The P-51 Mustang Pilot that Killed a German in his Parachute - Brutal True Story of Richard Peterson

coming up there are certain things even in war that are agreed upon by all sides as simply dishonorable and immoral one of these things strongly frowned upon by all who fought was the action of shooting airmen in their parachutes after they had bailed out of their damaged aircraft in this video we will take a look at a day in world war ii when a german pilot was ruthlessly killing american bomber crews in cold blood as they floated to earth that is until an american hero in a p-51 mustang stepped in and got revenge in the only way he saw fit [Music] first a quick shout out to my patreon supporters if you want access to behind the scenes videos and bonus content please check out the patreon link in the description enjoy richard peterson also known as pete was born in minnesota and joined the u.s army air force in 1942 once he completed his training he was shipped to europe to fight against hitler's war machine in the 357th fighter group this would be one of the most noteworthy fighter groups of the war also being a home for legendary american aces like chuck yeager in glamorous glinis and clarence anderson flying old crow like many others in the 357th pete was assigned to the new p-51 mustang which was quickly proving to be a formidable fighter against the german bf-109 the messerschmitt bf-109 was the workhorse of the german air force and one of the best fighter aircraft in history being the most produced aircraft ever at the time it was the most frequent fighter that the american pilots would go up against in the skies over europe peterson's mustang was famously named hurry home honey after the letters from his wife whenever she wrote to him from the states she would sign all of her letters with the simple phrase hurry home honey he would see a great amount of success during his time with the 357 becoming a triple ace by the time the war would end with a total of 15.5 kills and another 3.5 aircraft destroyed on the ground likely thanks to the great number of experienced aces that were already flying in his fighter group and were able to be a mentor to him along the way these seasoned veterans would lead him to become a great fighter pilot this total victory count would place him among the highest scoring american pilots of world war ii the elite mustang pilots like peterson helped push back the germans and regain air superiority in 1944 and 45. his most memorable sortie however would be an escort mission over europe the p-51 mustang had just recently been assigned to the role of bomber escort for missions like this since its improved range could see the bombers all the way into germany this was a huge asset for the allies as it allowed them to greatly reduce bomber losses as they went deep into the nazi homeland german messerschmitts and fokkerwolfs could no longer wait on the allied fighters to leave the bombers undefended but now had to take them head on on this particular mission major richard peterson's group was assigned to escort b-17 bombers as they hammered targets deep within germany as they approached their target however they were attacked by messerschmitt bf-109s during this engagement peterson realized that one of the german fighters was doing something unbelievable as some of the b-17s were shot down from fighters and flag their crew members would bail out of the doomed aircraft with 10 servicemen on board of each bomber just a few planes shot down had filled the entire sky with american shoots but this time as the sky was filled with parachutes a german 109 was attacking them over and over killing them as they floated normally nobody including the germans would be shoot anybody in a parachute it just wasn't done i mean there's no there's no challenge with shooting a guy in a parachute for god's sake he has uh i mean he's had it you can't miss and uh here i came across this 109 and the sky was full of bomber shoots flack had gotten them and there's target area and this [ __ ] was going from parachute to parachute shooting up guys in parachutes richard peterson chooses not to sit idly by as american servicemen are killed in cold blood instead he decides to put an end to it oh my god just i mean this was too much as far as i was concerned and i didn't want him i didn't want to blow him up i wanted him to bail turning his mustang he waits for an opportunity to dive onto the 109 and once he does he places himself perfectly on the enemy six o'clock but instead of simply shooting him down major peterson has other ideas as he gets on to the german's tale he opens fire but he intentionally aims for disabling shots rather than a kill shot so i was pecking away just hit him just then i'd get strikes on and he knew i was there and he knew i was getting strikes he finally pulled the camera i said you've met your maker buster and after a minute or two of pecking away he gets exactly what he wants as he sees the german pilot bailing out after turning his plane around he sees the enemy pilot in his parachute just like all of the american bomber crew members were and richard peterson does what he believes to be the obvious choice of action to deliver justice for his fallen airmen and i fired i damn near empty my guns on this guy he was mincemeat by the time i got through with him and uh he was an issue and of course other guys who weren't there were nervous about me shooting a guy to shoot they had to be there to know what i was saying with this guy going these guys are helpless of a bomber cruise going down and i just uh i just tore him up with 800 rounds of minutes you can do a lot of damage with 50 caliber shells from six guns so that was the end of that in this rare case what would have normally been an unfathomable action seemed to be the right and necessary choice and as peterson said himself there is likely no better way to conclude this story than simply that was the end of that richard peterson would go on to survive the war and would retire from the military soon after returning to the states in 1945 he would be awarded the silver star in three distinguished flying crosses he would go on to be a well-respected architect and would pass away in the year 2000 at the age of 77. i hope you enjoyed this historical recreation please make sure to click subscribe and comment if you have any ideas for future videos if you want to support my content and get awesome bonus videos please check out the patreon link in the description of this video thanks for watching and i'll see you next time

Channel: TJ3 History

Views: 102,573

Rating: 4.8186364 out of 5

Keywords: IL-2 Sturmovik, History Channel Dogfights, Killed in Parachute, P-51 Mustang Dogfight, Historic, P51 vs 109, P51 Documentary, P51 Mustang, Mark Felton, IL2, IL2 Crashes, Flight Sim, World War II Flight Sim, Richard Peterson, World War iI Dogfighting, 109 P51 Dogfight, P-51, 109 vs p51, Yarnhub, Hurry Home Honey, IL-2 Great Battles, IL2 Game, IL-2 Crashes, IL-2 Highlights, IL-2 Flight Sim, Combat Flight Sim, War Thunder, Compilation, Realistic, Documentary, dogfighting Game

Id: Vc_RJnXZ8Yo

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 01 2021