Closterman's Do 335

[stevehnz]

I've just read Hans Werner-Lerche's book "Luftwaffe Test Pilot" & was entranced by his description of his last wartime flight in a Do335 from Rechlin to Oberpfaffenhofen. At one point he describes tracer flying past his aircraft & it brought to mind the description in "The Big Show" of an encounter with a Do335. Werner-Lerches flight was on the 23rd or 24th April 1945 between Prague & Augsburg when the tracer incident occurred. These dates don't seem to far off to be the Closterman plane but the "TBS" is somewhat vague on exact dates, this of course may be because its all a product of literary licence as I'm aware some of TBG was, the track of H W-L's plabe seems to me to be too far south for it to be the Clostermann incident?? Any thoughts. Sorry of this has been covered, I did search but found nothing useful.
Steve.

[Nick Beale]

Augsburg and Prague were a very long way from the 2nd Tactical Air Force's zone of operations.

[CJE]

Don't take the "Big Show" for anything else than an historical novel.

[stevehnz]

Thanks Nick, pouring over my European road atlas had forced me to the same conclusion.
CJE, I'm very aware of "The Big Show's" reputation, nevertheless, I'm guessing there is the occasional verifiable happening in it, , so I guess the next question is, is there any independent verification that such an incident as Clostermann describes actually happen, to him or some other 2nd TAF unit, Tempest of otherwise, or has he cobbled the whole thing together after it was all over? To me this seemed less likely given encounters with Pfeils would have been not exactly common & information on those, even thinner on the ground.
Steve.

[kaki3152]

In "The Big Show" there are events that are completely verifiable, others that have agrain of truth and others that are made completely out of thin air.

[stevehnz]

OK, so which one is the Do 335 incident, is this known one way or another?
Steve.

[Alfred.MONZAT]

Randolph W. COOPER of the 357th FS, 355th FG, was credited of a Do 335 damaged on 4 April.

This came from Bill Marshall's book so he may have something to add or more informations on this encounter.

Regards

Alfred