USAAF Claims for Me 163s

[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.