[T-Bird]

Jagdgeschwader 26


My second (and last) Victory — A Lockheed P38 Lightning on 25th.8.1944 as told by Ottomar Kruse Pilot of 8. /JG26


On this sortie the “Gruppe“ was lead by our Gruppenkommandeur Hauptmann Emil Lang. “Gruppe” means all Squadrons (4 in this instance), but not at full strength. The total number of aircraft in a Squadron was normally 16, but hardly ever were all aircraft serviceable. The numbers taking part on this sortie was decided beforehand by the Commander and his Squadron Leaders. Of what I can recollect, we were about 30 aircraft on that day, quite a formidable force at that stage of the war.
The sortie was called “Freie Jagd “ and the direction was selected by the leader, who was our commander Emil Lang, aircraft code “RK+EL“with over 160 victories. Our cruising height was, as usual, 3500m (10.500’). My Sqdn. Ldr. (8. Staffel) was Staffelkapitaen Lt. Wilhelm Hofmann with over 23 victories (only West). He had a remarkable eyesight and suddenly a call came from him “Indianer in 10“. The voice from Lang, “Haven‘t spotted them! Turn in that direction!” The whole unit started to follow Hofmann, when he called “Lost them“! A curse from Lang, who then called “Reise-Reise“(which meant to turn back onto the original course). Again Hofmann‘s voice “Got them” and we swung back in his direction. We flew a few minutes before I could spot the enemy, tiny dots in the distance, well below our height, doing dives and turns, having a split fuselage - “P-38 Lightnings“. Lang lead us right above them and then called, “Von Wiesel—Anton, ich greife an” (Wiesel = weasel) was our code - call sign, Anton was his) and the leading aircraft turned on its back divining towards the ground with the whole unit following him. Whilst diving, again a call over the radio “Von Wiesel-Anton – Abschuss“ and black smoke rose from a spot on the ground. I chased a Lightning, which tried to escape by twisting and diving towards a small cloud and disappearing in it. I went round it and right enough, he reappeared below the cloud. I got closer and was just about to fire my guns, when tracers whisked past my front. I looked to the left above me, where they were coming from, and saw two Fw 190 shooting at my target, but far too short and I was in danger of being hit. So I pulled my 190 away to the right and lost sight of the other two and their target. I could not spot another target and, like by a magic hand, the sky was wiped clear of aircraft.

I turned in the direction towards home and saw three Fw 190 in front of me. I joined up and recognised by the markings one of them belonging to Sqdn. Ldr. Lt. Vogt. These aircraft were from another Staffel (5.) After a minute or two I suddenly spotted three tiny dots right in front below our height. The leading one having a solid fuselage, the other two split ones – Lightnings! Obviously the two were chasing the 190. I yelled into the radio “Indianer in 12“. The voice from Vogt —“Ruhig, ruhig, noch mal“ (keep calm, keep calm, once again). I repeated my call and he replied “Hab sie“ (got them) and then he put his 190 into a dive towards the 3 aircraft.

The chased 190 had turned in the meanwhile towards us still being followed by the two P-38s. Vogt, who was followed by us three, opened fire, but missed the first P-38 with its bright aluminium fuselage. The second one, camouflaged, turned away after having spotted us and escaped. The 190 in front of me had pulled around tightly followed by me. He fired at the Lightning and turned away. The Lightning was still flying and showed no sign of being hit and so I chased him and opened fire when I came within range, and observed hits.

At the next moment something whisked past my left wing, I thought for a moment that it was the engine cowling, the Lightning spun towards the ground. Obviously a kill. I turned my 190 around 180 degrees and saw someone hanging on a parachute, the pilot. I flew towards him, passing at about 20 yards and dipped my left wing. I can still see his white face, probably thinking I was going to kill him.
Donald Caldwell, an aircraft historian, followed up my story and found the two P-38 involved and also the one I got. lt was a Capt. Austin, who survived the war, but unfortunately he died of a heart attack in1976.