Who shot down Ofw. Heinrich Bartels?
Heinrich Bartels failed to return on December 23rd, 1944. Apparently he was last seen over the Bonn area during a dogfight with red-nosed P-47s of the 56th Fighter Group. I don't have access to Jochen Prien's work on JG 27 but I have read David McLaren's narrative of the day's events based on USAAF reports, and there is not enough information to determine the name of the mystery pilot who downed Bartels' plane.
56th FG pilots were credited with a total of 32 German aircraft destroyed in the air; all of them were FW-190s, except for ME-109s credited to Lt. Eugene M. Beason (1), Lt. William C. Daley (1), Capt. Felix D. Williamson (1), and Col. David C. Schilling (3). In the confusion of battle it's possible that some ME-109s were misidentified as FW-190s, or vice versa.
Did the aircraft piloted by Heinrich Bartels carry any special markings that one might be able to identify on the gun camera films?
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