Captured P-51 in combat?

[bobbysocks]

i read a story where a group of 51s were straffing an areodrome. one of the either picked up a round or chunk of flak in his cooling system. it was bad enough he was going to have to either belly in a field or try for a landing on the strip they were straffing. he landed on the strip...and after breaking his gunsite got out ran like hell away from his ship with his hands up....because he knew someone in his flight was going to shoot up his plane so it didnt fall into enemy hands. when you are forced down and have the choice of landing on a clean strip knowing you can walk away from it or belly in and take the gamble that it may do you in....and know your part in the war is over ( unless you can steal a 190 like one guy did..haha) ...well, what would you do? so that could explain some of the captured planes. others were bellied in and put together from parts of ones that did the same.
also i do remember my father talking about passing a flight of 3 109s being lead by a 51. he went for the chace but by the time he was able to turn they were long gone.

 

[drgondog]

Thanks Sara for the insight and welcome.

Several P-51 were captured by the Luftwaffe. A P-51B landed intact* at Cambrai in June 1944 according to Luftwaffe test pilot Hans-Werner Lerche. Pilot was Lt. Thomas Fraser from 4 FG.

Luftwaffe test results with other tests performed:

Anyone knows what happened to this pilot and why did he land at Cambrai?

* some sources say the aircraft was damaged, but the test data are very good. I doubt that performance would be achievable with a heavily damaged frame.

These aren't Luftwaffe tests,, I assume you plotted Lerche's published results against the Spitfire Performance charts?

 

[alejandro_]

These aren't Luftwaffe tests,, I assume you plotted Lerche's published results against the Spitfire Performance charts?

Yes, the other are allied tests.

 

[alejandro_]

I'm Lt. Oliver E. Stawbridge's grandaughter, although I never knew him. My grandfather was not the one flying his P51 that day. Apparently some other pilot flew his plane that day and ended up landing in a rice field after being shot down. I don't know what happened to that pilot, but my grandfather lived until 1987, I think. Evalina was his girlfriend's name at the time, I think, but he never ended up marrying her. My Grandma's name was Ruth Anne. Anyway, I just thought I'd share that bit of info with you since I saw this site when I googled my grandfather's name.

Pilot flying the aircraft that day was Second Lt Sam McMillan. He now lives in Connecticum (info from 2008). The source of the information is an article of Henry Sakaida in Flight Journal. It seems that one of Sara's relatives contributed to this article with some photos, as they are credited to Susan Strawbridge Bryant.

 

[Bernhart]

good to hear he survived the war

 

[Njaco]

Found this profile on the net a few weeks ago.....

 

[bobbysocks]

found this account tonight as i was looking for something else... from bud anderson' site about the 357th in the arhem/market garden affair.

from tom gates' encounter report:

We saw five 109s flying close formation with a flight of P-51s bouncing them. One 109 split-essed out and went to the deck in aileron turns. The others turned into the bounce.

"I took after the one on the deck and let him have a burst from about 1,000 yards but no strikes seen. When he came to an airdrome he made a turn. I closed enough to see American markings on the upper surfaces of both wings and it was a P-51 painted the same as the 109s. There were no group markings on the nose. When I saw it was a P-51, to avoid light flak from the field I widened the turn and the P-51 leveled out and headed SE at full throttle. There is no doubt that it was flown by a German pilot."

 

[krieghund]

I'm sure we have heard of the captured P-38 used by an Italian pilot to shot down crippled USAAF bombers,

Or so the story goes;

A YB-40 was involved in an interesting encounter. It bagged an Italian ace, Guido Rossi. In 1943 a P-38 ran out of fuel and ditched outside Sardinia. The pilot was overwhelmed by locals before he could use his pistol to ignite the tanks and burn the craft. Rossi had the clever idea of using the captured P-38 to kill wounded B-17's returning from bombing missions as stragglers. He bagged several bombers this way. One B-17 Pilot, Lt. Harold Fisher survived an attack, and had trouble convincing others that he was shot down by a 'friendly'.

Fisher was persistent and obtained command of a prototype YB-40 gunship, and flew several missions lagging behind the rest of the bombers trying to lure out the 'Phantom' P-38. As intelligence was gathered in Italy, they discovered Rossi and his captured '38 did indeed exist and had a wife in Constantine. Allies occupied this city, so when the nose art was applied to the YB-40, the artist used a photo of Rossi's wife, and named the gunship after her, 'Gina'.

Fisher flew a mission on August 31st that year, and was actually damaged in the bombing raid, so with two engines out, the YB-40 was even slower, and flew back completely solo. Sure enough, a P-38 approached, one engine feathered, and asked to join up for the trip back in very good english. Fisher almost fell for the same trap again. With the extra firepower of the friendly P-38 along, everything was being unloaded, guns, ammo, armor plate, anything to keep the YB-40 in the air. At this point Rossi came over the radio with an innocent question. "Gina, nice name. Your girl?" Fisher froze and ordered his men to keep their guns, and started baiting Rossi with details of his 'relationship' with Gina of Constantine.

Rossi became enraged, fired up the 'dead' engine, and circled around, intending to fire right through the nose, cockpit and the entire length of the YB-40. The '40 had an innovation that was later added to all B-17's, a chin turret. As Rossi came in, he faced down a total of 8 forward firing .50's. As the P-38 came apart Rossi even tried to ram the YB-40, but could not maintain flight. He ditched and was picked up by Allied pilot rescue and remained a prisoner for the remainder of the war.

Lt. Harold Fisher received the Distinguished Flying Cross for the encounter, and Major Fisher was killed during a crash in the Berlin Airlift. Former Lt. Guido Rossi attended his funeral out of respect.

I heard this from a Buff pilot a while ago.