Me 109 destroyed Piraeus, Greece 11 Jan 44

[B17F BRITE EYES]

I am making two posts this evening related to the two aircraft my father (S/Sgt. Ernest L. "Tommy" Thompson, Jr., serial 19106348) was given credit for destroying while a gunner on a B-17 of the 419th Bomb Squadron, 301st Bomb Group.

This one was the second of the two. The date was 11 January 1944 and the mission was to the Piraeus Harbor in Greece. It was my father's 36th mission of 50 credited while with the 301st between July 1943 and March 1944. My father had started out as a tail gunner but about halfway through his tour was moved to the top turret as Engineer. He had received a lot of personal training from his good friend Kyle Upton Block, their original crew's Engineer. He was in the top turret on this mission aboard B-17G-15-BO, 42-31391, "Screaming Eagle II" with Francis S. Lewis, pilot. The airplane had just been assigned new to the Squadron two days previous at Cerignola.

This mission was a very bad one for the 301st BG. Five 301st B-17s were lost 20 minutes from the target in a multiple ship collision with bombers from the 97th BG that had turned around. Several B-17s returned with major damage. As the eleven (of an original twenty-one launched) 301st B-17s left the target later they were attacked by 30-40 fighters. Gunners from the 301st BG claimed four of them. Besides my father, S/Sgt. Frank A. Sciarillo (12127639) from my dad's crew had two 109's credited destroyed, and S/Sgt. Alexander Walker (35412440) from another crew had one.

I have no specifics on the attacking fighters. My dad wrote these words about the 109 in a personal recollection of the mission: "...to begin the bomb run we were about two miles behind the nearest B-17. I had heard Smitty (Ball Turret Gunner Sidney L. Smith, 18116946, from Beaumont, Texas) calling out climbing fighters for the last five minutes, then I saw two of them far ahead making a stern attack on bombers we were hoping to catch. Other fighters were high and in front of us. We were now somewhat above those ahead. We found out later that the formation had decided to bomb from two thousand less than briefed. Just then three fighters, Me 109's, came from the right front. They must have seen us just seconds too late to make an effective pass. The leader and his number 2 broke left and down swinging out for a three quarter rear attack. I sent a few tracers after them while they were yet high enough that I could get my sights on them. Then I swung to the left and saw the third one pulling up in a steep climb and rolling into a wingover that would bring him down steep from our left front. The Navigator was busy with two more approaching from level. I tracked mine, waiting until he was at the peak of his climb and had been following him with my sight set for about 1200 yards. That, I knew, was at the far end of my effective range but I started firing short regular bursts and cranked in the lesser yardage a tiny bit at a time. I was hoping to saturate the sky ahead of him and let him fly right into a fist full of fifty caliber slugs."
"The fighter's wings lit up with his machine gun fire and the nose blinked with canon shells. Before I could see if he was hitting us I saw his tail section break off then a wing fold back and rip away. I was still firing when the rest of the gray and yellow plane burst into a spinning ball of fire that seemed to hang in one place. I heard someone yell, "You got him!" I was busy with two more which came from somewhere off our left wing. I didn't see any hits on them..."

This account, he wrote, was just before they released theiir bombs.

I would be interested in ANY information on the fighters and pilots that were sent against the B-17s over Greece that day. I know very little about the about Luftwaffe fighter operations in this area and time.

Thank you,


Lowell Thompson
P.O. Box 714
Kellogg, Idaho 83837

Historian, 301st Bomb Group/Wings Association

[tasos greece]

During that period the Luftwaffe fighter units which was serving in Greece was III. and IV./JG27.In Jochen Prien's book "Messerschmidt Bf 109 im einsatz bei der III. und IV./JG 27 " there is a complete list with the casualties of these two gruppen during the war.At the 11/1/44 the III./JG27 lost four Me-109G-6 in aerial battle.Unfortunately in this date the names of the pilots and the exact staffel don;t mentioned.
Hope this helps
Regards Tasos

[B17F BRITE EYES]

Thank you Tasos. All information is helpful.

I don't have much in the way of Luftwaffe reference books but I note that in one of my books the Bf 109G-6 did not have machine guns in the wing, which means some of my father's account may have been confused memory. Also, it looks in my one book with a color plate of a 111/JG 27 airplane (in this case a Bf 109G-14) that there was yellow coloring.

[NickM]

Originally Posted by B17F BRITE EYES

Thank you Tasos. All information is helpful.

I don't have much in the way of Luftwaffe reference books but I note that in one of my books the Bf 109G-6 did not have machine guns in the wing, which means some of my father's account may have been confused memory. Also, it looks in my one book with a color plate of a 111/JG 27 airplane (in this case a Bf 109G-14) that there was yellow coloring.

\\

Don't discount your father's memory too soon; Me-109s would often carry 20mm cannons in underwing gun pods-ESPECIALLY if they were going up against Heavy Bombers....

nickm

[P Alvim]

Hello,

Yes. I was thinking about gun pods when I read the post by Lowell Thompson.
This raises a point in a issue I'm usually thinking about...
When I read certain accounts, by World War 2 airmen, they seem so vivid that I often ask myself: how can he remember that?!? Did this really happen?
Maybe it's just certain episodes are so strong in a young warrior's life that they seem to remember them just as it had happened the day before.

[mayfair35]

Lowell,

I presume you have the book written by Joe Baxley in 1992? Joe was also in the 419th BS, 301st BG. His mission report #203 of Jan 11, 1944 describes the mission as encountering extremely bad weather, losing one B-17 due to a mid-air collision, and observing 40 E/A but due to the escorting P-38s, not more than 12 actually attacked the formation. The weather on the return also caused much difficulty. If you have the book, go to page 148 which has my recollection of the 419th mission on 26 July and which an episode of Dog Fights is based on.

Cordially, Art Fiedler