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Re: Last combat of Egon Mayer
Ace of the Eighth, p. 122 - "The 358th had a good day on March 2 when they encountered two FW-190's near Charleroi and three Me-109's near Liege. The 190s were diving away when 1st Lt. Walt Gresham managed to hit the leader with a long-range, high deflection shot that blew up the aircraft and killed the pilot. Lieutenant Roscoe Fussel and Lt. Larry Dudley caught up with the other 190 and took turns getting hits on it until the pilot bailed out. It was later established, with gun-camera film and the recollections of the wingman who bailed out, that the FW-190 destroyed by Gresham was piloted by the great German ace Egon Mayer, the Luftwaffe's top B-17 killer."
I also have questions/concerns.
1) Apparently, only Mayer was lost, so who was this wingman who supposedly parachuted out, and why isn't he named in the book, if the evidence turns on his testimony?
2) I just pulled the gun cam footage of Walter Gresham at NARAII - incredibly it has survived - it shows a FW190 flying peacefully in a curve ahead - and although the camera shakes as Gresham fires burst after burst after burst no strikes can be seen, no fire, no smoke, no explosion, nothing, absolutely nothing. The plane does NOT take any violent evasive action but does seem to steepen its curve, which means that it is quite possible that the pilot is incapacitated, or is extremely inexperienced, but there is no explosion. The plane is far too far away to determine any unit markings. I could hardly believe that Mayer would continue to curve left when an American P-47 is approaching and shooting him from the left rear.
JG2 eyewitnesses found Mayer dead in an unburned plane which had crashed for unknown reasons. He had no visibly apparent bullet/shrapnel wounds.
The time/location discrepancies, description of explosion, plus the question about the wingman and the lack of apparent kill on the gun cam footage casts a long shadow over this account by Norman Fortier.
If you would like me to send you a copy of the gun cam footage video, please pm me.
All my best,
heather
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