition counter and saw the Cannon was, indeed, empty, showing 0 rounds remaining.
His machine guns were showing 307, 311, 308, 310 from left to right. They were not yet half way through the mission and his cannon was empty and his guns were down to about 60%. He would have to be careful to make sure they lasted.
The 111s were now almost on top of the B-17s.
Heidinger, already in a long right turn at a 90 degree bank from following the 84th pilot down had only to slide Timber! III over to line up once more on the lead line of Heinkels. As his pip came over the enemy, though, he noticed that immediately beyond, only a few hundred yard farther away and lower, were the Flying Fortresses. He pulled up, dropping his throttle and skidding right to stay away and avoid over shooting the enemy formation. Then he slowly rolled the airplane through the other direction to keep the enemy in view and start planning for another attack once they were clear of the Forts.
He was in perfect position to watch the Germans drop their aerial bombs into the American bomber formations. They burst randomly and sporadically, some high, others low, and all spread out from the absence of cohesion in the German formation. Two burst amidst the B-17s.
The first narrowly missed a direct hit on a low element ship buts it shock and shrapnel did the trick. The giant four engine bomber jerked its tail upward from the force of the blast, its left horizontal stabilizer mangled and its cloth rudder left in tatters. The nose-over caused the Fort to quickly loose a few hundred feet and fall behind its element. Before it could begin to recover it veered left, its dive soon devolving into a spin.
Heidinger could not watch for ‘chutes from the airplane as a second near miss burst right in the middle of another three-ship element. All three shifted and jostled. The left most, high, B-17 in the flight dropped off and slid left…directly into the path of the trailing fourth element of the squadron. Heidinger’s breath caught in his chest as the lead and right planed of the fourth element both took an evasive dive to avoid colliding with the skidding airplane. After a moment the planes steadied, slowly climbing back into their places and Heidinger released a sigh of relief.
He made one final pass at the Heinkel 111s as they left the bombers but by that time he was attacking alone and there was nowhere else for the German gunners to shoot so he held back and could not get into a safe firing position. It was irrelevant anyway, the bombers were no longer a threat to the American formation.
Indeed, as the 1st Air Division started its hard right turn to the south toward the I.P. none of the German counter-attackers were a threat. They had all been run off, withdrew of their own, or had been shot down by the B-17s’ gunners and their escorts.
It was 1426 when Heidinger returned to a full cruising condition. The Main tank fuel gauges read about 77 gallons each. So long as he could avoid any more fighting, that should be enough to get him into France and if he was careful it could even get him to Reims from where he could head straight to Duxford.
At 1430 the lead bombers made their left turn to begin their bomb run. It was a few minutes later that the flak started.
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I was going back to find phx1138's line (quoted below) and re-read this in the process only just now realizing the champion-level alliteration...well done!
I about laughed when I read this because I had just written the bit about Heidinger borrowing his Crew Chief's D1 jacket a day or two before.
Maybe it will but this hardly qualifies. This is just what happens when you send lumbering Bf.110/410s, Ju-88s, and Heinkels up only to discover P-38s waiting instead of B-17s
The 190s and 109s fared somewhat better, so far, but they still had a bit of shock at first and suffered from being initially out-numbered. Some of the planes Heidinger saw "shot down" or smoking, etc. probably survived but will likely end up being claimed as kills or at least probables by the Americans--that's just the way it goes. It luckily works the other way too, though. Many of the gaps in the P-38 formation are the result of damaged planes having to turn back or those suffering mechanical problems, with maybe one or two that simply became separated and decided to head back instead of trying to find and catch up to the formation again. Only a few have actually been lost to this point.I am considering doing an epilogue to this series of posts (Chapter 23a/b/c) which will recap the mission from VIII BC and VIII FC so we can see its final impact vs. OTL.
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Wow. I had no idea that IAS was so very far off True!
Is this another thing for Lockheed to work on?
Showing graphically how the power assists will be so useful.
5000'. A mile. Just casually mentioned. Up and down. Really gives one a scale on the fight! (And power of the engines, etc.)
Oh my.
Steel? I'd normally assume lead for bullets. Of course the cannon shells would be steel....
Surely 87s, not 88s? If they ARE 88s, they aren't mentioned anywhere else.
A which? Oh. A Condor. OK, makes sense, I suppose.
177s, yes?
Ouch!
Sights. Of course.
(out of place, but I didn't find it on my proof reading pass)
'losing'
I think there was one or two more I saw in my first read-through, but I didn't find them on a second pass.
Wow. That was more exciting than any of those guys had imagined it would be, eh?!
I'm assuming that that whole armada of attackers are essentially as OTL, and hit unescorted bombers. Ouch, ouch, and double ouch.
No WONDER so few got home.
---
Mind, I'm surprised that all the P-38s are still here - so low on ammo, low on fuel, they can't take on any more attackers, not without losing the entire force crashing on enemy territory, which would be remarkably wasteful.
Air Speed is measured in the Pitot tube by using dynamic air pressure; i.e. by the pressure of air being forced into it. At higher altitude there is less static air pressure so the dynamic air pressure is likewise reduced even as the TAS of the aircraft may be the same (or better due to less effect of drag from the lower air density). The actual math is pretty esoteric but a glance at Wikipedia will explain it all. Also note, Heidinger was referencing approximate numbers, rather than exact, AND there are additional adjustments required to compensate for pitot installation error and, at higher speed, compressibility of the gas flow. This is why OTL Kelsey (or was it LeVier?) registered a speed of 770mph during a dive while demonstrating the Dive Recovery Flaps leading some to claim that the P-38 could go supersonic in a dive (this same thing happened to a lot of high performance fighters of the era).
Yes and no. It would be ideal if they could improve it but the left side of the cockpit is already very busy since they can't do much on the right thanks to the off-set control column. Ideally they would need to change the control column (to a stick), move some of the other controls (fuel and external rack controls maybe?) to the right, and put all the flight controls on the left, including the flap lever.
Indeed. I figured I hadn't stressed that problem much in a while so it may do well to throw a reminder in even with the boosted ailerons on the horizon.
For clarification: he still has all the required cruising fuel he needs but all of the combat is starting to dig into the last of his reserves.
.50 cal API (M8) was a core of manganese-molybdenum steel with a gilded jacket, lead antimony base filler, and aluminium tip filled with an incendiary composition.
M2 Armor Piercing was the same but without the incendiary tip (instead being lead antimony) or the lead antimony base.
Nope, they were Ju-88s. They weren't mentioned again because they were with that last group of 110/410s and were hit by the Greywall group instead of Heidinger's Blakehouse group so he did not actually see them or come in contact with them.
Fixed, Fixed, and Fixed
Yes, the forces described--while not exactly as they were in OTL--is a fair representation of what the 1st AD faced on the way to the target. It marked one of the largest, most concerted, and best coordinated LW counter-attacks to date and was a helluva shock to the air crews. The first wave near the German border was made by elements of JG 1 and JG 26 during which they were able to single out the 305th BG and down 13 of 16 planes out of the group, among others. ITTL, the P-38's--still fresh and at nearly full strength--were able to intercept and keep these groups from even hitting the bombers while inflicting significant losses to the LW. This alone would be vindication, to some degree, of having the P-38's present as even if they turned back then and all else in the mission was the same, 15 or so more bombers would have reached the target than IOTL. That represents a full 1/4 of the total historic bomber losses on this mission.
As for the P-38's still being around...I will go through their current numbers at the beginning of the next update but attrition has been taking its toll. Suffice to say, the trip home will be a difficult one.
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As for the P-38's still being around...I will go through their current numbers at the beginning of the next update but attrition has been taking its toll. Suffice to say said:
for some reason I can't get the quote function to work properly....*bangs head*
For some reason OTL (and ATL) the P-47s were not equipped with drop tanks for this mission.
If they had been, OTL, I have to wonder if they would have been present long enough to keep JG 1 and JG 26 from making that first devastating pass at the German border or it would have just delayed the attack a little longer. Even then, that could have given the 305th time to tighten up with the rest of the Wing as OTL it was lagging behind and spaced too far from the formation at that point in the mission. If they had been in position as they were meant to be, it is possible they would not have been as easy targets and could have reduced their losses.The return path will bring them up from France, rather than going back through Belgium/Netherlands, so no passing Aachen again. The plan is for the P-47s to pick them up about 60 miles from the Channel over northern France. Unfortunately, at this time, there really isn't a way to call back to England for help or to keep HQ abreast of the situation as it develops.
the P-47s were not equipped with drop tanks for this mission.
*bangs head*
going to be "fun"...anxiously awaiting the next installment!!!
You can really start to see the advantages provided by the ATL improvements. Pilots are not numbed out by freezing cockpits and jeopardized by the poor visibility of ice forming on the inside of the canopy. More reliable engines and turbo-superchargers producing more power. A smarter fuel management system giving an easily noticed low fuel warning.
I believe we saw the famous Lockheed stomp demonstrated during the combat maneuvering as well.
This latest chapter is showing that it is all starting to come together. Very satisfying.
I believe we saw the famous Lockheed stomp demonstrated during the combat maneuvering as well.
This latest chapter is showing that it is all starting to come together. Very satisfying.
For those P-38 pilots struggling to reach home on low fuel and possibly running on one engine to stretch out the last few drops it is not necessary to return to their home field at Duxford near Cambridge. If they can just reach the coast of England there were emergency landing strips built at various locations along the South-East, South and South-West coastline of England. All pilots would have been informed of the locations of these strips and I think they would have been marked on their maps too.
Edited to include a missing compass direction.
Edited to include a missing compass direction.
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