Article Type: Military History
Article Date: April 11, 2002
The Flying Undertaker
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| 'Shomo Bags A Tony' by Ian Wyllie |
So what does a guy who is a licensed mortician do when WWII commences? He enlists in flight school, that's what. Pennsylvanian, William Shomo did just that rising to the rank of Major by the war's end and claiming eight victories with the P-51D.
He flew outclassed P-39Qs and P-40Ns for recon duties in late 1943 over New Guinea but the group, 82nd Reconnaissance Squadron, 71st Reconnaissance Group, upgraded to the F-6. The F-6 was a camera-equipped P-51D complete with its six fifties. The group was reassigned to the Mindoro in the Philippines and Shomo was given command of the group.
On January 10, 1945, Shomo scored his first kill, a Val south of Tuguegarao Airdrome. The next day he made history.
He and Lt. Paul Lipscomb took off from San Jose Field to conduct visual recon of the northern Luzon area and to photograph nearby airfields. His F-6 was a very average looking plane with standard aluminum finish with an olive drab upper cowl. He called it "Snooks" though no name was painted on. Flying at only 200 feet they spotted some dozen single-engine fighters and a twin-engine bomber.
Getting closer they identified the gaggle as eleven KI-61s "Tonys" and a KI-44 "Tojo" plus the G4M "Betty" Japanese Army aircraft all in mottled green camo. The Japanese made no intercept moves and may have thought that the Mustangs were more long-nosed Tonys forming up.
Shomo picked out a Tony in the last element and fired. The plane exploded. Snooks took out another in the second formation. Lipscomb scored as well. Shomo picks up the narrative in his own words.
The second element of two Tonys on the right turned left and started after my wingman, who was moving down on the remaining element of two more Tonys on the left. As this element passed in front of me I fired a burst into to the wingman and he exploded in flames. Lt. Lipscomb then fired at the wingman of the first element and this Tony burst into flames. Lt. Lipscomb then made a pass on the bomber but apparently did no damage. I then started to make a pass on the bomber, closing from the right quarter. The rear gunner started to fire at me so I dropped my wing tanks to be less vulnerable. I dropped below the bomber and raked the underside of the fuselage with a long burst. The wing root caught fire and black smoke belched back as I pass under and beyond it.
I started up in a steep climb to the left and saw my wingman's third victory as he hit a Tony head-on. It started to smoke and burn as it rolled over into a vertical dive from 600 feet. While climbing in my turn a Tojo started to fire at me from below with about a sixty-degree deflection. I tightened my turn and he skidded behind me, broke off and disappeared into a low hanging cloud.
By this time I was headed in the direction of the running fight and I saw the bomber crash in a field and burn. I also saw two Tonys just beyond flying south at about 800 feet. I pursued, closed on the leader and fired a burst from his rear. This Tony exploded in mid-air. The other broke right and dove steeply to approximately 300 feet and I closed on the fighter's tail as he leveled out. I closed to point-blank range and fired a burst that started black smoke streaming from his exhaust stacks. I was overrunning him so I swerved right and above him. The Tony went into a gentle dive for the ground. |
Upon return to base the pair began their customary victory rolls but the cheering on the ground stopped at five. The brass and men thought it was a severe breach of etiquette to make sport of the victory roll.
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| Shomo & Crew Chief Ralph Winkle |
Lipscomb interjected in his southern drawl as General Kenney began on them, "Sir, he got seven Japs and Ah got three."
Kenney asked why he didn't perform his victory rolls to which he sheepishly replied, "Well sir, Ah just checked out on this plane and Ah ain't sure Ah know how."
Perhaps the Japanese were green but the American duo had no real combat experience either. The fact that the Tojo and Tonys had armor plate and good armament speaks well of the .50's ability to explode most of them like they were Zeros.
The F-6s 1,880 rounds of ammo did the job. The F6Fs that leading Navy ace David McCampbell and Roy Rushing flew when they downed fifteen between them in the same general area had 500 more total rounds each.
"Snooks" was repainted with the name "The Flying Undertaker" for press photographers and Shomo was awarded the Congressional Medal Of Honor for his actions retiring from the Air Force in 1968. He died in his home in Pennsylvania at age seventy-two in 1990.
Petie
At the nearly same time, January 1, 1945, on the other side of the world, Colonel John Meyer pushes the throttle of "Petie" forward as the 352nd Fighter Group began morning patrol from Asche, Belgium.
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| John Meyer & Petie |
As he rolled faster he called the tower asking about the flak puffs at the far end of the field. The reply was "no bogies in the area." Then just as the wheels lifted off at 100 mph Meyer saw the FW 190 streaking in to begin a strafing run on a parked C-47. Milking up the landing gear and snapping on all the gun switches he had no time to adjust his gun sight but fired a long burst anyway. Shells tore into the FW's sky blue undersides. The stricken 190 slammed into the ground near the transport plane.
Behind Meyer was William Whisner who was already "ace-in-a-day" getting five on one mission and scoring 12.5 victories to that point to Meyer's twenty-two. Within thirty seconds after he took off he got a 190 also. He would end the day with three for a 15.5 wartime total.
Soon there were plenty of 109s and 190s to choose from. Meyer dialed in trim and climbed to 2,000 feet to stay away from the flak firing at the Germans. The flak had no conscience and would hit "Petie" too. Two dots appeared ahead and Meyer struggled to identify them. "Maybe P-47s, maybe not" he thought. He closed. Beyond a doubt they were FW 190s!
From dead astern the 190 filled the yellow sight ring. He pushed the button atop the joystick and the fifties spoke. Just then "Petie" hit the German's prop wash and Meyer found it hard to keep on target though hits registered.
Glancing back he noticed a 109 slipping in but calculating his closing rate he continued to fight the unstable air and fired again. If the 109 was close enough he would be done for, he reckoned. The 190 still would not flame. But just then it rolled and split-S'ed. Meyer figured it was too low for a maneuver like that. Rubbernecking between the 109 and the 190 his last sight of the FW was it in a vertical dive.
Now a Mustang occupied the 109 that was on Meyer's tail and flamed him. But then he panned his eyes back to the FW and saw the pilot actually trim treetops with his prop as he miraculously pulled out of the dive he'd begun at just 3,000 feet.
The German began a flat out run on the deck as Meyer followed. Then "Petie" got thumped by AAA from American gunners firing at the 190 and Meyer decided to pull away after a big hole appeared in the wing but kept the German plane in sight. The Merlin was still singing away.
When the moment was right Meyer pointed "Petie's" nose at the gray 190 for a deflection shot. Hits registered in the engine and the 190 tried to turn but Meyer continued to fire blowing off the engine cowl. The prop began turning slower as the BMW radial died. The Colonel banked around as he over shot the slower fighter to come in again. By now the prop of the 190 was still and the German attempted to belly in. The FW bounced a couple of times and flipped over in a ball of flame.
His tower told him it was unsafe to land so Meyer looked for a friendly field to land on. Seeing one ahead he is soon engulfed by defending P-51s and 109s also attacking this field! Maneuvering onto the tail of a 109 he fired his last burst of ammo. Breaking off, he decides, is the best option. Near Ghent he saw yet another airfield under attack. Little did he know this was all part of the German Operation Bodenplatte to target Allied airfields. Dodging more Bf 109s he finally got clearance for Asche and safely landed.
Those were John Meyer's last of twenty-four air kills of WWII. One of that twenty-four was an Arado Ar 234 jet bomber. He had also destroyed thirteen on the ground. He scored again flaming two MiG 15s in Korea.
Top Jet Ace
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| Heinz Bär |
During the time of Operation Bodenplatte thirty-three wings of Luftwaffe fighters partook in attacks on Allied airfields but suffered heavy losses. But JG 3's Me 262s did accomplish a successful attack on the RAF base at Eindhoven where they destroyed some fifty fighters on the ground. About this time the highest scorer in a jet arose in one Lt. Colonel Heinz Bär (pronounced Bear). Though he was killed in a light plane crash in 1957 not much of his narratives survive.
From his first kill of a French Hawk 75A in 1939 he ascended to be the top jet ace of WWII having downed sixteen enemy aircraft while flying the Me 262. During his run of 220 victories, he accounted for twenty-one heavy bombers and numerous twin-engine ones.
Bär ran up his kills on the Russian Front and increased them further in the Mediterranean. By late 1944 with 204 victories he converted to the 262 and on April he claimed two B-26s flying "Red 13" from III/EJG 2 at Lager-Lechfeld.
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| 'Bär Gets B-26' by Iain Wyllie |
Bär would close at about 530 mph and begin firing at 600 yards, far further than prop-driven fighters could, and continue to point-blank range. Obviously practice and timing were essential for success, but here Bär excelled.
He was posted to Galland's JV 44 a few days after the duo of B-26s were downed, where he assumed command after the General was wounded. Bär claimed another eight "probables" in the 262 where the speed of battle with hundreds of planes in the air made confirmation difficult.
Ram It!
While The Japanese commenced Kamikaze operations in 1944, the Luftwaffe formed "Sturmbock" groups. This literally meant, "ram attack." Pilots on both sides of the Russian Front practiced the maneuver at times when all else failed but "Sturmgruppes" were focused on taking out Allied heavy bombers by close in firing attacks and ramming when the opportunity presented itself. They were not condemned to kill themselves for the Führer but to survive to fight again.
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| 'Willi Maximowitz Attacking B-24' by Iain Wyllie |
The fighter chosen was the FW 190 A-8/R8. Its armor was beefed-up as was the canopy glass. Two Mk. 108 30mm cannons replaced two of the 20mms in the inboard wings. The two 13mms in the upper cowl remained. All the added weight made it unable to maneuver with Allied escort fighters if they needed to. Luftwaffe "Sturmbock" pilots closed to minimum range and opened up with their heavy guns. The bombers could do little to escape an attack pressed in this way. If ramming was the option to bring down a bomber, pilots were to do so only if there was no alternative and if they were confident of escape by parachute afterwards.
Unteroffizier Willi Maximowitz was one such pilot scoring a rammed B-24 as his first kill in January 1944. By year's end he had destroyed fifteen enemy planes. JG 3 was transferred to the Russian Front where he increased his total to twenty-five. His entire Schwarm was wiped out during a mission on Hitler's last birthday, April 20, 1945. Fifteen of his kills were heavy bombers—several were rammed.
Meat On The Table
That's what Thunderbolt pilots called the Bf 110 when they met them. 110s didn't fair any better when used in the earlier Battle of Britain either. The idea of a long-range fighter was fine but the 110 was not up to the task. They needed Bf 109s to cover them while they covered He 111s and Ju 88s!
Hans-Joachim Jabs, mentioned in Gun Kill III, flew the 110 during the Battle of Britain. The fact that he survived, much less claimed victories, is a testament to skillful combat flying. Flying with II/ZG 76 in the March 1940 Battle of France he destroyed four French fighters and two Spitfires. Of course, at the time, nothing had the firepower of the Bf 110 that had two 7.9mm machine guns and four 20mm cannons in the nose with plenty of ammo.
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| The Boyish Jabs On Right |
Jabs found the problem of bringing that firepower to bear on an enemy plane was no easy task. He flew his 110 more energy fighter style diving and zooming as possible firing at the enemy. "It was easy to out dive British fighters if we had enough height," he claimed. "Then we could use the dive speed to come back up and hit one if they weren't careful."
His tactics must have worked because in August 1940 while escorting Ju 88s he took down two Spits and a Hurricane. At the end of the Battle of Britain he claimed eight Spits and four Hurris.
Going to night operations in 110s, Jabs finished with fifty kills including the Spitfire in daylight mentioned in a previous article. Jabs is 83 years old.
Which Side?
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| Georges Lemare in Yak |
When France collapsed and the Vichy French sided with Germany it put pilots is a quandary if they were caught up at the wrong place at the wrong time. One such pilot was Georges Lemare who, flying a P-36 Curtiss Hawk 75A-3, shared a Do 17 kill in 1940. Poorly armed, the slow Hawk had only three .30 and one .50 caliber machine gun and could do only 311 MPH maximum. His next victory was over a Ju 88 attacking a ship off Dunkirk in May then a Bf 109 in June.
Lemare's squadron moved to Morocco and became Vichy where he intercepted a Swordfish and later a Sunderland. He escaped when the Allies landed in North Africa and made his way to Spain where he was repatriated into the Allied forces.
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| 'Lemare Gets A Sunderland' by Iain Wyllie |
With little action at hand on coastal patrols he embarked for Russia joining the 4th Escadrille 'Caen' flying Yak 3s & 9s. During one hot period in October 1944 he got three 109s and three 190s with the two 12.7mm MGs and 20mm cannon. By the time the war ended he had 13.5 kills, 9.5 in the Yak and was one of only a few to shoot down aircraft on both Axis and Allied sides. He died in a civil plane crash in 1948.
Go To Gunkills I
Go To Gunkills II
Go To Gunkills III
Sources
- Boyce, Col. Ward J.
American Fighter Aces Album
American Fighter Aces, AZ. 1996
- Green, Wm.
The Complete Book of Fighters
Smithmark Publishers, NY, 1994
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Fighters Vols. 1-3-4
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Aircraft of the Aces
Osprey Publishing Ltd, London, 2000
- Hess, Wm.
Fight Mustang: The Chronicle of the P-51
Doubleday & Co., NY, 1970
- Jablonski, Edward
Airwar Vol. 2
Doubleday & Co., NY, 1971
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American Aces
Harper & Brothers, NY, 1958
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“The Me 262”
War Monthly, Issue 1
Marshal Cavendish Ltd., London, 1974