The encounter with the "Master of the Skies".

Lawrence Thompson meets the Allied airpower's "Nemesis" (I strongly recommend reading it all, its an exciting story !)

".... this was my first major dogfight I had in the war, in January 1945. I was flying a P-51D and we were supposed to meet with bombers over Romania. Well, the bombers never showed up! And we kept circling and wasting our fuel. When we were low on fuel the squadron leader orders us back to base, with the top group at 24,000 feet and the four bait Mustangs ordered to 15,000 feet. Now you might not really think about it, but the difference in altitude, 9,000 feet, is almost two miles, and assuming that the top flight could dive and rescue the 'bait' airplanes, it might take a full sixty seconds or more for the top group to come to the rescue. A heck of alot can happen in sixty seconds. Earlier, I requested to fly in the bait section believing that I'd have a better chance to get some scores (at that time I had no victories either) and this was my seventh mission. I have to say now that I grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, and my older brother flew a Jenny biplane in the late 1930s, so I learned the basics of flying even before joining the Army.

So we're all heading back to Italy when, all of a sudden, a dozen or so Me109's bounce us. From one moment it's a clear blue sky, next moment there are dozens' of tracers passing my cockpit. I'm hit several times and I roll over to the right, and below me is an P-51, heading for the deck, with an Me109 chasing him. I begin to chase the Me109. All this time I believe there was another Me109 chasing me! It was a racetrack, all four of us were racing for the finish line! Eventually I caught up with the first Me109 and I fired a long burst at about 1,000 yards, to no effect. Then I waited until about 600 yards, I fired two very long bursts, probably five seconds each (P-51 has ammo for about 18 seconds of continuous bursts for four machine guns, the remaining two machine guns will shoot for about 24 seconds). I noticed that part of his engine cowling flew off and he immediately broke off his attack on the lead P-51. I check my rear view mirrors and there's nothing behind me now; somehow, I have managed to lose the Me109 following me, probably because the diving speed of the P-51 is sixty mph faster than the Me109. So I pull up on the yoke and level out; suddenly a Me109 loomes about as large as a barn door right in front of me! And he fires his guns at me, and he rolls to the right, in a Lufberry circle. I peel off, following this Me109. I can see silver P-51s and black nosed camouflaged painted Me109s everywhere I look, there's Me109 or P-51 everywhere! At this time I cannot get on the transmitter and talk, everyone else in the squadron is yelling and talking, and there's nothing but yelling, screaming, and incoherent interference as everyone presses their mike buttons at the same time. I can smell something in the cockpit. Hydraulic fluid! I knew I got hit earlier.

.... I'm still following this Me109. I just got my first confirmed kill of my tour, and now I'm really hot. I believe that I am the hottest pilot in the USAAF! And now I'm thinking to myself: am I going to shoot this Me109 down too?! He rolls and we turn, and turn; somehow, I cannot catch up with him in the Lufberry circle, we just keep circling. About the third 360 degree turn he and I must have spotted two Mustangs flying below us, about 2,000 feet below, and he dives for the two P-51s.

Now I'm about 150 yards from him, and I get my gunsight on his tail, but I cannot shoot, because if I shoot wide, or my bullets pass through him, I might shoot down one or both P-51s, so I get a front seat, watching, fearful that this guy will shoot down a P-51 we're approaching at about 390 mph. There's so much interference on the R/T I cannot warn the two Mustangs, I fire one very long burst of about seven or eight seconds purposely wide, so it misses the Mustangs, and the Me109 pilot can see the tracers. None of the Mustang pilots see the tracers either! I was half hoping expecting that they'd see my tracers and turn out of the way of the diving Me109. But no such luck. I quit firing. The Me109 still dives, and as he approaches the two P-51s he holds his fire, and as the gap closes, two hundred yards, one hundred yards, fifty yards the Hun does not fire a shot. No tracers, nothing! At less than ten yards, it looks like he's going to ram the lead P-51 and the Hun fires one single shot from his 20mm cannon! And Bang! Engine parts, white smoke, glycol, whatnot from the lead P-51 is everywhere, and that unfortunate Mustang begins a gentle roll to the right.

I try to watch the Mustang down, but cannot, Now my full attention is on the Hun! Zoom. We fly through the two Mustangs (he was taken POW). Now the advantage of the P-51 is really apparent, as in a dive I am catching up to the Me109 faster than a runaway freight train. I press the trigger for only a second then I let up on the trigger, I believe at that time I was about 250 yards distant, but the Hun was really pulling lots' of negative and positive g's and pulling up to the horizon. He levels out and then does a vertical tail stand! And next thing I know, he's using his built up velocity from the dive to make a vertical ninety degree climb. This guy is really an experienced pilot. I'm in a vertical climb, and my P-51 begins to roll clockwise violently, only by pushing my left rudder almost through the floor can I stop my P-51 from turning. We climb for altitude; in the straight climb that Me109 begins to out distance me, though my built up diving speed makes us about equal in the climb. We climb one thousand fifteen hundred feet, and at eighteen hundred feet, the hun levels his aircraft out. A vertical climb of 1,800 feet! I've never heard of a piston aircraft climbing more than 1,000 feet in a tail stand. At this time we're both down to stall speed, and he levels out. My airspeed indicator reads less than 90 mph! So we level out. I'm really close now to the Me109, less than twenty five yards! Now if I can get my guns on him.........

At this range, the gunsight is more of nuisance than a help. Next thing, he dumps his flaps fast and I begin to overshoot him! That's not what I want to do, because then he can bear his guns on me. The P-51 has good armor, but not good enough to stop 20mm cannon hits. This Luftwaffe pilot must be one heck of a marksman, I just witnessed him shooting down a P-51 with a single 20mm cannon shot! So I do the same thing, I dump my flaps, and as I start to overshoot him, I pull my nose up, this really slows me down; S-T-A-L-L warning comes on! and I can't see anything ahead of me nor in the rear view mirror. Now I'm sweating everywhere. My eyes are burning because salty sweat keeps blinding me: 'Where is He!?!' I shout to myself. I level out to prevent from stalling. And there he is. Flying on my right side. We are flying side to side, less than twenty feet separates our wingtips. He's smiling and laughing at himself. I notice that he has a red heart painted on his aircraft, just below the cockpit. The nose and spinner are painted black. It's my guess that he's a very experienced ace from the Russian front. His tail has a number painted on it: "200". I wonder: what the "two hundred" means!? Now I began to examine his airplane for any bullet hits, afterall, I estimate that I just fired 1,600 rounds at the hun. I cannot see a single bullet hole in his aircraft! I could swear that I must have gotten at least a dozen hits! I keep inspecting his aircraft for any damage. One time, he even lifts his left wing about 15 degrees, to let me see the underside, still no hits! That's impossible I tell myself. Totally impossible. Then I turn my attention back to the "200" which is painted on the tail rudder. German aces normally paint a marker for each victory on their tail. It dawns on me that quick: TWO HUNDRED KILLS !! We fly side by side for five minutes. Those five minutes take centuries to pass. Less than twenty five feet away from me is a Luftwaffe ace, with over two hundred kills. We had been in a slow gradual dive now, my altitude indicates 8,000 feet. I'm panicking now, even my socks are soaked in sweat. The German pilot points at his tail, obviously meaning the "200" victories, and then very slowly and dramatically makes a knife-cutting motion across his throat, and points at me. He's telling me in sign language that I'm going to be his 201 kill! Panic! I'm breathing so hard, it sounds like a wind tunnel with my mask on. My heart rate must have doubled to 170 beats per minute; I can feel my chest, thump-thump and so.

This goes on for centuries, and centuries. The two of us flying at stall speed, wingtip to wingtip. I think more than once of simply ramming him. He keeps watching my ailerons, maybe that's what he expects me to do. We had heard of desperate pilots who, after running out of ammunition, would commit suicide by ramming an enemy plane. Then I decide that I can Immelmann out of the situation, and I began to climb, but because my flaps are down, my Mustang only climbs about one hundred feet, pitches over violently to the right and stalls. The next instant I'm dangerously spinning, heading ninety degrees vertically down! And the IAS reads 300 mph! My P-51 just falls like a rock to the earth! I hold the yoke in the lower left corner and sit on the left rudder, flaps up, and apply FULL POWER! I pull out of the dive at about 500 feet, level out, (I began to black out so with my left hand I pinch my veins in my neck to stop blackout). I scan the sky for anything! There's not a plane in the sky, I dive to about fifty feet elevation, heading towards Italy. I fly at maximum power for about ten minutes, and then reduce my rpm (to save gasoline), otherwise the P-51 has very limited range at full power. I fly like this for maybe an hour, no planes in the vicinity; all the time I scan the sky, check my rear view mirrors.

I never saw the Me109 with the red heart again. At the mess I mention the Me109 with the red heart and "200" written on the tail. That's when the whole room, I mean everybody, gets instantly quiet. Like you could hear a pin drop. Two weeks later the base commander shows me a telex: "....according to intelligence, the German pilot with a red heart is Eric Hartmann who has downed 250 aircraft and there is a reward of fifty thousand dollars offered by Stalin for shooting him down. I've never before heard of a cash reward for shooting down an enemy ace ... "


Best regards, KBO.

 

thanks kbo, for the exellent story, about bubi

 

Your very welcome ! :smok:


A sight wich resembles very much what Lawrence Thompson saw that day (A laughing ace on his side):

 

I believe this story has already been in our "Air Warfare Stories" -thread.
http://www.forum.fun-online.sk/viewtopic.php?t=1678

 

Where did you get it, KBO?

 

Sounds very scary... Highly engrossing story, KBO.

 

I got it from here: http://www.virtualpilots.fi/hist/WW2His ... tmann.html

Interesting stories told by Hartmann himself, and by the people who met him. He wasnt actually that good a pilot from the beginning, as he testafies !


Another quote from the site:

During his combat career on the Russian front, Hartmann met U.S. planes over Romania, shooting down seven P-51 Mustangs during these engagements.One of the U.S. units engaged was the 334th Fighter Squadron and it is thought that U.S. Ace Lt.Ralph K. Hoffer(16.5 victories), might have been one of Hartmann's victims. (see the separate story above " the Mustang wich git hit once")

In the late morning of May 8, 1945, Hptm.Hartmann led the Schwarm(flight) over Czechoslovakia to spot the advancing Russian troops.He saw a Soviet Yak fighter performing aerobatics over the town of Brunn, apparently in celebration of the pending Russian victory.Erich struck quickly and the hapless aerobat became his 352nd victory.

After surrendering to the Americans at Pisek, Hartmann was turned over to the Russians by the U.S. authorities.Once the Soviets realized that they had the Black Devil as a prisoner, he was singled out for especially brutal treatment, including long periods of solitary confinement in total darkness.Using every persuasive device known, the Russians could not convert Hartmann to Communism, and get him to join the airforce of DDR.

After a mock-up war-crime trial Hartmann was held in prison for ten years, far longer than the other POW's.While he was illegaly detained in Russia, Hartmann's 3 1/2-year-old-son, whom he had never seen, died. It was only after Chansellor Adenauer personally visited Moscow in 1955 and arranged for his release that a gaunt and haggard Erich Hartmann was released by his captors, broken in body but not in spirit.
(Bloody EVIL Soviets !! :angry: )
-----------------------------------------------------

On a grey day in 1993, Oberst(ret) Erich Hartmann lost the ultimate battle of his life.An illness that had troubled him before in late 70's, and originated back to his 10 1/2 years of hard labour inprisonment in Russia, finally beat him.


One thing must be remembered about him; He was never a Nazi, and had refused to join the Nazi party, even when asked by Hitler himself ! It takes a brave man to decline such a thing from Hitler himself !

Best regards, KBO. :smok:

 

No, it aint there.

 

Well, there's a link to that story...

 

Must have overlooked it Anyway, it doesnt matter.

KBO :smok:

 

He also refused to compromise his principles and collaborate with his Russian captors who held him illegally (after the war ended). Had he done so he doubtless would have been released sooner. As an American I am not proud of the way Germans who surrendered to the US (and Britain also) were often turned over to the Russians.

 

Yes, he was a strong man. I however don't understand why the Russians punished him for his achievements, he was afterall just doing his job. Im sure the W-Allies wouldnt have treated him that way, if he had shot down over 250 of their fighters, and was captured by them ! They would probably have some kind of respect for him, but that wasnt the way the attitude to aerial warfare was on the eastern front !

Yes it was tragedy, alot of decent men died that way, only the true Nazi's should have been send over there. But on the other hand if the W-Allies hadnt done it, the Soviets might have felt hatred to them aswell. (A chance for a second war, wich was most undesirable !)

KBO

 

a similar situation was presented to gunther rall, who was asked if he can train allied pilots to figth te japs, and he refused because he will be fighting former allieds, the japs.

 

i started to have doubt about this story, since harmann scored 301 kills in August 44, and have the 300 painted in the tail of his plane,???????

 

This is a long shot:

The Me-109 could also belong to Herman Graf. He was part of the 9./JG52 and there are pictures of him flying a heart emblemed Me-109. He became Kommodor of JG52 in late 1944 and he had around 200 kills in early 1945. He could have possibly retained his earlier paint scheme from 9./JG52 (possibly as a lucky charm) when he was reassigned to JG52 stab.

 

I was about to say the same. Also, why should Lawrence be lying about it ? It wasnt Hartmann as it couldnt be, but Graf, most certainly.

KBO

 

The problem with Graf is, that his only P-51 victories came in early 1944 in Stab/JG11.

I haven't get hold of Hartmann's victory list where we could check this quite easily.

I wouldn't be surprised if Thompson actually misread the numbers in the heat of the battle.

 

That would offcourse also be an option. But he did see a red-heart painted bellow the canopy thats for sure.

Im leaning towards that it was Graf, but lets see.

Best regards, KBO.

 

Why?
"I had a dogfight with the top German ace & I'm still alive!"

However, that is simply my nasty cynical side kicking in. Sorry for the interruption. Keep up the detective work guys!

 

The easiest way this could be solved is to assume the writer of the story didn't write (or Thompson didn't remember) the day of the encounter right. If this encounter would have happened in June 1944, all of the pieces would fit in. Hartmann scored his P-51 kills in June 1944 and had ~250 kills. Thompson probably didn't notice the other kill marks in the tail but noticed only the wreath showing "200".

As for Graf, the Me-109 he flew had a red tulip figure on the nose as opposed to Hartmann's black.

Memories can be vague, when one interviews a 80 year old fighter pilot remembering 60 year old things