So, who was
the first to shoot down a legendary Messerschmitt Me262 jet fighter during
WWII?
According to
the internet, credit goes to Maj. Joseph Myers and Officer Manford Crory of
the 78th Fighter Group, who managed to force the pilot of the Me262 into manoeuvring
his aircraft into the ground on August 28, 1944.
However,
credit for the first Me262 that was actually shot down by Allied forces'
gunfire, goes to 5 Spitfire pilots from 401 Squadron RCAF on October 5th, 1944,
who were patrolling the Arnhem-Nijmegen area at the time. Further research
shows that the Tuskegee Airmen in their P-51 Mustangs are claiming credit while
conducting operations on March 24th, 1945.
While I may never have a definite answer to my question, being Canadian, I'd prefer that
the Spitfire pilots from 401 Squadron get the credit. But, as this is Glen's
Blog, I'd like to tell you a little
story about his first experience
in shooting down one of the War's first
jet fighters.
The date was
March 31, 1945 and Glen, the Mid-Upper Gunner, F/L Kitchen and their crew were
once again flying a Lancaster X WL-L, named Lollipop- although in this case,
not the original one as that was badly beaten up from its rough treatment on
the night of March 5-6. The operation on this day was over Hamburg, Germany, an
unusual daylight raid- the target possibly an oil depot or the many U-Boats
under construction there, and included 469 aircraft-361 Lancaster Bombers, 100
Halifax Bombers and 8 Mosquitoes. Lost that day were 8 Lancs and 3 Halifax.
That day,
they were not flying in formation but in
what was referred to as a gaggle, a disorderly grouping of aircraft. The
Lancasters' had an American P-51 escort which was so far ahead of the Lancs
that it was virtually useless and at one point, one of Glen's crew, Jack
Rebman, used a Verey pistol to try to get the Mustang's attention, but to no
avail. What happened next involved only the Lancs, Halifax bombers and
Mosquitoes. The P-51s didn't return to the gaggle until all of the damage was
done.
Due to some
unexpected intervention by the Luftwaffe day fighter force, Glen and the crew
from Lollipop encountered a Me262 in the skies over the Hamburg. From his
turret, Glen watched as Allied Halifax aircraft were being attacked by the new
jet fighters and in the course of the action, Glen managed to fire 200 bursts at one Me262, finally shooting it down. Glen
remembers, " The first
moment I recognized we were in for trouble was when I looked straight back a
couple of miles and could see fireballs - I counted 3 at once. Flying
right off our Starboard side at 600 yards was a Halifax and I never saw it
on fire but the 262 Fighter was a ways behind
him and using a 30 mm cannon. The Halifax crew all bailed out and
I understand they were taken prisoners of war. " Doug Reid, navigator in Lollipop crew noted in his navigator's log that this took place at 9:04 a.m.
Once
Glen's crew landed safely, at 12:10 pm (the duration of the mission was 6 hours 10
minutes) Glen
attended a debriefing with the Air Commodore, a man who was politically placed
by Prime Minister MacKenzie King (as a favour for support perhaps?) but not
necessarily interested in recording history as it unfolded. As Glen told of
seeing the attack on the nearby Halifax bomber, the Air Commodore stopped him,
refusing to acknowledge Glen's hit on the Messerschmitt on the grounds that he
knew of no Halifax Bombers being flown during that raid. Not only would he not
listen, but he would not record Glen's hit on the infamous Me262.
In the past
few years, Glen has come across several other accounts of that night....Douglas Grey, of Ajax, Ontario (Legion
Magazine March/April 2010) a flight engineer on a Halifax, witnessed a jet
fighter destroy the aircraft ahead of theirs before attacking them. The crew
bailed out and were taken prisoners of war-one of the very few complete air
crews in Stalag Luft #1. And Gene
Lockhard of Lindsay, Ontario, also a flight engineer, discovered
that the Halifax crew he had first trained with before being replaced was
one of the Halifax bombers that was hit by fire from an Me262. All on board
were killed. (Legion Magazine
Jan./Feb. 2010)