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Old 31st May 2008, 23:10
Gizmo Gizmo is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Poland
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Gizmo
Re: ME 163 Komet losses on 2nd November 1944

Hi,

Battle description according by William N. Hess.

After a brief absence, JG 400 was back in the thick of things on November 2, 1944. At least eleven Me 163s rose from their base at Brandis to oppose bombers striking oil targets in central Germany. Captain Fred W. Glover was leading the 4th Fighter Group when he sighted a contrail climbing rapidly toward the bomber stream. The German craft pulled up level with the bombers at 25,000 feet and turned back toward the bomber stream in a slight dive- Glover dropped his auxiliary tanks and headed for the 163 on a convergence course. As the rocket-powered craft crossed in front of his P-51, Glover made a quick ninety-degree turn and fell in behind the Me 163. He quickly opened fire and registered strikes all over the tail, wings and cockpit of the craft from 400 yards, and the belly of the aircraft exploded. Glover overshot, and as he looked back, he could see that the tail was all but shot off the craft and its canopy was badly damaged. Glover pulled up to look for another target as the Me 163 went plunging down. One of his flight called to report that the pilot, Oberfeldwcbel Gunther Andreas, had bailed out.
Meanwhile, Captain Louis H. Norley was leading the 335th Fighter Squadron of the 4th Fighter Group when he spied an Me 163 dropping down at his six o'clock position. As soon as he dumped his drop tanks, Norley set his new K-14 sight and went full-throttle after his target, which was just a little out of range. Norley got on the tail of the 163 and followed it down. As the rocket-powered craft began to pull away, the Mustang pilot fired a few short bursts, hoping that craft would turn, and sure enough, it did. As the 163 went into a port turn, its speed fell off considerably. Norley related: "I closed on him rapidly. 1 was using a K-14 sight for the first time ... however, I did get a couple of strikes on the tail, firing from 250 to fifty yards. My speed was around 450 MPH when I got into range. I throttled back, but was unable to stay in the turn with him due to excessive speed. I overshot him, pulled up and got on his tail again. "Up to this time, he had not been using his blower, at least he was not emitting any black smoke. As I closed on him the second time, he punched on his blower for a couple of seconds and then cut it off again. I closed to 400 yards ... fired again and saw strikes on the tail. The 163 rolled over and plummeted straight down from 8,000 feet widi fire flashing intermittently from his port side and exhaust. He slammed in a small village and the aircraft exploded."
His victim was Oberfeldwebel Jacob Bollenrath, who perished in the crash.
Other Me 163s continued to attack B-17s from the 388th and the 91st Bomb Groups. Oberfcldwebel Horst Rolly was killed in combat with these bombers, and it is quite likely that he fell to one of die gunners from the 388th Bomb Group, who claimed one Me 163 destroyed and one probably destroyed.
Another Me 163 pilot was repotted missing at die end of the day, who may also have fallen victim to gunners from either the 388th or the 91st Bomb Group. A few days later, the body of Feldwebel Straznicky was found in the cockpit of his Me 163.


Source: "German Jets Versus The USAAF" by William N. Hess
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