Over Germany

The following description of a raid over Germany was given over the BBC radio network by Col. David C. Schilling '39, USAAC, an escorting Thunderbolt pilot, who is listed among the American aces with the Bth Air Force. Colonel Schilling shoots down Nazis too fast for the MAGAZINE to keep up with them, but according to the last report we had, he had bagged fourteen.

Every fighter pilot has one idea in mind —to keep the bombers from getting hurt. His secondary idea is to shoot down as many airplanes as he possibly can—but not at the expense of the bombers. We'd rather go over and never see an enemy airplane if all the bombers got home safely. And many, many times I've seen wonderful attacks—sure bets—broken off because they would have carried our fighters too far from the bombers to ensure proper escort. The only times we attack are when the enemy fighters are in the immediate vicinity of the bombers, or when they are in the general vicinity preparing to make a mass attack in an attempt to break through our supporting lines. At no time do we allow ourselves to be drawn away from the bombers unless forced by enemy action taken upon ourselves.

The beautiful thing about this raid last Tuesday was that we broke up so much of the enemy's effort, and we were only sorry that we couldn't stay with the bombers longer to give them more aid.

We rendez-voused with the bombers several minutes earlier than anticipated. We placed a fighter squadron on each of the two boxes of bombers that we were escorting, and after being sure that no enemy planes were in the vicinity, I took "A" Squadron—the lead fighter squadron—off to fifteen miles ahead in an effort to intercept any enemy fighter that might be massing for frontal attacks.

Very soon afterwards, twenty-four Me- 109's and eight to twelve FW 190's came over five thousand feet above us, approaching the lead bomber formation. I called "B" Squadron on the R.T. (they were then escorting the lead bombers) and told them to watch out for a frontal attack. I then called "C" Squadron and told them to move up to the front box to give support to "B" Squadron. But the enemy fighters, instead of pressing home their attack on the bombers, passed over us and then came straight down on our tails. And that started up the most vicious dogfight I've ever seen, involving three separate but interlinked circles of aircraft all whirling round in different directions.

For a fighter pilot, it was magnificent. All you could see were fighters mostly enemy—everywhere you looked. There were Messerschmitts chasing Thunderbolts and Thunderbolts chasing Messerschmitts in turning circles—all firing at one another simultaneously. And occasionally a Messerschmitt would go down smoking and burning.

Even though I was so busy with two 109's latched on to my tail that I had to work harder than I've probably ever worked before to keep from getting hit, I stilL couldn't deprive myself of rubbernecking round a bit to watch how the boys were doing.

While this dogfight was going on, about forty more enemy fighters were coming in on the right flank o£ the front bomber formation, slightly below "B" Squadron, which had just been prepared to come over on my call to give aid. Seeing this, "B" Squadron immediately attacked and destroyed six, and completely disseminated and drove off the majority of the enemy aircraft.

During this time "C" Squadron was coming up to the front bomber formation to give aid and intercepted eight to twelve Messerschmitt tog's, which were obviously vectored to attack us, but, instead, were attacked and driven off with a loss of two.

Following these three major engagements, the squadrons were in the process of reforming and getting back into escort position, when enemy aircraft came in towards the bomber formations individually and in pairs.

I saw two F.W. 190's attacking one of the Fortresses. I immediately attacked and destroyed the first, and chased the other one to a very low altitude, where I was going so fast that I had difficulty in controlling my aircraft and only managed to damage the second. That didn't please me a bit.

It was shortly afterwards that the fighters came to the limit of their range and had to break off the escort and return.