Hello everybody,
Cross-checking the 19th April 1945 with the He 162 i came up with some interesting and, in part, contradictory material.
Here goes:
In John Foreman's Fighter Command War Diaries, Part 5, 19th April 1945 it says:
"...An unidentified aircraft was claimed shot down by a Tempest pilot at Husum."
So far so good. Further down it says (still 19 April):
"...During the day Feldwebel Kirchner of I./JG 1 made an unconfirmed claim for an RAF aircraft destroyed while flying an He 162 Volksjäger but no further details are known from either side."
Now, in two different "Verlustlisten" concerning JG 1 we find the following stats:
19.04.45 // I./JG 1 // FhjFw // Günther Kirchner // + // Luftkampf P-47, Absturz bei Klintum, 100 % // He 162 A- // ge. 2 +
Which makes it a little more complicated! Now, Klintum is close to Husum (Schleswig-Holstein), a Tempest could be mistaken for a P-47, but I wonder where John Foreman got the information about Kirchner destroying an RAF aircraft?
So, who shot down who? All of course considering the last tumultous days of the war, where keeping statistics up-to-date was the least worry...!!
Anyway, Roger, if you care for some american Gun Camera films, I can recommend the following site:
http://rareaviation.com/guncamo.html
For the moment they have three 1944 P-38, P-47 and P-51 Gun Camera Films, all against Luftwaffe. Also one 1944 Luftwaffe Fw 190 and Me 110 Film.
Quality not bad and the american movies well documented (date, american pilot and so on).
Take care, Hans