P-38 Pilot POW August 25th,1943

[kaki3152]

In an article on Johannes Steinhoff, he mentions that he took a P-38 pilot POW during the August 25th,1943 strafing raid. They both got so drunk that any escape attempt by the USAAF pilot would have been out of the question.

Does anyone know the identity of this pilot? I know the 82nd FG had three POWs out of four P-38s lost, the 1st had one POW out two P-38 lost and the 14th FG lost two P-38s.

[Leendert]

A little mystery. Steinhoff himself says in some interviews that the name of the pilot was Capt. Widen.
When you go to the 1st FG website however (www.1stfighter.org"), you'll notice in the 1942 timeline that Capt. Norman "Cy" Widen was shot down on 18 Dec 42 by German ace Anton Hafner, who later visited Widen.

Perhaps all three had a drink together?

Regards,

Leendert
Brugge/Belgium

[Martin Gleeson]

Hallo Carlos,

D'ont know the answer. However AN ESCORT OF P-38s by John D. Mullins states they lost two pilots, one missing and one POW. The POW was Lt. Marcel Williams who was apparently hit by flak over the target, baled out and was captured. Perhaps with the passage of time and too much alcohol Williams became Widen ?

None of the 82nd FG names seem a likely match. I don't have much on the 14th FG unfortunately, though it appears one of their two pilots was a Lt. Hester who was KIA.

Regards,

Martin Gleeson.

[kaki3152]

Hi Martin:-)

Thanks for the effort. I think it was probably a 14th FG P-38 pilot, though I have no way of checking. I'll keep digging.

Carlos

[Martin Gleeson]

Hallo Carlos,

You probably know this already but the two 14th FG P-38 losses have MACRs.

MACR No. 503 for 43-2534,
MACR No. 506 for 43-2470.

Regards,

Martin.

[FrankieS]

just for those more curious:

WWII: Please describe your humorous encounter with a Lockheed P-38 pilot named Widen in Italy in 1944.
Steinhoff: This is a good story. I was test-flying an Me-109 with my aide near our base at Foggia. This was before I had been exiled from Germany, during my first tour as Kommodore of JG.77. Well, we were attacked at low level by a flight of P-38 Lightnings, about 100 American fighters in all, but the two of us figured, why not attack? We turned into them, and I flew through their formation going in the opposite direction, getting good strikes on a couple of them. I poured a good burst into this P-38 and the pilot rolled over, and I saw him bail out. I had this on gun camera also. Well, he was picked up and made a POW, and I invited him to my tent for a drink and dinner, as well as to spend the night. We drank some of the local wine... and drank and drank. I thought to myself, "What am I going to do with this guy?" Well, it was long after midnight, so I lay down in my tent and stretched my legs so I could reach his head. He woke up and said, "Don't worry, I won't run away, you have my word as an officer and a gentleman. Besides, you got me too drunk." We slept, and he kept his word, and I never placed a guard on him.


and possible MACR's:

433 F-5 42-132?1 3
520 P-38 42-13433 1
480 P-38 43-2361 1
503 P-38 43-2534 14
506 P-38 43-2470 14
504 P-38 42-13438 82
485 P-38 42-13402 82 2nd Lt. Paul I. Paskiewicz
486 P-38 42-12906 82 2nd Lt. James R. Rudy
487 P-38 42-13042 82 2nd Lt. Warren L. Singer
484 P-38 43-2512 82 2nd Lt. Eugene F. Phillips

[Tundra]

Check here it has some information on the MACR and Pilots for those days.

http://www.geocities.com/raf_112_sqdn1/usaaf_honor_rolls_19421943_mto.html


Regards
Rob