selves to his tail. For a short period of time, he set his throttle to emergency boost and began climbing again at a rate

of 300m per minute. The enemy aircraft pursued him at

a distance of almost 300m, and still 100 to 120m from below.

Every now and again, they would be able to lift their noses

up and get off a few rounds, but to Meyer’s luck, without

success. This unlikely group flew almost 180km between

Kassel and Bonn, and when they reached the Rhine, the

German pilots turned back.

Besides John C. Meyer, other members of the squadron

got a taste of success as well. Second Lt. Phanor B. Waters

shot down an Fw 190, 1Lt. Duerr H. Schuh a Bf 109, Capt.

John R. Bennett another Fw 190 with a Bf 109 probable and

another damaged (both ‘109s were credited to him as damaged), and Lt. James H. Forga was credited with three kills,

two Fw 190s and a Bf 109. Other members of the squadron

destroyed four aircraft on the ground, and damaged another five. These were 1Lt. Alex Sears, 1Lt. Ray. H. Littge

and Lt. H.M. Stewart. According to reports, this all happened at the airfields at Gotha and Gottingen between 1155h

and 1230h.

The last of the 352nd FG squadrons, the 486th under

the leadership of Capt. Franklyn N. Greene, went through

something similar to the 487th Squadron. They went into

combat against a group of forming up German fighters at

around 1145h. However, over the course of jockeying for

position, the German fighters were lost in the sun and

Capt. Greene took his unit down to an altitude of 3,000m

where enemy contacts were reported. No enemy aircraft

were encountered, however, and so targets of opportunity

were sought out on the ground. After a short while, Greene’s White Flight came across the rail yard at Herzberg am

Harz and the rail line heading east towards Herzberg, which

had several locomotives and rail cars on it. After a short

while, Greene and his Number 2, Lt. Cameron, destroyed

two locomotives. White ‘3’, Lt. Howard R. Combs, attacked

a third locomotive. Whether he was hit from the ground or

if it was a miscalculated maneuver, we shall probably never

know. All that is known for certain is that Combs’ Mustang

pressed home his attack to the point where both pieces

of equipment ended up a massive fireball. Lt. Kenneth S.

Williams, who flew as Yellow 3, wrote: ‘… I observed a lone

Blue Nosed P-51 making an attack on a marshalling yard.

I immediately formed in his pattern and was following him

in on a pass at a string of eight or ten good cars. His pass

was very steep and his ship was about a sixty degree bank.

I observed many strikes on all of the cars and then this

ship hit the last three cars and exploded…’. Combs’ CO,

Capt. Greene, added: ‘… he was observed pilling into the

locomotive with his plane which blew up upon contact. His

action caused the destruction of the locomotive and three

goods cars. Five other cars were derailed.’ Lt. Combs, who

according to German records, crashed at 1218h, was subsequently buried in Herzberg. Other locomotives and cars

were destroyed by members of Yellow Flight, Capt. Miklajcyk, Lt. Grabowski, Lt. Smigalski and Lt. Williams.

Most pilots of the 352nd Fighter Group were engaged in

combat before they could meet up with the bombers that

they were tasked with escorting to their targets at Brux in

the Sudetenland on the border of the former Czechoslovakia. That goal was eventually achieved by a single Flight

from the 328th FS to the tune of four Mustangs. They joined

up on the pair of 490th and 493rd Bomb Group combat boxes at 1201h in the vicinity of Plauen, where the 3rd Bomb

Division split off. The bombers designated to hit Brux continued on in a southeast course to their waypoint at the Klasterec and Ohri (German name Klösterle/Eger), and then on

directly along the Ore Mountains to their target. Although

this took them into airspace where only a few minutes prior

there took place a monumental air battle that destroyed

over sixty aircraft shot down, the four 352nd FG Mustangs

would be enough. By that time, all was said and done over

the Ore Mountains…

A copy of the original combat report filed by

Lt. Col. Meyer dated September 11th, 1944. (NARA)