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Shores Thomas wrote an informative piece on 14 January 1945 in their 2nd Tactical Air Force Volume Three:
Heavy bombing raids by the Eighth Air Force on oil targets throughout central Germany by 911 bombers and 860 escorting fighters, brought up the Luftwaffe's fighters in strength – but to little avail. The two main home defense Jagdesgeschwader of I. Jagdkorps, JG 300 and JG 301, suffered devastating casualties to the far-ranging fighters of 8th Fighter Command, the pilots of the P-51s and P-47s claiming 155 victories. Additionally, gunners in the bombers claimed 31 more, plus nine probables (although on past performance most of such claims can probably be discounted). RAF Bomber Command dispatched 134 Lancasters by day to bomb railways at Saarbrücken, escorting Mustangs of 64 Squadron adding claims for a further seven destroyed and one probable.
The vast majority of these claims were identified as Fw 190s and Bf 109s, but included two Me 262s – 9./JG 7, indeed, losing three such aircraft to fighters. JG 300 lost 51 aircraft, with 39 pilots killed or wounded – most of them while flying Messerschmitts; JG 301 mounted entirely in Focke-Wulf's, lost 30 more pilots, the total of aircraft lost not being known to the authors. Amongst the units operating in the west, the 8th Air Force's fighters also caught the BF 109s of IV./JG 54 over the Münsterland area and shot down 14 of them, ten of the pilots becoming casualties. The rest of those German units in the air during the day seem also to have fallen foul frequently of the bomber escorts, for JG 1, JG 2, JG 3, JG 4, JG 11, JG 26, JG 27 JG 53 and JG 77 lost a further 92 aircraft, at least 35-40 of which would appear to have been lost to these opponents.
The tactical air forces played their part as well, but to a somewhat lesser degree. Ninth Air Force fighter-bomber and tactical reconnaissance pilots claimed 23 (three of which were not confirmed), while as will be recounted, 2nd TAF added 22 more.
Thus total Allied claims against the Jagdwaffe amounted to 238, 207 of them by fighters. Against these claims, Luftwaffe losses are known to have amounted to at least 176 aircraft, plus any from JG 301 from which the pilots extricated themselves unharmed. This represents an extremely high degree of accuracy in claiming in the circumstances pertaining.
For 2nd TAF, first off on this momentous morning were a pair of Tempests of 274 Squadron on a weather reconnaissance over the Paderborn area at 0900. Here Flt Lt H.A. Crafts attacked a locomotive on the railway running towards Hamm. As he pulled up from this attack he saw an aircraft heading west; rapidly closing, he identified it as an He 219 night fighter, which was swiftly dispatched. Lt. Reinhold Lehr of I./NJG 1 and his radar operator were killed. The Spitfires of 126 Wing were next off, 411 Squadron leading at 0935, followed by 442 Squadron, and then by 401 Squadron. At about 1020, 411 Squadron's pilots spotted at least 11 Fw 190s over the general Cosfeld/Rheine/Hengelo area, and three of these were claimed shot down, one each by Ft Lts Dick Audet and John Boyle, and Flg Off J.A. Doran. At much the same time 442 Squadron arrived over the Twente area, attacking and claiming shot down three more Fw 190s; one of these fell to Flg Off A.J. Urquhart who was then obliged to bale out when his own Spitfire was hit.
At approximately 1035, 401 Squadron's pilots, who had been accompanying 442 Squadron on the sweep, spotted Fw 190s landing and taking off from Twente airfield, and dived down to claim five of these, three of them by Flt Lt Johnnie MacKay personally. However, one of this unit's Spitfires was also hit, and Flt Lt R.J. Land failed to return.
There is little doubt that the Canadians had inflicted grievous losses on I./JG 1, this unit losing ten Fw 190s A-8s and A9s to the Spitfires, plus a single 'Langnasen Dora'. The latter was flown by Uffz Gunther Sill, who was credited with having shot down one of the attacking fighters before he too was shot down and killed while still completing his take-off. Of the 11 pilots shot down, only one survived, but he too had been hit and was wounded.
Even as 126 Wing pilots were so engaged, Flt Lt D.C. Fairbanks was leading a flight of Tempests of 3 Squadron, during which operation he was personally to claim a Bf 109 north-west of Paderhorn and an Fw 190 south-west of Gutersloh.
Eight more Tempests from 486 Squadron undertook a sweep to the Paderhorn area, commencing at 1125, and some 30 minutes later their pilots spotted a BF 109 and an Fw 190 to the north of Munster. It seems that at least the former was an aircraft of III./JG 26, heading north at low-level following a heavy engagement with Eighth Air Force P51s near Koblenz. Flg Off Colin McDonald closed to 200 yards and opened fire, seeing hits. He as then attacked by the Fw 190 and was forced to take evasive action, but his wingman saw the Messerschmitt – a Bf 109K – turn and crash near a small wood; 10.Staffel's Lt. Walter Kopp was killed.
At very much the same time, and to the south-west of Münster, six Typhoons from 184 had been strafing MET when four Bf 109s were seen, three of these being pursued. One broke away and was 'bounced' by Wt Off A.J. Cosgrove, whose fire caused the aircraft to blow up – the Squadron's first ever victory of the war; a second was claimed damaged. Fifteen minutes later the New Zealand Tempest pilots spotted five more German fighters, one Fw 190 being claimed damaged by Wt Off Johnny Wood.
56 Squadron's Tempests were also out during the middle part of the day, and their pilots intercepted Fw 190s to the south-west of Gutersloh, Flg Off J.J. Payron claiming one shot down, a second being shared by Flt Lt J.H. Ryan and Plt Off J.E. Hughes. It has not proved possible to identify the opponents of the various Tempest squadrons, nor of 184 Squadron, with any degree of confidence, for so many Luftwaffe units were operating in the area, and suffered so many losses during the day. It is possible that 56 Squadron's victims were Fw 190A-8s of JG 11, which reported the loss in combat of a number of these aircraft.
There is much greater clarity regarding the rest of the day's activities, however. With their enthusiasm for combat heightened by the numbers of German aircraft in the air, some of the Ninth Air Force pilots appear to have allowed this to run away from them, and they were responsible for shooting down two Typhoons. One of these fell to the east of Haltern where 174 Squadron's Flg Off G.B. Chapman became a prisoner; Flt Sgt D.C. Horn's 247 Squadron Typhoon was hit in the engine, but he managed to stretch his glide into Allied territory, only to be killed when his aircraft came down three miles south-west of Ewijk, struck the bank of a dyke and burst into flames.
In mid afternoon 132 Wing's two Norwegian squadrons swept over the Rheine/Achmer, area setting off at 1440. Three of 331 Squadron's Spitfires returned early, leaving 21 fighters to complete the sweep. The pilots of these reported meeting large formations of Bf 109s and Fw 190s, and at least five Me 262s to the west of Rheine. 332 Squadron dived to attack, Capt K. Bolstad shooting down Me 262 9K + LP of 6./KG 51 at 1520, in which Uffz Fredrich Christoph was killed.
The Dora-9s of I./JG 26 then joined the combat, apparently together with some BF 109s. Maj Martin Gram and 2/Lt O.K. Roald of 331 Squadron each claimed a Messerschmitt, while Capt Helmer Grundt-Spang of this unit and 2/Lt O. Wagtsjold of 332 Squadron each claimed a Focke-Wulf. A third German fighter was seen to be shot down by 2/Lt J.P. Ditlev-Simonsen, but he failed to recover from his attack and his Spitfire was observed to fly into the ground. A fourth Fw 190 was claimed damaged by Capt Ola Aanjesen of 332 Squadron, but two of this unit's Spitfires were lost, Lt Hassel and FLt Sgt Syversen both apparently having fallen to enemy fighters.
Three of I./JG 26's Dora-9s were indeed lost, with two of the pilots killed and the third wounded; Uffz Karl Russ's 'White 6' was seen to collide with a Spitfire – probably one of the 332 Squadron aircraft – and both were reported to have crashed in flames. Two claims for Spitfires were made, one by Maj Karl Borris, the Gruppenkommandeur, as his 43rd, and one by Lt. Karl-Heinz Ossenkopf, who shot down his victim as it was on the tail of one of the unit's other pilots. He was subsequently told than his victim had been a Polish 'Major'.
Several units undertook strafing attacks on airfields during the day, 3 Squadron's Flt Lt K.F. Thiele claiming two Ju52/3m transports destroyed at Detmold early in the afternoon, while Flt Sgt Rose claimed damage to two Fw 190s here. 74 Squadron's Spitfires made a similar attack on Rheine, where three more Focke-Wulfs were also claimed damaged.
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