[Jochen Prien]

Thank you Nick.

So where does this all leave us ? Fact is that said F-5 C was lost on 6 October 1944, its pilot Murray becoming a POW. It seems quite certain, that both F-5s were attacked by (fighter) aircraft and that the loss of Murray's a/c has to be attributed to aerial combat (even if he hadn't much chance to fight back according to his report). There are hints that the assailant was an Me 262 jet, but there is no hard proof for this.

I have done some digging myself and have come to the conclusion that Kdo. Nowotny can be ruled out as from all I can see this unit saw its first action only the next day, i.e. 7 October 1944. Hptm. Eder in particular did not file a claim on this day, the P-38 that was mentioned earlier on as an "early October claim" was the result of an erronneous reconstruction of an interview he gave many years ago, the correct date of this claim being 18 November 1944. As a matter of fact there is no evidence whatsoever, that a pilot from Kdo. Nowotny filed a claim on 6 October 1944 at all and in particular that this pilot was Hptm. Eder.

The only other jet-equipped unit in the area was 3./KG 51 which was in fact active over the Dutch battleground on this day. However, there is no trace at all of one of its Me 262s being involved in aerial combat, let alone of a shot down P-38/F-5. Heavy flak and fighter opposition encountered over the target area is all that was reported and no mention of one or two lone P-38s flying at 27.500 ft.

No other Luftwaffe piston-engined fighter unit is known to have filed a claim for a P-38 either, so that the issue must remain unsolved for the time being, not the only one by far.

Many thanks again for the time and kind assistance of all who have contributed to this thread. Perhaps some day someone might come up with the solution (usually one or two weeks after the publication of the next volume). I'd be delighted.

KR

Jochen Prien