p47 jug taking some punishment

[hotcoffe]

I tried watching the OP's video, but after 5 minutes I just couldn't take the exaggerations, wild animations and bravado. I much prefer the following recounting of that fateful day in Johnson's life, told by the man himself:



Btw. in this extraordinary machinima they say that "Half Pint" took 22 cannon hits. If accurate, that's an astonishing, simply incredible amount of damage for a P-47 to survive. That's what the Luftwaffe found was needed to bring down a four-engined bomber! On that day Johnson must surely have been the luckiest man alive.

thnx for sharing

[hotcoffe]

I really wonder if there is any document left by the german pilot , telling the story from his side.

[Ack-Ack]

I was surprised to find that Freeman, in "Wolfpack Warriors," casts some doubt on Johnson's version of the event.

- oldman

Didn't Freeman make the claim in that book that it was another Jug from the 56th, flown by Gerald Johnson, that was responsible?

ack-ack

[Ack-Ack]

I really wonder if there is any document left by the german pilot , telling the story from his side.

If there is, no one has found any personal comments or even official records. 

I was curious myself so I did a little research and it turns out that there is quite a bit of evidence in the historical record to indicate that Ergon Mayer wasn't the German pilot.  That claim can be attributed to Barret Tillman and later repeated by Freeman in the "Mighty Eighth" that claimed Ergon Mayer gave a radio interview during the war in which he claimed to have shot down 3 P-47s, including one with the markings "P HV" (Johnson's P-47).  However, there is no record of such interview nor did Mayer file any kill claims on that day and he was reported to have been in Brittany with his squadron.

There are records for 3 German pilots that put claims for P-47s that occurred in the area Johnson described in his own account.  According to Johnson, he was attacked near Dieppe, over the English Channel.  One of the German pilots, Lt. Waldemar Radener put a claim in for a P-47 after he saw it go into a spin after hitting it and another German pilot, Wilhelm Mayer, put in another claim for a P-47 in that area but had to settle for an unconfirmed as there was no other German witnesses.  Mayer's claim also meshes with Johnson's account in which he stated the last attacker was a single FW 190.  The third German pilot that put a claim for a P-47 in that area was Wilhelm-F. Galland, but it most likely was another 56th P-47 he shot down as Galland also put in another claim for a P-47 near Neufchâtel-en-Bray.

I guess we'll never know the other side of the story.

ack-ack

[GScholz]

Just checked myself, and Egon ("E" as in "egg" but hold the "E" longer + "gon" as in "gone", not "Ergon") Mayer made no claims that day. However it is possible he would not have made a claim after letting Johnson go. Who knows.

Another pilot did make a claim on that date though:

26.06.43 - Fw. Günther Scholz 5./JG 26 - P-47 - 20 km. N. Neufchâtel - 2.500m. - 19.00


Maybe it was me! 

[Scherf]

IIRC the LW didn't make claims for fighters damaged or probable, though LW pilots did get credit for heavy bombers shot out of formation.

Stories tend to "expand" with the telling. "Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot/But he'll remember with advantages/What feats he did that day" as the bard said. I've read a story by a P-47 vet, in which he encounters an Fw 190-D, equipped with four 20mms, head-on over Holland in spring 1944, and returned to the U.K. with several hundred holes in his mount.

<shrug> What's to be done?

[Scherf]

another German pilot, Wilhelm Mayer, put in another claim for a P-47 in that area but had to settle for an unconfirmed as there was no other German witnesses.  Mayer's claim also meshes with Johnson's account in which he stated the last attacker was a single FW 190. 

ack-ack

Wilhelm Mayer of 7./JG 26 was the pilot who shot down G/C Pickard on the Amiens prison raid, also won the Ritterkreuz.