P-61 Black Widow vs. He 177 Greif

Above; KG 40 Heinkel He 177 crew of pilot Hptm. Stolle (centre) after their 'successful' combat with a 422 NFS P-61 Black Widow during the night of 14/15 August 1944. The Alsatians 'Max' and 'Moritz' also flew sorties.

The American P-61 Black Widow nightfighter enjoyed an inauspicious start to its combat operations in the ETO. Some believed the P-61 was too slow to effectively engage in combat with German fighters and medium bombers, a view which the RAF apparently shared, based on the performance of a single P-61 they had received in early May. And in one of the Black Widow’s first engagements over northern Europe during August 1944 a 422 NFS P-61 sustained heavy damage attempting to down a Heinkel He 177 bomber. This incident was the subject of an article in Jet & Prop magazine (issue 6/97) entitled " Schwarze Witwe contra Greif " (‘Black Widow versus Griffon’) written and compiled by Michael Balss.


The 422nd Night Fighter Squadron was the first P-61-equipped squadron to ship to England and began flying operational missions over England in mid-July 1944. The first P-61 engagement in the European Theatre occurred on July 15 when a P-61 piloted by Lt. Herman Ernst was directed to intercept a V-1 Doodlebug . Diving from above and behind to match the V-1's 350 mph (560 km/h) speed, the P-61's plastic rear cone imploded under the pressure and the attack was aborted. The tail cones would fail on several early P-61 A models before this problem was corrected. On 16 July, Lt. Ernst was again directed to attack a V-1 and, this time, was successful, giving the 422nd NFS and the European Theatre its first P-61 kill. In early August 1944, the 422nd NFS transferred to Maupertus (near Cherbourg, Normandy) and began to encounter German aircraft for the first time.

During the late evening of 14 August 1944 Heinkel He 177 bombers of I./KG 40 took off from Schwäbisch Hall to attack Allied targets in France. One of the ‘Greif’ bombers was the 2. Staffel machine coded F8+AN, Werknummer 550077, flown by Hptm. Stolle. Stolle’s crew reported that the night was ‘clear and light, in fact it was too light..’ The silhouettes of further 2. Staffel He 177s flying in loose formation could be clearly made out from F8+AN. The first part of the mission was uneventful. The flight engineer Fw. R takes up the story;

"..it was shortly before half past midnight. I had just carried out my instrument checks and was about to make my report to Hptm. Stolle when our tail gunner Uffz. Fabinger shouted over the EiV (Eigenverständigung - crew intercom), “ Achtung! Lightning at 6 o’clock. Maintain heading, I’m opening fire. ” At the same time we felt the fuselage shudder as Fabinger’s 2 cm cannon opened up. Fabinger was soon reporting “ .I’ve hit him, he’s alight, his starboard engine is on fire, he’s going down. Abschuß!.." The two other He 177s witnessed the downing (Abschußbestätigung) and confirmed it north of Bafleur (sic), France..(Barfleur, Normandy). The rest of the flight was quiet. Over the target there was some flak, but nothing in our direction and it was around 04:00 when we landed back in Schwäbisch Hall and were able to congratulate our gunner on his success.."

In fact the ‘Lightning at 6 o’ clock’ was a P 61 A "Black Widow" flown by 2nd Lt Lewis A. Gordon (pilot) and 2nd Lt Creel H. Morrison of the 422nd NFS. The Black Widow pilot wrote an account for his niece Allison Gordon in an unpublished memoir entitled "War in the Night Sky";

"..On my eleventh mission, 14 August 1944, we were doing a night patrol over the English Channel, and we got a bogie. So they put us on a heading to intercept, and pretty soon my RO says, "I got him". And we called GCI, and said, "We have him." We closed in, and my RO would tell me, gentle port, gentle starboard, increase your speed, decrease your speed. And he brought me in..Unfortunately he saw me before I saw him, and his tail gunner cut loose knocking out my starboard engine which immediately caught fire.."

The P-61 pilot Al Gordon continued;

“ Some of the enemy fire entered the top of my canopy, and lodged in and exploded the hydraulic reservoir just above and behind my head. That knocked out part of the hydraulic system. Fortunately the P-61 controls didn't operate hydraulically; they were operated by cables. So the hydraulic failure didn't affect the ‘flyability’ of the plane. My first reaction was complete shock—they didn’t tell us about this! Then all the training kicked in and I proceeded to function. I was scared, of course. I'd have to be a liar to say I wasn't. But I was so damn busy, trying to fly the aircraft at that point that I really didn't have much time to think about it. But I knew that I was in trouble, and I was trying to work my way out of it. I could communicate with my RO over the radio, but in hindsight I should have talked more, because he didn't know what the hell I was doing, and he was scared to death...So here I am, a flamer, 50 miles out over the English Channel. I feathered the starboard engine right away-- I did the right thing there. And I dove it a little bit to gain speed, and put the fire out. My radio was still somewhat operational, so GCI vectored me back. My guess is that it might have been fifteen minutes before we reached the airfield, but it seemed like a long, long time. I came in on one engine, and I lowered my landing gear, not realizing that my nose wheel had been shot out from under me. Considering everything, it was a good landing, except that when it came time for the nose wheel to drop, there was no nose wheel. So I skidded on the front of the plane to a stop..."

Impatient Widow" # 91, tail number 42-5591 had its starboard engine shot out along with oil lines and hydraulics. Arriving back at their base in Maupertus the nose-wheel failed to come down but the crew escaped the ensuing crash-landing unscathed, with damage assessed as CAT B/E. The Widow’s fuselage, engines and other salvageable equipment were used for spares of which the ETO Black Widow squadrons had little during their time in northern Europe.

“Nobody was hurt, but I learned a valuable lesson on that mission. Never come in for an attack from the rear, shallow—so the tail gunner can see you. Rather you synchronize speed and heading well below the bogie, then identify, drop back, and shoot. The important thing is to live beyond an experience like this and of course learn from it. One tends to be a little more cautious, increasing one’s chances of lasting through the war.”

Back in Germany Fabinger was awarded the EK 1 for his alertness, marksmanship and observational prowess. As the unnamed flight engineer Fw. R reported ;

“ Fabinger had almost certainly saved the aircraft and our lives. The pictures were taken two days later and we proudly painted a victory marking on the tail fin of the He 177 which was surmounted with an American star. (photo below) I don’t know what became of Fabinger – the crew was split up towards the end of the war and was dispersed to the four winds..”

At that stage of the war the P-61 was a fairly ‘rare’ type, almost certainly completely unknown to the Luftwaffe He 177 crews, so as Balss makes clear, researching the actual circumstances of this incident from the German side posed considerable difficulties. The story was not complete until the discovery of a USAAF photo depicting ‘Impatient Widow’ following its crash landing – the official caption; ‘This P-61 returned home safely after combat with a Heinkel He 177 on the night of 15 August. The He 177 did not escape unscathed..”

Gunther Eheim - 'Mit Mut nach oben - Mein Leben' - Arado works test pilot memoir

Aged 91 years old, Gunther Eheim from Esslingen is a well-known German industrialist and entrepreneur, self-made millionaire and 'global player'. During WWII Gunther Eheim was no stranger to danger - or risk, as he makes clear in his recently published memoir 'Mit Mut nach oben - Mein Leben'. ( ' With courage to the skies – my life..' ), a well-illustrated 196-page self-published hard back. As a Fernaufklärer long-range recce pilot in Finland his Junkers Ju 88 was on one occasion set upon by Russian fighters, but Eheim brought the aircraft home with an engine on fire. From Finland he was posted to KG 40 and flew the Heinkel He 177 before later joining Arado as a works test pilot where he logged some forty eight in-flight engine failures up to the end of the war ! He was at the controls of, among others, the first Arado Ar 234 C-3 four-engine jet bomber (WerkNr. 250 001) which was test flown in Alt-Lönnewitz on 30 January 1945. He also flew C-3 WerkNr. 250 002 in Alt-Lönnewitz as late as March 1945. At least four more C-3 can be proven by registrations in Flugbücher or by photos according to Griehl's history although up to mid-April 1945 only approximately 12 more C-3 cells were finished. A lack of engines and other equipment prevented delivery to units.

Eheim’s war stories would more than adequately fill a decent-sized book, but his adventures continued in the hard post-war period. In 1947 Eheim established his first company, building small electrical goods and he later enjoyed much success with accessories for model railways and filters and pumps for aquariums which he developed into a multi-million DM/Euro business.


His passion for aviation never left him and in the early 1970's Eheim went into the air charter business with a single Learjet, eventually founding Contact Air, an airline that currently operates scheduled city flights for Lufthansa with eleven aircraft. His other business (Eheim Aquaria) continues to grow with manufacturing plants now established in China for the Far Eastern market. Even at 91 Eheim still spends two days per week in the office. As he himself puts it, his success is testament to hard work and stamina, a sense of adventure and, above all, good fortune.

More unknown pilots and aces of JG 26

Rare images of 7./JG 26 Flugzeugführer (pilots) seen in front of and on a Fw 190 A-8 during November 1944 in Reinsehlen. From left; Uffz. Heinz "Muli" Meiss, KIA at the controls of his Dora-9 on 13 March 1945 (Luftkampf mit Spitfire) over Unna-Werl, Lt. Gottfried Dietze who survived the war credited with two victories as StaKa 6./JG 26 and Uffz. Erich Ahrens who was shot down and taken captive on 1.1.1945 during the Bodenplatte operation. The lower photo shows Meiss and Ahrens on the wing of a Fw 190 A.

A portrait of Gottfrid Dietze taken in northern France during early 1942 and in front of his Fw 190 A-8. Bottom, a pilot of 7. or 8 ./JG 26,  Fw. Heinz Gomann pictured in February 1945 in Nordhorn. Gomann survived the war and was credited with 12 Luftsiege.

Below; pilots of 7./JG 26 (or II./JG 26) seen at Stevede-Coesfeld in October 1944. Fliegeralarm over the airfield. From left; Gruppe-TO Lt. Peter Andel who survived the war with six victories, Lt, Siegfried Sy (survived), Uffz. Walter Stumpf, credited with a single victory, and Uffz. Leopold Speer shot down and killed on 1.1.1945 in the vicinity of Nijkerk on the Zuider Zee.

A snapshot of  three JG 26  aces seen in Reinsehlen during November 1944. From left, Lt. Gerhard Vogt, KIA on 14.1.1945 as Kapitän of 5./JG 26 in combat with P-51s south-east of Cologne. Vogt was credited with 48 victories and was awarded the RK on 25.11.1945. Alongside Vogt is Staffelkapitän 7./JG 26 Oblt. Waldemar Radener who survived the war with a total of 37 victories including 17 Viermots. He was later appointed to command II./JG 26 and II./JG 300. On the right is Lt. Adolf Glunz, Staffelkapitän 6./JG 26, 72 Luftsiege RK on 29.8.1943, EL on 24.6.1944.

Nice image of II./JG 26 Flugzeugführer und Gruppen-TO Lt. Peter Andel seen in February-March 1945 in Nordhorn in conversation with Lt. Alfred Viehweg and, below, posing for a snapshot with Miess and Stumpf . Bottom, Andel at the controls of his Fw 190 D-9.

On sale currently in Michael Meyer's Ebay shop

More pilots and aces of JG 26 on my blog

http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/06/luftwaffe-fighter-aces-of-jg26-mietusch.html

Late-war Luftwaffe pilot training in the Bücker Bestmann by Karl Martin Gelbke - 'The War I Saw..'

I am proud to count Karl Gelbke  and Terry Epton as regular readers of this blog. Karl has written a manuscript entitled 'THE WAR I SAW' detailing his wartime experiences and was kind enough to send through an extract for reproduction here.

 'THE WAR I SAW' written by Karl Martin Gelbke with Terry Epton

 I grew up in Hitler's Germany. It was under this malignant regime that I received my education, training, and basic understanding of the world. At seventeen, I became a soldier for the Reich, in the desperate closing weeks of the Second World War. Looking back on those years, I am careful not to glorify my life, my combat experiences, or the Nazi Party. Instead, I work to promote an understanding of this singularly destructive period, that created such sorrow for Europe and for my family......Karl Martin Gelbke


".....In November 1944, twelve of us left Finsterwalde by train for the A/B Pilot School #8 Pretzsch, near the Elbe River. My good friend Herbert Schreiber was with us. The school was fairly new, located on an elevation, with several brick buildings, three unpaved runways, protected by two 20 mm anti-aircraft guns. Everything was under a thick blanket of snow. The next morning, we 24 new recruits were divided into eight man teams, each team with an instructor. Our instructor was an Unteroffizier Loeffler, a highly decorated former fighter pilot, a nice guy. The rest of our first day was taken up receiving our uniform, gear, rifle, helmet and flight suit. On our second day, we took our Obedience Oath. We stood at attention in full uniform, with right hand raised. In front of our officers and an honor guard, we swore before God to obey the orders of Adolf Hitler. If necessary, we would die for him. Later that night, Herbert and I privately discussed the oath. We young volunteers would gladly put our lives on the line to defend our people and our country. But to die for one man? We were starting to have our doubts.

On our next few days of training, it was cold, with heavy snow. We were given instruction about our aircraft, and on how to survive enemy fighters in our slow, unarmed machines. To everyone's surprise and relief, we learned there would be no boot camp, and that flight training would begin at once.
Our school had several Bücker Bestmann Bu-181's, a low wing, cabin two-seater with fixed landing wheels and a 105 hp air cooled four cylinder Hirth engine. For advanced training we had a few Arado AR 96's, a low wing, cabin tandem two-seater with retractable wheels and a six cylinder, 240 hp Argus engine. We also had a couple of bi-planes on skies and a Fieseler Storch FI-156.

I remember my first engine-powered flight well. It was a cold day with clear blue skies. Seven of us were suited up, in a parachute harness, waiting our turn in a hut near the landing strip. When my turn came, I ran to the Bu-181, with Unteroffizier Loeffler on board. I hooked up my harness to the seat parachute. Loeffler told me to pay attention and to hold the controls gently. After a short run, he took off and we were airborne. We circled the airport, came in for a smooth landing, and then took off again. After landing once more, Loeffler asked: "Did you get the feel for it? The crate is all yours.!" I looked at him puzzled. He said: "Don't worry, I'm still with you."

I prepared for take off, and after a short run, the plane lifted up in the brisk wind. My first landings were bumpy. There was a big difference between this 181, with a passenger on board, and the gliders I was used to. But after a few flights I began to feel comfortable and relaxed. Soon I was flying with little help from Loeffler.
Early in December 1945, we began to hear rumors that they would be closing the flight school. We couldn't bring ourselves to believe it, so none of us took the rumors seriously. On one cold sunny day that month, when our group had returned from lunch, we watched a platoon of Volkssturm men being drilled. These were old men that the Reich had scraped together in the closing months of the war, to achieve the hopeless task of reversing the inevitable defeat. We were teenagers in uniform, watching old men in uniform, a sign that Germany was running out of soldiers. We smiled in amusement as we watched these old guys throwing themselves on the ground.

As they did so, two British fighter planes roared in, making a low level pass over our airfield. But they did not fire their guns. An hour later, our sirens sounded. Expecting a bombing attack, all our planes took off quickly for unmarked emergency strips nearby. Our trucks, scout cars and tankers sped into the nearby woods for cover. The rest of us flung ourselves into flimsy earth-dug bomb shelters. We all waited to be bombed. But nothing happened. A large formation of B-17's flew high above us, on their way to some other target.

During the next two weeks, we made rapid progress in the classroom, and in the air, despite harsh weather. We were constantly reminded that if we didn't perform as expected, the infantry was waiting for us. But we were eager to complete our training and earn our wings as fighter pilots. During this hopeless period, so close to the end of the war, German pilots were given no more than around 50 hours of flight time. This was a far cry from the training pilots had been receiving. It was no joke that these young, hastily trained pilots became known as “three day flyers,” because they usually only survived combat for a few days. Pilot training at this stage of the war was a virtual death sentence. Flying against more experienced Allied pilots Luftwaffe pilots were terribly outnumbered. Our cities were being bombed to rubble, our pilot losses kept growing. We were in great demand.

Then, on a late afternoon in mid-December, I took what proved to be my last training flight. The weather was horrible, with strong winds, low overcast and swirling snow. By now I had six hours flight time, and could master the Bestmann without help from Loeffler, who flew with me. He was always on the lookout for enemy fighters, regardless of the weather. He had good reason. As a Me 109 pilot with five confirmed kills, he was shot down during a landing approach, crashed and lost three fingers. When he recovered from his injuries, he became a flight instructor, which were in great demand. On an earlier flight I had told him how much I was enjoying my training. I recall his chilling reply  - "the only safe place for a pilot now is in a P-51 Mustang." This long range American fighter swarmed in German skies and was dominating the air war. The Luftwaffe was almost kaputt, and Loeffler understood this, even if I didn't.

After a forty-five minute flight, I landed our "Baby cradle," which is what advanced students dubbed the Bestmanns. I taxied to our wooded, concealed parking area where we were now were leaving our aircraft following our recent visit from the RAF. I switched off the ignition, and Loeffler said to me: "I hope you have enjoyed the extra time it took today. It will be over soon, anyway." I wasn't sure what he was trying to say, and I didn't ask. As the mechanic took over the plane, he told me: "Take out the parachutes, you won't need them anymore. Flying at this school is over." All training for new pilots was to be suspended at our school, and most other schools. The war was fast closing in on Germany, and we no longer had the luxury of training pilots. I knew what was coming. The fine print on my Luftwaffe application had read: "...If for any reason the training is not completed, the applicant will be transferred to the Fallschirmjäger..."

Rommel's He 111

A question from Daz; thanks for bringing this up on the britmodeller.com forum

"..I've been looking at building Rommel's personal He-111 VG+ES from the Kurierstaffel in North Africa in 1942. My question is was it a bomber/transport? Or was it converted to a pure transport role, and the bomb racks removed, and the area taken up with tables and chairs?.."

Fliegerführer Afrika was part of Luftflotte 2 (Air Fleet 2), one of the primary divisions of the German Luftwaffe in World War II. It acted in the Mediterranean and Libya in North African areas during 1941-1942. The commanders were Generalmajor Stefan Fröhlich and Generalleutnant Otto Hoffmann von Waldau, who led the German air support to the German Afrika Korps campaign during the winter of 1941-1942. The specific aircraft in use by these commanders was one Heinkel He 111 H-4 (VG+ES) WNr. 4085, fully equipped  - armed with five MG 15 and one MG 17, the capacity to load 1,000 kg of bombs internally and another 1,000 kg under the wings, also exterior fuel tanks...probably. Sub-type and WNr are contentious..

Unknown Soviet type/project (Ju 287, EF 122, 131 and EF 140)

Photo/postcard on sale here http://cgi.ebay.de/FOTO-AK-SOWJET-FLUGZEUG-FLUGZEUGTYP-MIR-UNBEKANNT-/110648352404?pt=Ansichtskarte_Zubeh%C3%B6r&hash=item19c327de94

'Unknown' type/design/project presumably based on Junkers high-speed bomber research. Note the nose/fuselage profile similarity to the Ju 188/288 fuselage model. According to Ransom/Korrell/Evans in 'Junkers Ju 287-Germany's forward swept wing bomber' (Classic 2008), Junkers had started wind tunnel testing on swept wing configurations in early 1943 but had concluded on balance that the application of the forward swept wing offered less risk than the use of swept-back wings. The little-known EF 116 project compared both wing profile characteristics leading to the selection of forward sweep. Note that this was to be a smaller aircraft than its successor the EF 122, later to be given the RLM designation Ju 287.  With the handover of Dessau and other Junkers factories to Soviet control, construction of the Ju 287 - in particular the Ju 287 V-3 - was continued, with the project being re-designated EF 131. Both the EF 131 and the later EF 140 featured swept forward wings. The last of the EF 140 variants was the Type 140 b high speed bomber, an aircraft which was to be powered by two jet engines only. A further development was the Type 150 proposed in 1947 with either forward or sweptback wings.

JG 1 Bf 109 Emil Jever 1942 (Wolf, Wenneckers)

Me 109 E of 2./JG 1 seen in early 1942 in Jever. Uffz. Hans-Gerd Wenneckers in front of the machine, survived the war with around 20 victories.


Me 109 E belonging to 2./JG 1, Husum, May/June 1942. Seen from the left are Ofw. Erich Dobrick, Lt. Gerhard Staiger, Ofw. Helmut Maul and Uffz. Hans-Gerd Wenneckers.

Me 109 E belonging to 2./JG 1 seen in early 1942 in Jever. Pilot photographed in front of this Emil is Uffz. Albin Wolf, RK on 22 November 1943 as Oberfeldwebel, Eichenlaub on 25 April 1944 as Leutnant. Killed in action after being hit by flak on 2 April 1944 south of Pleskau at the controls of a 6./JG 54 Fw 190. Returned 144 Luftsiege on the Ostfront. Posthumously promoted to Oberleutnant.

Me 109 E of 2./JG 1 Jever early 1942. Uffz. Johnen poses for a snapshot. Note the Peil GIV antenna under the fuselage, here minus its plexiglas fairing.

Currently on sale at Michael Meyer's Ebay shop here