USAAF Claims for Me 163s

[Chris Goss]

The RAF claimed 2 but how many, when and who claimed on the American side?

[CJE]

Chris,
There's a good book on this topic : German Jets vs the USAAF, by William N. Ness.

Chris

[Chris Goss]

Chris: Recent publication? First kills I have were 16 Aug 44

[Laurent Rizzotti]

From an old file (written before I started to systematically note sources, so no source, sorry), I have six USAAF claims against Me 163s, the earlier being on 29 July 1944:

440729: Cpt Arthur Ferdinand Jeffrey, 434th FS, 479th FG: 1 Me 163 in Wilhelmshaven area, Germany

440816: 2nd Lt Cyril W Jones, Jr, 370th FS, 359th FG: 1 Me 163 SE Leipzig, Germany
440816: LtCol John Byrd Murphy, 370th FS, 359th FG: 1 Me 163 SE Leipzig, Germany

441102: Cpt Louis H Norley, 335th FS, 4th FG: 1 Me 163 SE Leipzig, Germany
441102: Cpt Fred W Glover, 336th FS, 4th FG: 1 Me 163 E Leipzig, Germany

450315: Cpt Ray S Wetmore, 370th FS, 359th FG: 1 Me 163 in Wittenberg area, Germany

No idea if it was a complete or even accurate to current standard list.

[Stig Jarlevik]

Adding to Laurent's excellent list I have

44-08-16 1/Lt J.C. Skiffit at 10.50H 370FS near Bohlen (south of Leipzig), 1 Me-163 damaged

44-10-07 1/Lt W.G. Erfkamp at 12.40H 385FS south-east of Leipzig, 0.5 Me 163
44-10-07 Capt E.A. Taylor at 12.40H 385 FS south-east of Leipzig, 0.5 Me 163
(Shared claim)

Cheers
Stig

[Peter Randall]

And here's one that nobody seems to have found - Bob Garlich 355th FG 357th FS on 23 February 1945 - 1 x Me163 destroyed (air) official confirmation.

Peter

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Both 355th FG's claim on 23 February 1945 were not in the official list on the http://www.airuniversity.af.mil/ website when I retrieved it years ago.

And by the way 1st Lt Roscoe claimed 5 Bf 109s shot down and 2 probable on 2 March and was awarded ... nothing ??? There is maybe a story behing that.

[Peter Randall]

A little more information from "Our Might Always" by Bill Marshall:

March 2, 1945
FO 1683A Lieutenant Colonel Graham led a Ramrod to Magdeburg to shepherd the trailing boxes of 2nd TF/2BD B-24s. The 355th Mustangs made R/V over the Zuider Zee at 0930 and took the B-24s to the target at 1040.
Bombing results appeared to be good to excellent. The Group then swept ahead of the bombers along the Hannover - Bremen - Dummer Lake line, and seeing nothing of interest, rejoined the bombers before turning for home.
On the way to the target, Lieutenant Allen of the 358FS aborted because of oxygen problems, just east of Dummer Lake around 1010. Around 1020, he spotted 15+ Me109s, all carrying centerline-mounted bombs, heading southwest. He attacked the trailing section of eight. He described them as having a dragon-like insignia on the fuselage.
When Allen attacked, they did not drop their bombs nor attempt to break ranks. Allen claimed five destroyed and two probably destroyed before running out of ammo. Upon return, his film was discovered damaged and he never received credit for the claims.

[Stig Jarlevik]

Peter

Since you are quoting Marshall's Our Might Always, may I just say that he states all 355FG's claims on 1945-02-23 were ground victories (see Appendix B page 397)
Checking Frank Olynyk's work, neither he has any air-air claims of any Me 163 on the 23rd.
I am not sure Chris question was related to ground victories as well.
If so Marshall has 355FG and five pilots making six ground claims of Me 163 that day.

Cheers
Stig

[Frank Olynyk]

Peter,

Here is Garlich's report on the Feb 23 mission. It is part of a Squadron Strafing Report, of Neuburg A/D.

I was flying Green 4 and came in over Neuburg A/D to the left of my flight leader, Lt. Ludeke, between him and purple flight and behind Capt McNeff and Lt. Schmidt. There were 6-8 E/A parked wing tip to wing tip in the SE corner of the field, and I concentrated on the 3rd one from the west. I opend fire at 700 yards and immediately began to register hits. As I closed to point blank range, there was an explosion and the plane, a T/E aircraft, caught fire. As I pulled off the field I observed one large fire in the area in which I felt encompassed several aircraft, including the one I had destroyed. I claim 1 T/E U/A destroyed.

My notes say this was in box 3373, Record Group 18, Entry 7A at NARA II, digitized on April 25, 2011. I had microfilmed this material back in the early '80s, when it was held at the Washington Record Center at Suitland, Maryland.

On the first page of the report, which lists all the claims made at Neuburg A/D, which is titled "Squadron Strafing Report, 357", Garlich's line has a ? in pencil on the left side (all the other entries have "OK" in pencil), and in pencil on the right, "film so dull, can't see A/C".

Now I need to find my copy of the full VCB report, somewhere on my hard drive.

Enjoy!

Frank.