It was the nineties when a journalist asked Adolf Galland, the great ace of the ‘Luftwaffe’, how many times he had been shot down. «The truth is that not many… Only four…». Although it stung him to admit it, the German did not hide. After all, he was backed by 705 combat missions in the skies and 104 destroyed planes on the Western Front. Next to nothing. What he did not reveal, perhaps out of embarrassment, perhaps due to bad memory, was that the last fight in which he participated he had to count as a defeat and, almost, as another demolition. “I saw a rain of fire,” he explained in his biography, where he did make reference to his final battle.
Galland fought his last ‘dog fight’ on April 26, 1945. This is confirmed by historian Robert Forsyth in his historical essay, ‘Me 262 Northwest Europe 1944–45‘, where he specifies that he took off with his unit at half past eleven in the morning from the Riem airfield. Two dozen aircraft belonging to ‘Jagdverband 44’ (JV 44) took flight in this region of Munich. That was no small feat. “This squadron had been formed in March and had become the most extraordinary unit formed in the history of aviation to this day,” explains Felipe Botaya in ‘Operation Hagen‘.
You are right. Since February, Galland had been searching for and capturing the best pilots still roaming around the faltering Third Reich. And he had recruited everything from renegade officers to valid airmen, but who had spent the latter part of World War II in hospitals suffering from anxiety. «Upon learning of Galland’s new unit, many wanted to enlist; Others literally escaped from their respective squads, and without any transfer order they enlisted,” adds the Spanish author. And twelve of them left with a clear mission that April 26: to intercept the Allied B-26 Marauder that were heading to the Lechfeld base and the Schrobenhausen ammunition depot.
Galland was clear that not all the experience gained throughout the Second World War would help them win a war that was already lost. His only hope, as he revealed in a speech to his pilots, was to win some battle and delay the Allied advance as much as possible. Die killing. «From a military point of view the war is lost. Our action here cannot change anything… I will continue fighting, because combat has trapped me, because I feel proud to be part of the last fighter pilots of the ‘Luftwaffe’… Only those who feel the same as me “They must continue flying with me,” he asked.
In its favor it had the brand new Me-262 fresh from the German Messerschmitt factories, the first jet fighters to enter active service in the conflict. These revolutionary devices reached a speed never seen before, 850 kilometers per hour, 25% faster than their North American counterparts. At the time, Galland praised him: «Airplane 262 is a great success. It will give us an incredible advantage in air warfare, as long as the enemy continues to use the piston engine. Airworthiness has made the best impression on me. The engines are totally convincing, except on takeoff and landing. “This aircraft opens the doors to totally new tactical possibilities.”
secret weapon
In turn, Galland and his colleagues received shortly before leaving a new secret weapon – evolution, wow – suitable for mowing down enemy devices in the air. As Philip Kaplan explains in ‘Luftwaffe aces in World War IIwere “underwing rocket-carrying devices capable of containing twenty-four five-centimeter R4M rockets.” Each of them could shoot down a heavy bomber and allowed the pilot to remain out of range of enemy fire. “With good aim, if all the rockets were fired at the same time, they could theoretically hit several bombers,” completes the Anglo-Saxon expert in his work.
In exchange, the Germans often faced the popular P-47 Thunderbolt in the skies. The historian and journalist Jesús Hernández, author of countless historical essays on the conflict such as ‘That was not in my book about the Second World War’, explains to ABC that this device “offered great performance in all types of actions” despite be something old. “The experimental pilots even carried out ground attacks against tanks and trucks, and were required to destroy bridges, which were very difficult to hit with the usual bombing techniques,” he explains to this newspaper. In the ‘dog fights’ he still made the grade thanks to the fact that he was one of the fastest in diving.
The reality, however, is that the Me-262 were too modern and fast enemies for these fighters designed in the 1930s and launched into the skies in 1941. «It must be recognized that the P-47 did not stand out in anything in particular, It lost in aerial duels with the ‘Luftwaffe’, and lacked the mystique that accompanied other North American aircraft such as the P-51 Mustang or the B-17 Flying Fortress, but the reality is that it was used profusely throughout throughout the war due to its toughness and versatility, and it would end up integrating the air forces of 24 countries, so I think that this device deserves recognition,” says Hernández.
last battle
On April 26, war drums sounded with scattered clouds and poor visibility. ‘Jagdverband 44’ set out with the idea of shooting down half a dozen B-26 Marauders, and Galland was the first to spot them. The Germans had everything going for them, except experience. The few missions aboard these planes caused them severe problems when evaluating the approach speed to the heavy and slow bombers. To make matters worse, despite being located at the recommended safety distance, the defensive shots launched from those flying fortresses reached their boys. Very bad business.
As if there weren’t enough problems already, the ace made a rookie mistake when attacking. «At first, in his excitement, he forgot to open the rocket safety device. When he was in perfect firing position, Galland pressed the button, but the rockets did not fire,” explains Kaplan. Although he had to get a little closer, the cannons did work. ‘Tock, tock, tock, tock, tock.’ One of the Marauders in the formation burst into flames. In his fall, he also hit one of his colleagues and caused severe damage. But Galland, in return, received several shots in his Me-262 that damaged an engine and generated a thick cloud of smoke.
And from there, to disaster. Galland did not see how, out of nowhere, a P-47 descended to protect the Marauders. His Me-262 was a flying smoke signal. Bullets flew through the sky. After the fire, the cabin and instrument panel burst into pieces; The right knee was very sore. Would it have changed anything to have fired the missiles earlier? We will never know. What we do know is the name and surname of the Allied pilot at the controls of that device: James J. Finnegan, of the 50th fighter group of the Ninth Air Force of the United States Army. And we have this data because he himself narrated that ‘dog fight’ shortly after World War II:
«I remember it well because it was the first time I saw these planes in flight. They had been in use since October 1944 and they kept telling us that we would meet them. However, as was the case with other intelligence information we received at that time, until then the threat had not materialized. […] The German fighters were below mine, and I didn’t even see them coming [a Galland]. He shot down one B-26 and then another. Boom! Galland turned to make another pass. I asked myself, ‘God, what the hell are these things?’ and I prepared to attack. It was close to 13,000 feet, and he was between 9,000 and 10,000. I took a dive. “I let out a three-second burst and could see the impacts on the Me-262.”
This is how Galland recalled that meeting in his memoirs:
«A rain of fire surrounded me. I felt a blow to my right knee and the instrument panel shattered. The right engine also took a hit; Its metal cover came loose in the wind and partly fell off. Then the same thing happened with the left one. I only had one wish: to get out of that ‘box’. But then I was paralyzed by the terror of being shot while parachuting. Experience had taught me that this was something feasible. After some adjustments, I was able to control my battered Me-262. After passing a layer of clouds I saw the ‘Autobahn’ below. In front was Munich and, to the left, Riem. In a few seconds it would be over the airfield.
To avoid further trouble, Galland shut down both engines as he headed to the edge of the airfield. The landing was like a movie; The nose wheel was deflated by a gunshot and it had no brakes. But, despite this, he managed to stop the plane, speed out of its interior and into a bomb crater. Because yes, while he was undertaking that dangerous maneuver, the P-47 unit had begun to unleash its fury on the area. «As Galland and his pilots calculated, the combat ended with five enemy aircraft destroyed and no German casualties. Galland was taken to a hospital in Munich, where his knee was treated and his leg was put in a cast,” explains the English author.
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