Can this story be confirmed ?

I do not see the LW pilot kill in the Freiburg listing(s) but ......... ?

BILL Pearce remembers the exact moment his friend Walter Telsnig tried to kill him.

It was 1.20am, February 22, 1945, and they were both 6km above Dusseldorf in Germany. Walter's Messerschmitt had sneaked under Bill's Lancaster bomber and sent a spurt of 20mm cannon fire into the fuselage.

Bill, flying with 174 other aircraft on his 41st mission with Bomber Command, knew immediately the shot was lethal.

His rear gunner lay dead and the starboard engine had exploded in a ball of fire about 2m from him as he hunched over his wireless operator desk in the main cabin.

The skipper gave the order to bail out, so he ripped off his oxygen mask, pulled on a parachute and peered out the rear starboard door at a black German night lit by the blazing wing of the doomed Lancaster.

"I knew there was no welcoming committee waiting for me on the ground," he said. "It wasn't a good time to be in Germany."

World War II has provided some extraordinary stories of derring-do but few have such amiable endings as the tale of Walter and Bill.

More than 60 years after the two desperately tried to destroy one another in the skies over Europe, they now chat on the phone. "We're mates," Bill says. "It's silly, 60-odd years ago we were trying to kill each other."

The chance encounter has been documented by Royal Air Force records which collaborate Bill and Walter's recollections.

The two were put in touch by a third party in Britain several years ago. Speaking at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra this week , Bill, 85, said while he knew the gravity of his situation, the lack of oxygen made him strangely optimistic or "happy drunk".

He landed safely, one of four out of the crew of seven who survived.

Eventually captured by a civilian in a paddock near Cologne, he was handed over to the Luftwaffe before one of the tanks of flamboyant US General George S. Patton crashed through his prison gates and liberated him a few months later.

source: Daily Telegraph

 

>Re: Can this story be confirmed ?

Yep.
See: Lost Bombers - World War II Lost Bombers
(although it says "shot down by night-fighter (Hptm.Breves, 1V./NJG1)."
Noting I have found occasional errors / typos in lostbombers.co.uk
- Not surprizing considering the scope of work inserted there.... not to mention corroboration required for German claims in circa WW2 insertion of info in British gazettes.

Wouldn't it be great if we could get them on board here...
another monster interest thread built on their past communications
- that one could rival 514 Lancasters!

"W.G.Pearce was interned in Camps 13D/7A, PoW No.11454. This was his 42nd Operation."

42nd? Wow!
______________
"The only time an aircraft has too much fuel on board is when it is on fire." (-;
Sir Charles Kingford Smith, shortly before his death in the 1920's

 

Fred, it mentions ace of the LW Hauptmann Breeves who flew a NJG 1 Bf 110G-4. Wrong guy or maybe the right guy and the Daily telegraph is off base ??. thanks for the link

~ Have 2 members of III./NJG 11 flying Bf 109G-14/AS and G-10's but not the LW pilot with the name mentioned from NJG 11.

the date is pretty nasty in the case of LW nf claims with some 14 kills by NJG 1, 11 by NJG 2, 7 by NJG 4, 20 by NJG 6, 2 by III./NJG 11 with last names and rank not the chap mentioned and also 3 Mossies by Me 262 Kommando Welter aka 10./NJG 11 which might be wrong in total

 

I knew it ! went back to Dr. Theo Boitens work "Nachtjagd" and two pages of the event is in the book, Breeves scored 3 Lancs and the mention of a real strong possibility of Pearces Lanc as a victim ... ~

 

>two pages of the event is in the book

Any chance of a translation, inserted here?
This would be a very interesting read, likewise for many other threads I've enjoyed here on this forum.

Tnx Fred

 

Fred let me see what I can do, and in fact I am writing Theo tonight about this very mission and what the possibility that the Daily Telegraph could be correct........

Boitne will cover the nasty mission from the LW viewpoint in his new book released next spring, ' The nachtjagd War diaries '

I do know that several on this fine board would like to have the first huge volume covering the LW/RAF. the second volume due out in some years will be the LW /Soviets on the Ost front

 

Theo Boiten's excellent book 'Nachtjagd ' was published in English by Crowood Press in 1997 ( ISBN 186 126 0865 ) - it's OOP now, but can often be found via booksellers specialising in aviation subjects.....

 

Theo is currently working on volume 2 of the Nachtjagd Diaries which should be available sometime around June or July 2008

Leslie

 

actually it is a completely different volume 1 covering the Nachtjagd vs the RAF. volume 2 will be the Nachtjagd vs the Soviets in about 10 years or so he told me several times

 

Hi Erich
I mentioned it because Theo has copies of my father's log book, pictures, some of his story etc. and specifically requested our permission to use it in his book. That indicated to me that there would be more on the Nachtjagd & RAF.

Kind regards
Leslie

 

the Nachtjagd war diaries has nothing to do with the OOP title Nachtjagd. Nachtjagd war diaries : the LW vs the RAF is volume 1, and this is what I am indicating. there will be 2 volumes as I have been in contact several times with Theo regarding both the 1st due out in spring of 08 and the 2nd volume as I was interested and have been for over 35 years the missions of the NJG 100 and the shooting down and confirmation of the claims submitted of Soviet single and twin engine and winged a/c over the Ost front besides the night and day ground attack of the NJG 100 on Soviet as well as US/British positions, as the NJG provided a dual role end the end weeks of the war.

< hopeful that clears the confusion > and let me add a side note, our forum member FalkeEins has had a major part in translating for both of Theos volumes.............good work Neil !

 

Thanks Erich

Yes that clarifies it for me. I didn't realize they were two separate subject matters/books.

Leslie