28 January 1944
HQ, VIII Bomber Command, 8 AF
Daws Hill, High Wycombe, England
The Jeep bounced Captain Robert Welsh around in his seat as it traveled the broken English roads. The route from Bushy Park, Teddington, London to VIII Bomber Command HQ at Daws Hill in High Wycombe was a winding one and took the better part of a hour even though it was only 30 miles. Still, his driver was making decent time and Welsh would be to Daws Hill in plenty of time to deliver his package.
That package was secure in a green accordion folder locked safely in the briefcase Captain Welsh held tightly in his lap. It was routine but essential to the war effort and would determine, or at least inform, the strategic actions planned for the next week and could possibly influence the course of the war. Captain Welsh was a Meteorologist assigned to the 18th Weather Squadron and his task this day was to deliver the next week’s weather forecast to the mission planners at VIII Bomber Command.
They turned up a narrow lane and were stopped by MPs guarding the entrance to the estate. After passing his papers and ID over they were waved on, one of the guards lifting the boom gate to let the Jeep pass. After driving past low hedges and old brick houses the road turned to an open view of the manicured lawn of what used to be the Wycombe Abbey School. Down a slight valley, nestled between the rolling hills of the property was the main complex of the Abbey School, known officially to the U.S. Expeditionary Forces as PINETREE.
Driving past the 18th Century Gothic Revival façade of the Abbey School, the pair in the small Jeep followed the road as it curved up a small rise to arrive at the accommodations of Daws Hill House. Looking back, Welsh saw the Abbey School standing squat but proud on its centuries old foundations. The front of the building was partially covered in the climbing ivy which made many of the rural English manor houses so picturesque and idyllic to their “Colonial” visitors.
Once inside, after passing his credentials off to several more MPs, he was asked to wait outside of what he assumed was once a dining hall where a conference of Eighth Air Force brass was already in progress. Major General Doolittle, just arrived a month earlier from his former command in Italy to replace Major General Anderson as chief of VIII Bomber Command, was outlining his plan for Operation Argument to Lieutenant General Eaker, Commander of the Eighth Air Force. Welsh could hear bits of the conversation through the wood panel doors.
“…Africa we broke the German defense by killing their air support; I plan to do the same here. I have already issued orders to change our escort policy to free the fighters to hunt the enemy before they come to the bombers. Our Fighters Wings have three Groups of P-38s with a fourth nearly combat ready and a group of new long-range P-51s with a second Group converting from P-47s. That gives us over 400 long range escorts that can take the fight to the enemy in their own airspace. Supported by seven groups of P-47s to cover penetration and return plus P-38s and P-51s of the Ninth Air Force, and more from the Twelfth and Fifteenth in Italy, and we have the advantage in fighter strength. All we need to do is force the enemy into the air and that’s what the bombers are for.”
“You mean target their Airfields?”
“Airfields, manufacturing, and logistics. I’m talking about destroying the entire chain of materiel that makes the Luftwaffe possible. Every single target—primary and secondary—is prioritized by how essential it is for the enemy to maintain air power of any kind. If the German Air Defense Force chooses to ride it out, they’ll find their supply lines expended; if they sortie to stop the bombers our fighter superiority destroys them in the air.”
“OK, Jim, show me the details.”
Over the next half-hour Gen. Doolittle and his staff laid out the details of the operation to the Commanding General. They called out the highest priority targets and those which were most likely to attract a strong defensive response in the enemy. They discussed coordination with the Ninth (tactical) Airforce and with their counterparts in Italy. Then the subject turned to the RAF.
“If we can get them on board we can keep the pressure up day-and-night. Right now Harris is resistant.”
Eaker already had a solution to that, “I’ll take it up with Portal, he can get Harris on board. How soon can you start the Operation?”
“As soon as the orders are issued and the weather cooperates. Colonel Tillman, has your man from the Weather Service arrived yet?”
Captain Welsh was asked to come inside and give his report.
“The low pressure system,” he began, indicating the locations of the systems mentioned in the report on the planning map pinned to an easel board at one end of the table, “that has caused extreme gales and rain in the North and West is expected to continue east toward Norway over the next few days. This will coincide with the arrival of a high pressure anticyclone arriving from the south-west over southern and eastern England. We expect locally unsettled weather where the associated troughs of the systems meet, predominately over Scotland and the Shetlands but there may be some scattered showers and local gales periodically in central and eastern England over the next week.
“Weather over the Continent will be similar but following several days later, moderating as usual when the systems move farther inland. In the north, the current bad weather we have experienced will likely bring icy gales and the possibility of snow as it moves over the North Sea and into Scandinavia. This could possibly create poor weather conditions as far south as Denmark and the north German coast. Western and Northern France will continue to have scattered fog with increased chance of rain as the high pressure system moves up along the west coast.
“These systems are expected to cause the areas over the Ruhr and Rhine Valleys and central Germany to be largely overcast but if temperatures moderate we may see some breaks during the mid-afternoons.”
He knew it was not the best weather outlook but he concluded with the good news.
“In all, we expect a period of seven to ten days beginning tomorrow of fair to favorable conditions for operations from eastern England and over much of Western Europe.”
============================
29 January 1944
18.(Sturm)/JG 1
Dortmund, Westphalia, Prussia, Greater German Reich
When Schnellkampfgeschwader 10 was broken up in October with its constituent groups scattered to other wings, III Gruppe was rolled into Schlachtgeschwader 4 in Northern Italy to continue their close air support for the beleaguered Heer units holding the Gustav Line. Rather than continue defending Italy, Oberleutnant Gerhard Limberg had volunteered out of close air support and into an experimental bomber hunting force organized by Major Hans-Günter von Kornatzki for Reichsverteidigung, The Defense of the Reich.
The unit, Sturmstaffel 1, was given Focke-Wulf 190A-6 aircraft which were modified with heavy 5cm armor plating and additional twin MG 151/20 canon pods under wings and called the A-6 Rüstsatz 1 (A-6/R1). Limberg had taken part in the initial trials of the modified FW-190 fighters and was present when the decision was made to replace the twin-canon pods with single MK 108 30mm canons in the wings to make the A-6/R2. The experiments continued to improve the armament and armor of the airplanes, adapting it into true Pulk-Zerstörer—a bomber-formation destroyer—while the pilots were trained to undertake highly aggressive attacks in formation from the rear of the American Viermots.
Kornatzki’s unit was formed at just the right time. On October 14th the groups with their twin-engine Zerstörer fighters were surprised and decimated by the unexpected presence of Limberg’s old Mediterranean nemesis, the American Lightning fighters, which stayed with the bombers their entire time over Germany. Even the regular fighter units, expecting easy prey in the bombers, were startled by the American fighter presence and suffered dearly for it. Many of the pilots defending the Reich that day had never seen, much less fought, Der Gabelschwanz Teufel before and they had learned the hard way what their countrymen in North Africa and Italy had discovered over the previous year—it was not a regular twin-engine heavy fighter. Jäger veterans were calling the day Teufelstag, “Devil’s Day,” while the Zerstörergruppen crews that survived had an even darker name for the day, Schwarz Donnerstag, “Black Thursday.”
The failure of the Zerstörer against American fighters had prompted the hurried deployment of the heavily armed Focke-Wulfs, called Sturmböcke, and the official withdrawal of the heavy fighters from daylight operations. Now, only the Sturmstaffeln and regular Jägerstaffeln stood between the ever growing American bomb forces and the Vaterland.
Oberleutnant Limberg and his newly arrived FW-190A-6/R4—which added GM-1 gas boost for extra power—with his unit, Sturmstaffel I, had been reassigned as a subordinate squadron in the I Gruppe, Jagdgeschwader 1, the famed Oesau Wing, under the command of Major Rudolf-Emil Schnoor in Dortmund as 18.(Sturm)/JG I with Major Kornatzki remaining as Staffelkapitän. Their first sortie had been a failure, being unable to find the bombers, but on their second Oberleutnant Ottmar Zehart had gotten a Fortress. After that, the past two-weeks had seen poor weather and rather quiet skies, without an opportunity for the 18 Sturmstaffel pilots to fully test their mettle against the American bombers but the weather was clearing and the Staffel was on high alert for the expected American incursion.
Even this day was completely overcast. The sky a heavy grey blanket over the rolling Prussian countryside. The weather report of the day noted that it was just a low ceiling, that above 1,000 meters the skies were perfectly clear, calm, and crisply chilled. Recent American activity had shown that even a complete obscuration of the target will no longer prevent them trying to raid—that they must have some new technology which allows them to bomb through the clouds—so even with the solid ceiling of clouds the Gruppe was in full readiness to sortie.
Shortly before lunch, the phone in the operations center rang. Limberg and the other pilots all stopped whatever miscellaneous tasks were keeping them occupied to listen to the group commander’s side of the conversation.
“Ja. Six thousand five hundred and seven thousand meters, heading 150, South-West of Hamburg. Ja, we can meet them near Hanover or Brunswick.” There was a pause. “Jawohl. Heil Hitler.”
Major Schnoor ordered the alarm raised. It was a call for all of the pilots to scramble to their aircraft and for the ground crews to get them running and warmed up so to save time in getting airborne. The dozen or so pilots that had been in the center with him grabbed their flight gear as he filled them in on the attack.
“Twenty minutes ago coast defense in Cuxhaven spotted a large formation of Veirmots coming south-east from the North Sea. They estimate around 400 Fortresses followed by about 300 Liberators twenty minutes behind them. They were heading toward Berlin but just a few minutes ago they turned south toward Brunswick. If they hit Brunswick we should be able to catch them during or just after their attack but their targets could be anywhere on a line Hanover to Dresden with Halle likely. First Group is supposed to climb immediately to intercept them in the Hanover or Brunswick area.”
With that they all ran from the building to their planes scattered around the aerodrome. Many of the airplanes were already rumbling with life. The three planes of the Stabschwarm and the eight planes of the Sturmstaffel were parked closest to the operations center and sleeping tents while those of the other three fighter squadrons were spread out around the entire perimeter of the field. Limberg’s new Sturmbock, White-8, was only a hundred meters away, painted in mottled shades of grey with the lower cowling a flash of yellow to identify JG 1 and the black and white fuselage bands unique to the Sturmstaffeln and loaded with a fully fueled belly tank.
He arrived just as his crew chief fired up the BMW radial, the airplane vanishing for a moment in a cloud of smoke spewing from under the cowl before the propeller gained speed and cleared the air. Limberg hopped onto the wing as the chief clambered from the cockpit. The man helped Limberg get his parachute on and then get him settled in the seat and strapped in as the engine warmed up.
The airplanes started to takeoff down the runway in ones and twos, each plane leaving as soon as it and its pilot was ready. Limberg waited for a gap and taxied in, lining up for his own take off next to Major Kornatzki in White-1 with its closed loop ZY antenna setting the lead plane apart from the others. Once clear, he pushed the single throttle handle forward, the Automatic Engine Control handling the electro-mechanical calculations to match engine speed, propeller pitch and speed, mixture, and magneto timing to the throttle position.
White-8 and White-1, side-by-side, accelerated down the runway. The heavy Sturmbock aircraft took longer to get airborne than the regular Jäger planes but it was still better than hauling bombs and fuel as he was used to in his old Jabo plane. In a short time, however, he felt his tail lift and the horizon turned up in his windscreen. Limberg waited for another few dozen km/h speed before the entire airplane started to float on the runway then pulled back on the simple control stick between his knees. White-8 left the ground with a little waggle and he pressed the button to raise the alighting gear.
As the rest of the Gruppe gained the air the different squadrons started to organize above the low cloud cover and climb to the east. Limberg counted 38 planes that managed to get up with the alarm, including all 8 Sturmböcke. The Sturmstaffel organized into a two Schwärme of two Rotten. Each Rotte was a pair of airplanes, a lead and a partner. In a normal Jagdrotte the lead would be the primary hunter while the partner would simply cover the lead and watch for other enemy aircraft. In the Sturmstaffel, however, all eight planes would fly together to attack the bomber Pulk as a unit, breaking into their smaller pairs only if absolutely necessary. Limberg moved White-8 into his assigned position as the Lead of the second Rotte in Blau-Schwarm. Major Schoor radioed brief instructions for the interception to the pilots so that each man would know where to go and how to attack.
“We are going to Brunswick. The American bombers are around seven-thousand meters altitude, heading one-hundred-fifty degrees. We have about two-hundred kilometers to go and need to be there in thirty minutes, so plan your climb to maintain a speed of four-hundred. Climb to seven-thousand-five-hundred meters and attack from above. The Jagdstaffeln will lead the group and engage any enemy fighters, the Sturmstaffel will target the bombers.”
“Did they spot the escorts?”
“No, be we can expect them to be amongst the bombers. I expect no fewer than two-hundred escorts but they will be spread out. Several other Jagdgruppen will be intercepting as well, so keep an eye for our aircraft. From here we are on radio silence unless the situation changes.”
The long distance made the climb easy and shallow, the airplanes far from being taxed as the group formed up and raced to the planned intercept. This was Limberg’s first sortie in direct defense of the Fatherland and he was anxious to show Major Kornatzki that allowing him into the Staffel was the right choice. His record in the Mediterranean was good, with hundreds of sorties including a few when he was able to use the limited firepower of his Jabo to take out American and British fighters and two American Marauders. Kornatzki had accepted him into the unit, though, not for his aerial victories but because of his skill in handling over-loaded Focke-Wulfs—experience he was able to share with the more experienced light Jäger pilots and proven bomber-killers in the unit.
They were a little more than fifteen minutes into their flight, just climbing past 5,000 meters and well outside the typical American escort circle, when Leutnant Hans Albrecht in 3 Staffel was hit. Limberg did not see it happen but the alarm called out on the radio, “Yellow-Three, Vorsicht! Indianern Six o’Clock high!”
Limberg looked behind the group to see a swarm of American Lightnings diving down from directly behind them. Two Focke-Wulfs were already going down in flames and the rest were scattering.
“Jäger Red-One, Jagdstaffeln, engage the fighters. Sturmstaffel find the bombers!”
Limberg pushed his throttles forward with the rest of the Sturmstaffel, all hoping to escape the speeding Lightnings, but he knew that their only hope would be that all of the Americans turn to engage the Jägers. He risked looking back again to watch the Americans as they maneuvered into the fray of fighters. There looked to be only a score or so of the big twin-tailed Americans, their noses white over their green camouflage and with large white circles on their tails. Seeing that they were so out-numbered by his own compatriots gave him heart that his Staffel may just escape.
He looked forward again, scanning the skies above for any sign of the American bomber herd. The ground directors must have been mistaken on the bombers’ route and position, they must have turned farther south than reported. With the escorts here already, he knew the bombers had to be nearby.
“Sturm Red-Four, more Gabelschwantzen eight high!”
Limberg saw them. Another twenty P-38s were coming down, breaking out of their clustered formation into smaller Schwärme of four planes. About half of them were angled to pass over the rest of the fighting and were turning to cut off the Sturmstaffel.
“Sturm Blue-Three,” Limberg warned the Staffel, “Indianern coming to us, Eight-O’clock. We cannot out-pace them.”
“Sturm Red-One, release belly-tanks; we will have to fight our way out. Sturmjäger aircraft, form a defensive circle.”
The eight Sturmböcke turned left in a line while dropping their external fuel tanks and continued until their entire formation was one large circle, each airplane separated by a hundred meters or so from the next so that each pilot was covered from the rear while providing cover to the plane in front of him. The tactic worked well, for the most part, as it limited the enemy to quick vertical passes and prevented them from being able to get in and take their time dismantling the circle.
Sure enough, upon seeing the forming luftbery, most of the American planes turned wide and pulled up out their initial line of interception. One Schwarm, however continued on, diving headlong to pass straight through the circle, their white noses lighting up in angry fire as they unleashed the devastating power of the American heavy machine guns. Red-Four was hit, but not hard, and the circle remained intact as the four Lightnings dove below them.
A queasiness settled into Limberg’s stomach as he watched the other eight Lightnings circling above them, preparing to set up their own pass. It was not those eight which elicited such an odd feeling in the veteran pilot. He rolled White-8 farther into the turn, careful to maintain his position in the circle, and looked for the four Americans below them. He leaned over as far as his safety harness would allow, pressing his helmeted forehead against the side panel of the narrow canopy to look as far past his wing as possible.
There they were.
The four Lightnings were recovering from their dive and were coming around again to attack the circle from below.
“Here they come!”
One of the other pilots called out and Limberg flicked his head back to the high group to see they were now sliding into dives to attack the Staffel. The American tactic became clear—the planes above would distract and shake up the circle and as soon as they were clear the four from below would strike from circle’s blind spots and completely break it.
He was not the only one to notice the danger. The Sturmstaffel was composed entirely of veterans, some with hundreds of combat sorties, and they did not survive four years of war through carelessness. Kornatzki made the call, “Sturm Rot-Schwarm, follow me high into the attackers. Make head-on attacks.”
The Anton Sturmböcke were graced not only with heavier arms but with plenty of extra armor in front of the pilot. Even the canopy had extra 3cm armored glass panels added to front and sides. The intent was to allow the airplane to take more fire when approaching from the rear of the bomber Pulk but the armor will work just as well against a frontal attack on a fighter.
Kornatzki continued, “Blau-Schwarm, dive into the low Indianern .”
Limberg followed his Staffelkapitän’s orders without hesitation and, as he was already banked over, was the first to dive toward the four climbing American planes. The Lightnings were still lazily turning around, clearly waiting for their higher squadron-mates to complete their attack before climbing for their own strike. He noted that although these Lightnings had the same white noses as those he had seen before, their tails were adorned with large white squares instead of the circles of the other group.
When Limberg completed his roll-out and angled White-8 toward the enemy, the Lightnings were crossing to the right at a slight angle away from him but still turning in. He pushed his throttle up trying to gain a firing position before they turned too far. The BMW sent vibrations through the plane, forcing him to clench his jaw to keep his teeth from rattling.
He was only 400 meters away but still not in a good firing position on his selected target, the farthest Gabelschwanz Teufel in the Schwarm. The Americans continued their right-hand turn and started to climb. Limberg’s Focke-Wulf, with its wide turning radius, could never turn tight enough to get inside the enemies’ line so he did what even the heavily loaded Sturmbock could do better than the long-span P-38 and counter-rolled. His right shoulder pressed against the cockpit bulkhead as he forced White-8 to reverse his bank from the right in a left snap roll as he deliberately overshot the Lightnings. He pulled the stick back as hard as he could into a high lag roll and come around more directly behind the enemy.
The Scharwm of four Lightings were separating into their two Rotten, each pair turning away to avoid the four Focke-Wulfs coming at them. Limberg kept his focus on the pair he had originally targeted, who continued their right turn as the other pair peeled up to climb away. His lag roll had put him in a perfect pursuit position, 250 meters behind them, but the Lightnings were beginning to pull away. As they passed out to 300 meters, Limberg finally got a good angle and risked a controlled burst from his heavy machine guns and 20mm canons.
The shots fell short, passing behind the American’s left wing. The two Lightnings split apart, the lead plane pulled up and straightened out of the turn to climb away from Limberg while the second plane extended its flaps slightly and tightened its turn.
Limberg made the decision to abandon the chase on the second plane whose turn was now too tight for Limberg’s Anton to follow and instead rolled quickly away, once more planning to turn outside the plane of maneuver.
“Blue-four, behind..!”
Limber’s partner was silent after that brief warning. He turned his head and saw the other Focke-Wulf dis-assembling under the weight of American fire streaming into it. There were two other Lightnings diving on them, one was unpainted, and both were lifting their noses to gain an angle on Limberg.
He pushed his throttle all the way forward and activated the GM-1 boost as he rolled left as hard as could, praying the laden Anton could still flip over fast enough for an Abschwung and dive away from the Lightnings. The radial engine received a sudden burst of power and torque from the gas boost and it threw White-8 in a tight left roll. Limberg’s head whipped to the right, nearly cracking against the side glass of the canopy from the unexpected suddenness of the roll. He was inverted quickly and pulled back on the stick to point his nose straight down to the thick cloud cover over 3 km below him.
Looking up through the top of his canopy he expected to see the Americans overshoot above him. Instead, the unpainted Lightning seemed to spin in place and it nose suddenly dropped directly toward Limberg. The maneuver was eerily familiar to the veteran German pilot.
Could it be…?
============================
ENCOUNTER REPORT
CAPT. D. B. HILGERT
a. Combat
b. 29 January 1944
c. 79th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group
d. 1155
e. Germany
f. Visibility good, 10/10 at 3,500 feet
g. FW 190s
h. 1 FW 190 Destroyed (shared with 2Lt. Roark), 1 FW 190 Damaged
i.
I was leading Crownright Blue flight and we were performing a sweep ahead of the 2nd Division Bombers, SW of Hanover. Rebuke squadron called out that they spotted approx. 40 FW 190 aircraft climbing toward the bombers and requested assistance from Crownright. We arrived to find most of the E/A engaged with Rebuke but eight FW 190s continuing toward Hanover. Maj. Ott led Red, Blue, and Green flights after these 190s. These A/C were carrying drop tanks and had black and white bands around the fuselage and they had formed a luftbery at 14,000 feet. Capt. Gatterdam led Green flight through the luftbery while Red and Blue flight waited for them to get in low position before making our attack. When we dove down, the luftbery broke up. Four E/A climbed to attack us head-on. I saw large red bursts around Maj. Ott’s A/C and saw him go down but was not able to watch for a parachute. I also saw the right wing shot off one FW 190 and confirm this one destroyed by Lt. Hanzo. After the first pass, I noticed two E/A chasing several P 38s beneath us and led Blue two in pursuit. From 250 yards and an angle off 10°, indicating 300, 2Lt. Roark and I opened fire on the trailing E/A. I saw strikes all over the A/C and pieces were flying off but it did not maneuver to evade. I believe the first burst killed the pilot. I claim this E/A destroyed, jointly with 2Lt. Roark. The lead E/A then Split-S to the left and dove away. I executed a MacKay and was able to spin inside of his line. I followed him down, firing bursts at him at 225, 150, and 75 yards, while indicating up to 400. On the last burst I saw strikes around his tail and right wing-root. After that, he disappeared into the clouds at 3,400 feet. I claim this E/A damaged.
After searching for the FW 190 for several minutes, I re-joined the squadron.
Claims: 1 FW 190 Destroyed - shared with 2Lt. Roark
1 FW 190 Damaged
j. Ser. No. of A/C 42-103997
A/C Marking: MC-L
Ammunition Expended: 302 rds. 50 cal
59 rds. 20mm
DONALD B. HILGERT
Capt. Air Corps
20th Ftr. Group
============================
29 January 1944
18.(Sturm)/JG 1
Dortmund, Westphalia, Prussia, Greater German Reich
Oberleutnant Limberg was safe at Dormund, not for the Americans’ lack of trying to ensure otherwise.
After his narrow escape from the unpainted Lightning he had turned directly back to the aerodrome, flying alone below the clouds to avoid being jumped by any other American fighters. The trip back gave him time to puzzle over the events of the day, specifically, the big questions: Where were the Viermots?
There had been no sign of the American bombers.
He could not place his finger on quite what that might mean but it itched at the back of his neck as something unwelcome. In the past the American escorts had always stayed within sight of the bombers. The only time he had seen P-38s alone was when they were either laden with their bombs for ground-attack missions, or when they were being sent to intercept German bombers and transports as they had the past spring in Tunisia.
These Lightnings were not carrying bombs, so they were not on their own attack mission; but, they were also too far away from their aerodromes to be flying defensive interceptions. No, he realized, today was either a random meeting or something completely new. It all depended on whether it was isolated to I. Gruppe or if other units had similar experiences. It will take analysis and evaluation by the Intelligence Service to solve.
He was the third airplane from the Gruppe to return to Dortmond. Over the next 30 minutes, others arrived. After an hour, only 23 of the original 38 airplanes had returned. He was one of only three Sturmböcke to return.
It occurred to him that maybe the Sturmstaffel concept was dead before it began.
