MY FIRST TWO VICTORIES
Arthur Fiedler, "Mayfair 35"
This relates to the 16th P-51 mission the 325th Fighter Group flew during
which I achieved my first 2 confirmed victories.
Mission Report No.16 28 June 1944
13 P-51s of the 317th FS, 16 P-51s of the 318th FS, and 12 P-51s of the 319th
FS took off at 0725 hours on a Fighter Sweep over the Bucharest area,
Romania. I P-51 returned early. 40 P-51s swept target area at 29,000 feet
to deck from 0950 to 1030 hours. 47 e/a were observed and encountered. In
this encounter 17 e/a were destroyed and 1 probably destroyed. 40 P-51s down
at base at 1250 hours.
At the morning briefing we were elated to learn that today's mission was a
fighter sweep to Ploesti, which was the last significant natural oil source
for the Axis powers. Oil was so vital to the Germans that we could almost
always be sure of a fight from their defending aircraft.
In a fighter sweep, we fly ahead of the bombers to the target area to thwart
the efforts of the defending fighters. We are not escorting bombers and thus
are free to attack and follow any enemy fighters wherever they go until we
destroy them. When flying bomber escort, we were forbidden to go below
15,000 feet while pursuing an enemy aircraft. At that altitude we had to
break off the fight and return to the bombers.
There were 13 aircraft from our squadron on this mission and the takeoff and
flight toward Bucharest was uneventful. As we approached Ploesti, our
squadron was flying at 24 to 25 thousand feet just under an overcast while
the other two squadrons were flying above the overcast. Suddenly over my
radio I heard: "Beau coups 109s, 30,000." This meant someone had spotted a
lot of Me-109s at 30,000 feet.
Our squadron leader ordered, "Drop tanks!" and immediately began climbing
into the overcast. The tanks referred to were the extra fuel tanks we
carried under our wings and which were dropped in combat. Unfortunately my
left tank hung up, and I had to go through some severe gyrations before it
dropped; just in time to see the last of my squadron disappearing into the
overcast. I immediately began climbing and was surprised to see the clouds
were not solid but layered. Each layer was 200 to 500 feet thick
interspersed with clear areas.
As I passed through the open spaces, I would quickly glance right and left to
be sure I did not lose the squadron. Passing through an open space at about
26,000 feet, I spotted two aircraft to my left approximately 1000 yards away.
But before I could identify them I was in the next layer of clouds. I
immediately turned in the direction of the two aircraft and eased down
through the cloud layer. There they were; two aircraft with an oil cooler
under each wing, identifying them as Me-109s. --- Germany's best fighter at
the time.
As I was closing rapidly, I decided to first blow away the leader and then
attack the wingman. But about 200 yards behind them, the wingman suddenly
went into a right skid; a clear indication he had seen me and was trying to
identify my aircraft. My plans changed abruptly. I turned toward him and
began firing from about a 30° angle off. Instantly numerous hits (flashes of
light) appeared along the length of his aircraft. He immediately snapped
upside down into a split-ess and plunged earthward…with me right on his tail.
Unbelievably with my adrenaline flowing copiously, I completely forgot about
the leader!! This was a deadly mistake and could have gotten me killed if
the leader had in turn jumped on my tail.
The wingman and I continued straight down as he twisted and rolled in an
effort to avoid my bullets. At 13,000 feet, he began pulling out of his
dive, and I again opened fire clobbering him good. Black smoke began pouring
from his aircraft and slowly his left wing dropped followed by his nose and
again, we were in a vertical dive.
Due to the varied terrain we fought over, it was impossible to always know
the height of the ground below. Heading straight down at 600 mph, one loses
a thousand feet of altitude in just over 1 second. In the heat of a battle
while following a diving enemy airplane and not knowing the pilot was already
dead, some pilots have made the mistake of staying on his tail until they
were too low to pull out and both victor and vanquished died. Thus at an
estimated 5 thousand feet, I began a pullout dropping a wing to watch him.
He continued straight on down smashing into the ground and sending up a thick
column of black smoke.
The week before, I had set another Me-109 on fire but did not see him hit the
ground so was awarded only a probable victory. This time I decided to take a
picture of the burning wreck as proof of my victory.
Descending to 1500 feet, I turned off my machine guns, pointed my aircraft
nose at the crash site and recorded it on my gun camera film. I then began
climbing but was astounded to see another Me-109, undoubtedly the leader,
cross right in front of me heading northeast. I instantly turned my gun
switch on, racked into a high "g" left turn, pulled a lead, and opened fire.
There were several hits on the Me-109's fuselage before all four of my
machine guns jammed, not an uncommon thing in this model of the P-51. Due to
my slower airspeed as I began my climb out, I now found myself sliding into
formation with this new 109 some 40 to 45 feet away from him.
Now the adrenaline really began flowing as I tried to figure out what to do.
I was afraid to turn away, as this would give the 109 an opportunity to get a
good shot at me before I could get out of range. At the same time, it was
most unhealthy flying formation with an enemy plane should any friendly
fighters spot us. I doubted that they would take the time to identify the
"wingman" as a P-51 before they opened fire and shot us down. P-51s just did
not fly on the wing of a Me 109.
I do not know how long I flew in this position -- it seemed forever - but
was probably less than 30 seconds. Desperately, I decided that if I took out
my .45 caliber automatic and started firing at the German pilot, he hopefully
would turn away as no one likes to sit still while someone is shooting at him
from such a close distance. I would then immediately turn the other way and
head for home at full speed.
As I reached up and pulled down the zipper of my A-2 jacket to get at my
shoulder holster, I was astonished to see the enemy pilot jettison his canopy
and bail out. Completely bewildered I turned around and took a picture of
him in his parachute to preserve this bit of evidence also.
Why he bailed out, I do not know. Perhaps when I reached up to grab the
zipper on my jacket, he thought I was being chivalrous and was gesturing for
him to bail out. Or perhaps one of my initial hits had wounded him, and he
decided to bail out at this time. I don't know. He certainly did not know my
guns were jammed.
These were my first two victories and for a short while, I was nicknamed
Svengali; however, since I failed to hypnotize any other pilots into bailing
out but had to shoot them down, this was a short lived thing.
