BOXART STORY

#84184

Text: Richard Plos

Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz

Strange targets

The raid on Berlin on February 3, 1945, was

the largest ever carried out by the 8th Air

Force on the German capital during World

War II. Some 1,500 bombers participated,

their target were trains moving the Wehrmacht’s 6 Panzer Army to the Eastern

Front. Among the bomber escorts were fighters from the “Double Nickel”, as was the

55th FG nicknamed, under the command

of Lt. Col. Elwyn Righetti. On the return,

Righetti left some of the fighters with the

bombers, while the others were given permission to disembark and look for targets

on the ground. The weather, however, was

unfavorable, low clouds and ground haze

making it difficult to search for these. “Near

Boizenburg on the Elbe River, I located

a small, clear hole in the otherwise unbroken undercast. In this hole there were two

locomotives. I called them in and started

down, needing only one ninety-degree turn

to starboard to set me up in firing position,” Righetti said later. Visibility under the

low cloud layer was poor, and in places the

base dropped below 500 ft. As Righetti was

giving instructions to three other pilots to

attack the locomotives, he saw strange objects passing below him on the left. A trio of

Mistel “flying bombs” were trying to slip at

a low-level! The machines that met the four

American fighters that day were training

versions of this strange bombing “creature”: one Mistel S1, combining a Ju 88A and

a Bf 109F, and two Mistels S2, combining

a Ju 88 and an Fw 190A. Righetti, flying

December 2022

his famous “Katydid” (CL-M; 44-14223),

attacked the Mistel S1 with his wingman

2/Lt. Richard Gibbs in a Mustang named

“Cherry” (CY-Q; 44-14175). The leader of the

second pair was 1/Lt Bernard Howes, who

was backed up by 1/Lt. Patrick Moore on

P-51D “Lil Jan” (CY-Y; 44-14235). They

swooped down on one of the Mistels S2.

“I broke rapidly left and up in a 200-degree

chandelle, positioning myself on the tail of

the middle one. I started firing at 500 to 600

yards, 30 degrees angle off, and missed two

short bursts. As I swung into trail and closed to point-blank range firing a long burst,

I saw many excellent strikes on the fuselage and empennage of the large aircraft

and scattered strikes and a small fire on

the fighter.” The two-aircraft combination

went into a steep dive and Righetti overrun

it, losing it from sight. “I did not actually see

them crash, but five or ten seconds later

I observed a large explosion and spotted

considerable burning wreckage. Still not

realizing just what we were attacking, but

feeling that I had destroyed one complete

unit, I turned slightly port for another,” he

said.

The comparison of the reports shows that

Righetti’s second target was the Mistel,

which at that moment had already been

attacked by Howes. The latter stated that

after several hits the Fw 190 broke away

from the bomber, it went into climb and

then crashed. Howes lost sight of Ju 88 but

it was hit by Moore. “As I was closing to fire,

the heavy aircraft seemed to be jettisoned,

went into a shallow diving turn to the left,

and crashed and burned in a small hamlet,”

reported Righetti and testified more or less

Howes’ words. Righetti then focused on the

detached Fw 190, which he fired at from the

rear. “Jerry went out of control and crashed

straight ahead. At this point I noticed a few

tracers too close and coming from behind.”

The shots were likely fired by Howes, who

was targeting the same Focke-Wulf as

Righetti. Not surprisingly, after the action,

American fighters claimed a total of four

Ju 88s and even five Fw 190s! In any case,

Howes also pounced on the last Mistel.

After two attacks, he set the Fw 190 on fire,

then the Ju 88, and both exploded on impact.

As these were training Mistels, there

were pilots on board the Ju 88s. According to German records, these were

Fw.WilliKollhoff,Ofhr.FranzPietschmannand

Fw. Fritz Lorbach. All from the 6th/KG 200.

Pietschmann was shot down and died, Lorbach managed to land the burning aircraft

in the woods and miraculously survived, the

emergency landing saved Kollhoff’s life as

well. On the other hand, all three fighter pilots perished. Elwyn Righetti was hit by flak

on April 17 while strafing the Riesa-Canitz

airfield south of Dresden. After an emergency landing, he reported that he was fine

except for a broken nose. And that was

the last news of him. What happened then

remains a mystery to this day...

INFO Eduard

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