April 7,1945 Me-262 downing of a F-5 Lightning

[kaki3152]

On April 7,1945 a F-5G of the 30th PRS flown by Capt, William H. Heily was shot down by a Me262 while making a photo run over the Autobahn near Seesen. Capt Heily became a POW. As far as i know there is no MACR on this loss.The 30th PRS lost two F-5s on this date and the one MACR (MACR 14260) is for another airplane,44-23715 flown by Lt. Stephen Pascal;

In some publications this Abschuss is credited to Maj Walter Schuck I/JG-7. In his Abschus list he does have a claim on April 7 but it's for a P-51D Mustang. Any comments?

[ClinA-78]

Sorry no closely related but
... is anyone knowledge about the official ID and burial place of the recovered body of Stephen PASCAL (see my earlier post)?

[FrankieS]

Stephen L. Pascal

First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces

Service # O-773791

30th Photographic Squadron, 67th Reconnaissance Group

Entered the Service from: California
Died: 7-Apr-45
Missing in Action or Buried at Sea
Tablets of the Missing at Luxembourg American Cemetery
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg Awards: Air Medal with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Heart - His remains were recovered in 2008 and identified in on February 8, 2010. He was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery BURIED AT: SECTION 60 SITE 9908

[ClinA-78]

Thanks for clearing his final rest place

[Laurent Rizzotti]

In my sources, it was a P-38 that Schuck claimed this day:

The 30th TRS of the 67th TRG suffered a heavy loss on 7 April when two pilots, Capt. William H. Heily (making his first mission of his second tour of duty) and 1st Lt. Stephen L. Pascal, failed to return from an operational mission. At the time, no details could be gathered concerning the loss.

On 16 April, Capt. William H. Heily walked into the 30th Operations room and he had not sprouted wings. The captain was shot down by an Me 262. He was covering a strip of the autobahn and was over Seesen when he was attacked by two Me 262s. One came from above and straight on and went by as pilot turned into him. The other, unseen, turned sharply in and fired. The captain rolled the ship over on its back and found both engines smoking and his instruments out. The plane was losing altitude fast so the pilot decided to leave the ship. He had hardly pulled the rip cord before he heard rifle fire and found himself on the ground. Captain Heily believes he must have been at 250- or 300-ft when he bailed out. With a badly bruised ankle, he was unable to hide before being picked up by a Volksturm unit. His interrogator threatened to turn him over to civilians unless he answered all questions. However, the captain refused to give any information. For the next seven days, along with about 60 other POWs he was forced to walk 40 kilometers a day - without food. One night, as American artillery was murdering a town in which he was spending the night, he was allowed to go into a basement. A German colonel entered the room and, upon seeing an American there, he struck him across the face cursing as he did, "God Damn Yankees."

On the 7th day, still trying to dodge the fast forging 9th Army, Capt. Heily was taken to a prison camp where there were about five other Americans and 20 Russians. Many of the German guards had deserted with the approach of the Americans, and an American Sgt. had things almost in hand. With the arrival of Capt. Heily he handed control over to him. The captain disarmed the SS guard and within 45 minutes, the Infantry walked in and the captain was a free man again. He was directed to 7th Army Headquarters where he was ushered into an ambulance and sent back. However, upon recognizing Eschwege as the new home of the 67th Group, Captain Heily quit the meat wagon and rejoined his outfit. The happy ending to the tale is that the captain was sent home ten days later complete with luger and bayonet.

One of the two Me 262 that attacked the two reconnaissance pilots was flown by Oblt Walter Schuck, the Staffelkapitän of 3./JG 7, who claimed this day a P-38 shot down in Seesen area. It was his 202nd victory!!

Source :
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3901/is_200306/ai_n9273365/pg_9?tag=artBody;col1
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3901/is_200306/ai_n9273365/pg_12?tag=artBody;col1
http://www.luftwaffe.cz/04-1945.pdf
http://www.cieldegloire.com/jg_007.php

[kaki3152]

My Source for his loss list is his book Abschuss- by Walter Schuck.
His claim says for April 7,1945 " P-51D, gegen 1300 Uhr, Raum Wittenberge"

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by kaki3152

My Source for his loss list is his book Abschuss- by Walter Schuck.
His claim says for April 7,1945 " P-51D, gegen 1300 Uhr, Raum Wittenberge"

Well that's around 200 km from Seesen, going by Google Maps so it doesn't seem all that likely that it's the same incident.

[kaki3152]

I think it's quite possible that Schuck was responsible for one of the two P-51s lost by the 354th FS, 355th FG. The two P-51Ds , s/n 44-15346 and 44-72306 were last seen at 1215hrs SE of Bremen. They were flown by Lts. Gilbert Plowman and Lt. Newell Mills. In their MACRs they are both reported as last seen at 1215 SEof Bremen.

In one of the MACRs (MACR 13960) reports it reports: "Jets were reported in the area when we were SE of Bremen and although our flight made several orbits we found nothing...There were many EA in the area SE of the bombers...after leaving him,I never heard from him [Lt. Mills] or his wingman again."

April 7,1945 was the date for the famous Rammkommando Elbe effort and there were other Me262 interceptions by KG(J)-54 which accounted for two bombers.

[drgondog]

Originally Posted by kaki3152

I think it's quite possible that Schuck was responsible for one of the two P-51s lost by the 354th FS, 355th FG. The two P-51Ds , s/n 44-15346 and 44-72306 were last seen at 1215hrs SE of Bremen. They were flown by Lts. Gilbert Plowman and Lt. Newell Mills. In their MACRs they are both reported as last seen at 1215 SEof Bremen.

In one of the MACRs (MACR 13960) reports it reports: "Jets were reported in the area when we were SE of Bremen and although our flight made several orbits we found nothing...There were many EA in the area SE of the bombers...after leaving him,I never heard from him [Lt. Mills] or his wingman again."

April 7,1945 was the date for the famous Rammkommando Elbe effort and there were other Me262 interceptions by KG(J)-54 which accounted for two bombers.

While it is possible, both Plowman and Mills crashed between Schwarmstadt and Gilten about a mile apart.

The weather was bad, they remained with the bomber stream which approached Luneburg, bombed it and turned back to the north and west for home.

If Schuck got them someone else must have claimed the second one. If he forced a mid air collision hw would have claimed both. Wittenberg is not away to the east but the crash site was north of Luneburg.