[drgondog]

Skyraider - of course ID mistakes were made, particularly when only the 6 o'clock position was visible.. and Bill could have made a mistake on identifying a nose on FW190 from a 109.

But once a turning battle occcurs the pilot is pretty focused on keeping his guy in sight.... a side elevation pretty much does the id thing

Oh well, this has been an interesting thread trying to nail the ship and pilot and certainly helped me add details to my re-write of ABD. Thanks to all of you for that.

Wasn't the March encounter between the Soviet fighters and US a pretty interesting incident. As I recall the Soviets bounced the Mustangs near Berlin and in the fight the 51 pilots did NOT 'misidentify' and continued to shoot down Russians!

If it is the same incident, the Soviets shot their Squadron/Group leader and expected us to do the same (which we did not).

Maybe not the same incident, but if it was, I recall the combat reports only discussed "109s and FW's" not Yaks, Laag's or MiG's..and suspect from political perspective - not ID..

Last - to your point about FW-190D's not appearing until December 1944.
The 359th was not only FG to see what they thought were "D's". I know one of the losses absorbed by the 355th on March 8, 1944 was a 2Lt Rothenberg who over ran a 'long nose' FW190 and was killed by it before it, in turn was shot down by his element leader Lt Norman of the 357FS. So, I wonder whether the term FW 190D or 'Long nose FW" was used by 359th in February 1944? Which model of the FW 190 in early 1944 would look at all like a 190D?

There are numerous references in 355FG histories to "Long Nose FW's" in the March and afterward timeframe - which could reinforce your point about a/c ID's in high speed battle.