The air war in the West and over the Reich determined the fate of the Luftwaffe - with a higher percentage of casualties to participants than in the East, it was by far the most costly theatre for the Luftwaffe. And the Allies for that matter. The USAAF lost over 79,000 airmen between 1942-1945 and the RAF lost over 8,000 aircraft in the period 1939-1945 resulting in similar numbers of air crew killed. Over 60% of these losses were attributed to enemy fighters, both day and night respectively. The USAF lost over 8,000 bombers from November 1942 to May 1945 with German fighter pilots shooting down over 6,000 American and 7,000 RAF bombers, at a cost of 150,000 Allied airmen combined. The Germans themselves lost almost 20,000 fighter and 'destroyer' crews men and pilots, more than half killed fighting against the heavy bombers and their fighter escorts on the Western Front. Attacking a bomber formation was dangerous. Initial encounters with US bombers flying by day during mid-late 1942 were inconclusive, but the Germans quickly grew to realise that the American four-engine bombers with their heavy defensive armament - well able to absorb punishment especially when flying in their mutually protective ‘combat boxes’ - were tough opponents.
Egon Mayer scored his first heavy bomber kills as Gruppenkommandeur of III./JG 2 on 23 November 1942 - this may well have been his first such encounter with the '4-mot. Kampfflugzeuge' or “Viermots.” Having been appointed Gkr. at the start of that month, Mayer - known as a conscientious, studious and pragmatic fighter pilot and leader - had studied tactics and angles of attack to develop procedures against the 'Viermots' - most notably the B-17. Other pilots in his unit had been doing likewise - Jules Meimberg recalled in his memoir;
“ we sought out as much information on these machines as we could find..first flight in 1935, steadily upgraded and improved..three revolving turrets, eight heavy machine guns for defence..and only one point of weakness – the cockpit. Whereas Mayer wanted to launch attacks from all directions simultaneously to disperse the defensive fire, I argued that head-on – hitting the B-17s where their defensive fire was at its weakest - was the only certain way to bring a Fortress down..”
“ we sought out as much information on these machines as we could find..first flight in 1935, steadily upgraded and improved..three revolving turrets, eight heavy machine guns for defence..and only one point of weakness – the cockpit. Whereas Mayer wanted to launch attacks from all directions simultaneously to disperse the defensive fire, I argued that head-on – hitting the B-17s where their defensive fire was at its weakest - was the only certain way to bring a Fortress down..”
US bombers were increasingly penetrating the airspace of western and northern France. Mayer's Gruppe was specifically tasked with defending the U-boat bases in Brittany. While JG 2 was not scrambled on the 9 October 1942 attack on the 'Lille industrial area', this was the first raid for which the US VIII BC managed to assemble over 100 bombers. However events elsewhere (North Africa) meant that it would be another six months before such a large force could be put together again over Western Europe.
On 7 November, some 34 B-17s and B-24s raided Brest. Oblt. Bruno Stolle claimed one B-24, the first of this type shot down by the Richthofen Geschwader. St. Nazaire was the target of 36 bombers on 23 November 1942. Mayer led off 7. and 9./ JG 2 from Vannes at around 12:00 mid-day.
As the Fw 190s sighted the bomber formation, Mayer made a rapid assessment of the situation and elected to attack the bomber formation 'head-on'. Climbing almost a mile above and three miles ahead of the formation, he turned and started a shallow diving attack from the front. Receiving light defensive fire he held his approach for several seconds, focusing his aim on the port engines. Perhaps less than thirty feet above the bomber 'box' he veered away as the target headed to earth. He repeated this pass on a second B-17. Fifty calibre rounds pounded his armor plate around his cockpit and according to one account, damaged two cylinders in his engine. Pulling up and gaining altitude, he then closed on a box of B-24s, an attack timed at 14:00. By this stage he was probably almost out of ammunition and running low on fuel. Mayer decided to return to base. While he claimed two B-17s and a B-24 on 23 November 1942 (his victories 52-55) and brought back a relatively unscathed aircraft, no B-24s were lost. Four B-17s in total did fail to return - two credited to Mayer, one for Uffz. Friedrich May of 8./JG 2 and the fourth was credited to Oblt. Siegfried Schnell, StaKa of 9./JG 2, his 72nd victory. Mayer's 7. Staffel wingman Uffz. Theo Angele was the only loss suffered by III./JG 2- Angele's Fw 190 A-4 was hit by the bombers' defensive fire and went down into the sea. Angele's body was later washed up on the coast.
General der Jagdflieger Galland was quick to praise Mayer's initiative against the Viermots on 23 November 1942. In a message sent to all units (below, dated 14 December and received at I./JG 54 on 13 January 1943) he urged all formation leaders to adopt this frontal attack method where possible in order to increase the 'lethality' of the German fighters and overwhelm the bomber formations.
RL 10/291 contains a combat report 'Erfahrungsbericht' (a 'retour d'experience' written for the JG 54 pilots shifting to the Western Front) which indicates that Mayer almost certainly employed the new frontal attack method for the first time during this raid. The traditional attack from the rear had proved risky, with attacking fighters likely sustaining many hits from the defensive fire of a typical staggered trail formation.
Below; Oblt. Egon Mayer (fifth left) with his 7. Staffel seen in Poix during October 1942. Uffz. Theo Angele KIA on the 23 November raid is fourth right.
These developments deterred all but the most dedicated and efficient bomber 'killers'. Those aces who 'specialised' in the frontal attack simply changed their angle of attack, above the chin turret guns’ elevation, rolling over exposing the undersides of their Fw-190s, where the armor plating absorbed the impact of the enemy rounds. Most of the German fighter pilots who amassed many bomber kills paid a heavy price and fought a long war. For example, Georg-Peter Eder was shot down on multiple occasions and wounded numerous times. He had three kills confirmed after colliding with his targets, surviving the crash and being thrown from the wreckage, the last being in a Me-262 jet, breaking both legs in January 1945, ending his war. Anton Hackl was shot down eight times and also wounded on four occasions, including a collision.
Eder was not that an unusual case. Most of Germany’s pilots were shot down and often wounded several times. Returning to combat was expected unless the loss of sight, a limb or other crippling injury was the result. The fortunate few became instructors until they healed, passing on their knowledge to the next group of future fighter pilots. This protection was far less available in the front of a formation, and an attack described by Heinz Knoke shows how on the job training often developed a better result, but was a much more difficult and dangerous proposition:
“We draw closer to the bomber formation…I can distinguish the individual enemy aircraft now. Most of them are Liberators….They look as if their fat bellies are pregnant with bombs. I pick one of them as my target…I shall make a frontal attack. The Yank is focused in my sights. He grows rapidly larger. I reach the firing buttons on the stick. Tracers come whizzing past my head. They have opened up on me! Fire! I press both buttons, but my aim is poor. I can see only a few hits register in the right wing. I almost scrape the fat belly as I dive past. Then I am caught in the slipstream, buffeted so violently that for a moment I wonder if my tail plane has been shot away. I climb up steeply and break away to the left. Tracers pursue me, unpleasantly close.
“Damn all this metal in the air! Three hundred heavy bombers carry a total of 4,800 super heavy machine guns. Even is only one in ten has a chance to fire that still means we run into quite a barrage. I come in for a second frontal attack, this time from a little below. As I swing round I turn my head. Flames are spreading along the bottom of the fuselage of my Liberator. It sheers away from the formation in a wide sweep to the right.
“Twice more I come in to attack, this time diving from above the tail. I am met by heavy defensive fire. My plane shudders under the recoil from the cannon and two 13 mm guns. I watch my cannon shell bursts rake along the top of the fuselage and right wing, and then I hang on to the stick with both hands. Fire spreads along the right wing. The inside engine stops. Suddenly the wing breaks off altogether. The body of the stricken monster plunges vertically, spinning into the depths. A long black trail of smoke marks its descent.
“One of the crew attempts to bail out. But his parachute is in flames. Poor devil! The body somersaults and falls to the ground like a stone. At an altitude of 3,000 feet there is a tremendous explosion, which causes the spinning fuselage to disintegrate. Fragments of blazing wreckage land on a farm 200 or 300 yards from the Zwischenahn Airfield, and the exploding fuel tank sets the farm buildings on fire.”
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