Paul-Hubert Rauh - 30 December 1943

[drgondog]

Originally Posted by Leo Etgen

Hello guys

Bill, could it be that rather than being shot down by P-47 fighters he was actually shot down by the P-51 fighters of the 353rd FS, 354th FG which claimed a Do 217 over Ludwigshafen-Metz? The Ludwigshafen-Metz area is by far closer to Karlsruhe than Châlons-sur-Marne. For what I know the Merlin-engined P-51 fighter had just made its combat debut and perhaps Rauh mistook these for the more familiar P-47 fighter and for their part the American pilots may have misidentified the two twin-engined, twin-tailed aircraft. What do you think?

Horrido!

Leo

As Don noted - it is more plausible that Beerbower and Lind's "Probable" award for a shared "Do 217" on the mission to Ludwigshafen. There were a pair of "Do-217s" spotted on the penetration and claims of 1 Destroyed - 1 Damaged was reduced to 0-1-1.