Gunther Rall Luftwaffe Ace & NATO General by Jill Amadio

Author:Jill Amadio [Amadio, Jill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tangmere Productions
Published: 2009-11-01T22:00:00+00:00

Side profile of a Bf 109E with its external fuel tank

The ruse was to work like a charm.

When Zemke’s Wolf Pack set out that day each flight was

given a heading for a fifteen-minute period.

“Then we were to turn and do a reciprocal and come back

to the designated area,” said Rankin. “When we got over Frankfurt, flying in from the north-west, our altitude was around

25,000 feet.”

In the meantime, Rall and II./JG 11 were about to appear,

flying in from the north-east, intent upon attack.

As the confrontation between the titans, the P-47s, the Fw

190s and the Bf 109s, drew near it was to become one of the most significant combat encounters of the air with both sides sustaining heavy losses.

More than eight hundred Allied bombers and twelve hundred escorting fighters, and two to three hundred German fighters would clash high above Nazi Germany. Over the course of the day dozens of dogfights took their toll on aircraft and men but for Günther Rall, his date with destiny had the name of one of Zemke’s pilots written all over it. Wingman Captain Joseph Powers, killed later flying a P-51 in Korea, has been credited with downing Rall although in Powers’ combat report it is difficult to verify. One young pilot, however, remembers many de

tails of that day.

Cleon Thomton, barely twenty-five years old, had graduated and was commissioned at Marianna Army Air Field in

Florida six months earlier. Assigned to what he called “the hottest fighter Group in the European Theater,” May 12 was his

first mission as a fighter pilot.

“I was flying wing to Lt. Rankin who was the flight leader of

the team of four,” wrote Thomton in his declassified Encounter

Report. “We were designated for target support. That meant

we would fly into the target area ahead of the bombers to intercept any upcoming enemy fighters. This is exactly what happened when four of us found about thirty Bf 109s assembling

over a bunker station, a vertical radio beam that held German

fighters in position above a cloud layer. Without hesitation

Rankin busted into this group of German fighters and they scattered like a covey of quail.”

Thomton’s job was to protect his flight leader so he could shoot,

enabling Rankin to down four enemy planes within minutes. Rankin recalls that the Bf 109s still had their external fuel

tanks attached at the beginning of the encounter.

“I decided I needed to get some of these guys,” said Rankin.

“I pressed the attack and they saw me coming. Then all of a sudden they dropped their tanks. I was kind of excited watching twenty

or thirty tanks flopping down into space but I kept on and then

they just split and the fighters took off in every direction.” Rankin latched onto two of the fighters, following them down

at breakneck speed.

“I was indicating 575 [mph] and was bordering on compressibility because what happens is your controls get real tight

and they can lock up on you. I noticed that the first Bf 109 I

was on started to buffet. It was really severe. He was trying to

pull out of it and he couldn’t.

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