[RSwank]

Rolf, You don't seem to say where these eyewitnesses saw this event occur. I looked back through MACR 13868 for 43-38664 on fold3.com. While the plane was "last seen" at 48 22N, 12 22E, the pilot Shirk's statement in the MACR (page 43) says that he crash landed the plane in the outskirts of "Hochstadt".

While there are a few possibilities for which "Hochstadt" he is talking about, some of the men who parachuted were captured near Wertingen (page 44) so I think Shirk means Hochstadt an der Donau.

Is this where your eyewitnesses saw the P-38s shoot up the downed B-17?

As to what P-38s may have been involved, the only 9th AF group still flying P-38s was the 474th. No 8th AF fighter groups still flew them. However, when you read the Air Force Chronology for 14 April, 1945, there is this statement for April 14th 1945 by the 15th AF.

"STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Fifteenth Air Force): 318 B-17s and B-24s hit
ammunition factories at Avigliana, Spilimbergo, Malcontenta, and Palmanova,
and a motor transport depot at Osoppo, Italy and the Klagenfurt, Austria
marshalling yard as a target of opportunity; 158 fighters provide escort; 29
P-38s bomb and strafe railroad targets in the Munich and Regensburg, Germany-
Linz, Austria areas; 54 P-51s fly escort for MATAF B-25s bombing targets in N
Italy."


The 82nd FG lost a P-38 in the area on the 14 April, not sure if the 14th FG was operating in that area. The 1st FG seems to have been flying missions in Italy on that day. Those are the 3 fighter groups operating P-38s in the 15th AF.