BOXART STORY

#82138

The 201st victory

Heinz Bär became one of the Luftwaffe's

most famous fighter pilots and was one of

the rare German airmen the Allied press

wrote about during the war. His journey to the

cockpit of a fighter plane took him through

a job as a Luftwaffe aircraft mechanic,

a series of rejections from superiors,

violations of regulations and the cockpit of

Ju 52. He gradually worked his way up to become

a successful fighter pilot, a Staffelkapitän

and then a Gruppenkommandeur. His health

problems and exhaustion led to a conflict with

Hermann Göring in the summer of 1943, which

resulted in his removal as commander of

I./JG 77. A subsequent conflict with an NSDAP

functionary led to Bär's transfer to II./JG 1,

with which he served as a simple pilot as

punishment in early 1944, with 179 kills to his

credit!

However, in March 1944, Bär became acting

commander of II./JG 1. From February to April

he achieved 23 victories without being shot

down himself. Among the highlights in this

period are the downing of the bombers “Miss

Ouachita” and “Flak Magnet”. In both cases,

Bär's ground personnel witnessed the victories.

With B-17 “Miss Ouachita”, Bär appeared in

a newsreel. The destruction of the Liberator

“Flak Magnet” was an even more significant

event, as it was Bär's 200th victory, and a short

OKW communiqué (Bär's third) was issued two

days later about this achievement. Albeit II./JG 1

lost almost a hundred machines during the same

period. Major Heinz Bär scored his 201st victory

on April 29, 1944 at 10:56 near Braunschweig

36

INFO Eduard

while fighting bombers and their escorts

heading for Berlin. Bär managed to lead the

II./JG 1 formation into a frontal attack against

the bomber formation, damaging one Liberator

in the process.

Then a fighter escort of Thunderbolts

from the 359th FG and apparently Mustangs

from the 352nd FG appeared on the scene.

In his report, Bär said that after the frontal

attack in which he hit one Liberator, his unit

was dispersed by a strong fighter escort

and there were separate engagements

by Rotte and Schwarms. He pulled up and

saw below an Fw 190 with its starboard

undercarriage extended being chased by

a Thunderbolt. He got behind the Thunderbolt

and fired from above and behind at a distance

of about 150m. The Thunderbolt immediately

exploded in mid-air and the individual parts

crashed down to the ground. The impact

occurred south of Braunschweig. In the

minutes that followed, Bär's airmen claimed

three more Thunderbolts and several fourengined bombers (including a B-24 as 202nd

victory of Heinz Bär). One Mustang may have

been claimed in this area by an airman from

I./JG 302.

The problem is that no Thunderbolts were

lost on this day, and even the Mustangs of the

352nd FG did not experience losses in this area.

However, in studying German reports of Allied

aircraft crashes, I found that one Mustang

was shot down in this area and time. At 11:00

a Mustang crashed 700 meters northeast of

Brasdorf and was so badly damaged that only

Text: Jan Bobek

Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz

the white letter J and the numbers 3, 6, and

7 could be discerned from its markings.

From these indications, it can be clearly

determined that it was a P-51B-5-NA

43-6577 “WR-J” of the 354th FS, 355th FG.

Its pilot was Capt. Thomas F. Neal Jr. Until

now, it was believed he disappeared about

30 miles southwest of Berlin. In this area, he

led his Falcon Red Flight in a dive to attack

four Fw 190s, yet his wingman lost contact

with him while passing through cloud cover

and Neal then failed to respond to radio

communications. The place where Neal

actually ended up is quite far west of where

he was last seen. He probably made his way

back, perhaps joining the 359th or 352nd FG

formation and eventually dying in combat with

German fighters near Braunschweig. Of the

information known so far from the German

side, Heinz Bär's claim fits the best. Neal's

Mustang had a razor back and olive camouflage

of upper surfaces. It was therefore possibly

mistaken for a Thunderbolt. Neal was at the

top of the 354th FS at the time with 4.5 kills

and was one of its leading personalities.

Bär scored a total of 221 victories, of which

125 were over Western powers' pilots (including

16 in the Me 262), placing him second only

to Hptm. Hans-Joachim Marseille, who

achieved all of his 158 kills against RAF and

Commonwealth airmen. Further details on

this airman can be found in my three-part

article in REVI Nos. 81 to 83 and in the French

magazine ACES No. 8.

November 2023