23rd December 1944 - raid on Koln/Cologne - VC for plane shot down

[Cofian]

Ladies, Gentlemen,

Having run onto interesting footage of a RAF Mustang of the 65 squadron shooting on a ‘long-nosed FW 190’ who in turn is shooting on a Lancaster. The latter might well be the Lancaster of squadron leader R.A.M. Palmer, who won a posthumous VC for the operation. Ofcourse unknown to all at the time….

In order to keep matters clear, it is suffice to say that Palmer had ended up in the lead position, the 65 squadron were chasing to get close(r) to them being their escort and the JG-26 planes by chance stumbled upon the Palmer group and started to attack.

The German records of the JG-26 indicate the following:
- The Kommandeur (Hackl) shot down the leader of this bombing raid (his 167th kill) which Palmer was not as indicated above, although the Germans would not know the real story, hence it is more than explainable that they considered this to be the case;
- This however did cost the life of fellow JG-26 pilot Werner Frass;
- Frass is further the only one shot down at the time near Koln (timed at 12:50);
- It further is clear that the German fighter attacked by the Mustang of the 65th Squadron is shot down (she has her belly tank still in place and moves sharply to starboard). The combat report of the Mustang clearly indicates (and claims) this, she visibly crashed and is claimed by the RAF pilot;
- It also is assumed that the Lancaster shot at by the German fighter is shot down too: she is clearly hit, and her port (inner) engine is on fire and she is turning to port sharply. The 65 squadron combat report claims the attacked Lancaster further to be ‘in flames’;
- The Lancaster (lead-plane) claimed by the Kommandeur is shot down at 12:54.

Now I do understand that two Lancasters have been shot down near Koln: the PB120 and the PB137. The PB120 crashed two KM short of the target, apparently the Palmer Lancaster more or less on target. The only surviving crewmember of the PB120 again thinks to have been shot at by an ME-109.

The issue here that Werner Frass is NOT credited with a kill and it is highly likely that the Lanc he shot at has gone down too. Further the crash-time of Frass and the Lancaster shot down by Hackl are more or less equal (there is some 4 minutes difference – the Lancaster of Hackl crashed 4 minutes later then Frass – the other timings differ much more). The only two German planes shot down by a P-51 (Mustang) were Frass and a plane near Munster, although Frass is named to be shot down by the 364 Fighter Group (?).

I think, for a variety of reasons, that the Lancaster going down was the one of Palmer. This means that the Kommandeur might well have claimed to have shot down a plane that was actually shot down by Frass, since Frass went down too following the 65 squadron attack…..

Are there any (other) views on this one?