skill in bringing the crippled aircraft
down safely...”
Mussells managed to land at
Woodbridge in Suffolk where his
mid-upper gunner, Fg Off Bob
Dale, was treated for his wounds.
British decodes of German Enigma
transmissions picked up a message
to the effect that an Me 163 from I/
JG 400 based at Brandis had shot
down a Lancaster at 18:02hrs. At
that exact time, two crews from 415
and 425 Squadrons RCAF claimed
to have damaged the rocket fighter.
These ‘kills’ were later disallowed.
It would appear that the German
pilot was Lt Fritz Kelb, who
shortly afterwards transferred to
fly Messerschmitt Me 262s. Oblt
Glogner claimed a Mosquito
on the 10th, but this cannot be
substantiated.
A PROBABLE
Despite what a number of the
Lancaster gunners thought, they had
not shot down the rocket fighter,
as 165 Squadron’s diary shows: “Fg
Off Haslope chased him down [in
his Mustang] reached the calculated
speed of 675mph in a dive from
25,000ft to 3,000ft. Firing all the
time, he closed right in and actually
overtook it achieving strikes all
along the fuselage and wing roots.
He claimed one damaged...”
Australian John ‘Slops’ Haslope
already had a half-kill to his name
when he and fellow Australian
Fg Off Doug Eva shot down a
Junkers Ju 88 from the weather
reconnaissance unit Wekusta 2
north of Vannes in France on March
20, 1944.
His combat report for April 10,
1945 reveals a far more dramatic
event: “I noticed a bomber begin to
smoke and something appeared to
fly off it. This resolved itself into a
Me 163 which climbed vertically at
great speed.
“I reported the aircraft and
dropped my overload tanks and gave
chase at full throttle. The Me 163
turned towards me and I had a shot
at him in a right-hand turn, range
about 900 yards and 30° deflection
but observed no strikes.
“The Me 163 then spiralled into a
vertical dive which I followed, firing
several bursts of about two to three
seconds observing strikes on four
occasions on the wing roots and
several small pieces came off.
“I overshot rapidly at 3,000ft and
had to pull up to avoid collision,
wrinkling the wings as I did so. The
Me 163 continued on down and
was observed by Sqn Ldr Potocki of
315 Squadron and Flying Officer
Wacnik of 306 Squadron to hit the
ground and explode at an airfield
believed to be either Brandis or
Mensdorf...”
Haslope re-joined ‘Green Section’- Fg Offs Peter Rae and Jock Lewin
- both of whom had witnessed
strikes on the Me 163, as had Flt Lt
Kelly of 64 Squadron, but none of
them observed the crash.
What they had probably seen
explode was one of the two RCAF
bombers lost in this attack: a Halifax
from 415 Squadron or a Lancaster
from 433 Squadron.
Fg Off John Haslope’s claim to
fame is being the only RAF pilot
to almost shoot down one of the
elusive and spectacular Komets.
TWO IN ONE
On the evening of April 14, 1945
Sqn Ldr John Shepherd, CO of 41
Squadron, got airborne from Twente
in Holland leading three Spitfires
on an armed reconnaissance of the
Bremen area. One Spitfire turned
back, but as they approached
Nordholz airfield, two unidentified
aircraft were seen.
Shepherd’s combat report
describes: “...Two aircraft were
seen taking off. Diving on them I
recognised them as an Me 163 being
towed by an Me 110. I was closing
very rapidly but managed to get
in a short burst in on the Me 110
obtaining strikes on port engine and
cockpit.
“The Me 110 went into a left-
hand diving turn, turning over
onto its back, and crashed into a
field bursting into flames. The ’163
appeared to break away from the
’110 and make a wide left-hand
turn, finally diving straight in about
three fields away from the Me
110...”
Messerschmitt Bf 110s were
used by JG 400 as tugs for Me
163 training flights and when
transiting between bases. This
’110 was flown by 26-year-old
Oberfeldwebel Werner Nelte, who
was killed in the engagement. He
had first flown the Komet in May
1944 with the development unit,
Erprobungskommando 16, which
was the forerunner of I/JG 400.
In June 1944, Nelte was forced
to ditch in Lake Zwischenahner,
northwest of Bremen, when the
tug developed engine problems.
It appears that when Shepherd
attacked, Nelte was towing the Me
163 from Nordholz to Husum,
where II/JG 400 was establishing
itself.
There was one more encounter
between a Komet and the RAF. On
April 22, 1945 Oblt Franz Woidich
of 6/JG 400 claimed an unidentifiedaircraft believed to have been a
Lancaster: his 110th and last victory
of the war.
A force of 767 aircraft attacked
Bremen that day and, although
two Lancasters were lost and one
damaged, no mention was made of
the presence of Me 163s.
The Komet was an incredible if
unorthodox fighter. Difficult to
handle, even by experienced pilots
such as Nelte or Woidich, most
aircraft and pilots were lost in
accidents as opposed to combat.
Although the concept was good,
it was another case of ‘too little, too
late’ for the Luftwaffe, which is why
the RAF rarely encountered them in
combat over Germany in 1945.
With no fuel and Allied air
superiority, most were found
abandoned on German airfields at
the end of the war. This explains
why today, ten complete examples
can be found in museums around
the world.April 2018 FLYPAST 47LITTLE FRIENDS
There was an additional tier to
bomber protection - the ‘Little
Friends’, long-range escort
fighters, principally Republic P-47
Thunderbolts and North American
P-51 Mustangs. The distance these
smaller aircraft could stay with
the bombers increased as the war
progressed, but there would always
be a point where they would have
to peel off, leaving the B-17s and
Consolidated B-24 Liberators to
their own devices.
Every extra mile that the P-47s
and P-51s could stay alongside
the bomber streams denied the
Luftwaffe the chance to be in
the right place at the right time,
making it more difficult for them to
set up a spearhead that could break
the defensive box.
Long-range escort became
common in 1944, with Lockheed
P-38 Lightnings, P-47s and P-51s
protecting the bombers. At first
they flew close escort, which robbed
them of the advantages of altitudeand speed. However, it did facilitate
diving on Luftwaffe fighters as they
flew through the formation.
By mid-1944, escort pilots
were allowed greater freedom of
movement. The three squadrons
in a fighter group escorting a
bomber box usually adopted three
positions. One squadron, split into
two sections, would fly about a
mile ahead and above. Another, also
divided, would cruise about a mile
out on either side of the box.
The third squadron would act as
top cover. One section would be
about 4,000ft above the bombers,
while the other would be about ten
miles ahead.JET MENACE
The Germans were the first to
put jet fighters into combat; the
Messerschmitt Me 262 had the
potential to inflict devastation on
American bombers. In March 1945
an attack on a formation resulted
in six bombers and two escorts shot
down for the loss of one ’262.
The jets were so fast that German
pilots needed new tactics to attack
the B-17s and B-24s as the closing
speed head-on did not allow forTop,
left to right
The P-47s of the
56th FG in late
1943.P-51B Mustang of
the East Wretham,
Norfolk-based
359th FG. With
the advent of the
P-51D the Eighth
Air Force had
much greater
escort range.A damaged
Me 262 being
inspected by US
personnel.Below
B-17Gs of the
381st BG, from
Ridgewell, Essex,
with a P-51B
tucked in.“Every extra mile that the P-47s and
P-51s could stay alongside the bomber
streams denied the Luftwaffe the chance
to be in the right place at the
right time...”