World War II Pilot Tells a Brutal True Story

1944 Brave Americans in the P-51 Mustang battle it out in the Skies over Europe in this video Ed mcneff one of these Brave fighter pilots walks us through an intense dogfight over Germany and some of his most difficult and heartbreaking missions of the entire War including one where he would see a first-hand loss at the hands of one of Germany's top fighter Aces and I looked over and he's kind of bobbing his head and I say only what are you doing and he doesn't answer me and I said this is really not good let's hear his story relive the mission and hopefully save history it is March of 1944 just a few months before the Allied invasions at Normandy and at this time Ed mcneff is a member of The 355th Fighter Group operating out of England flying the p-51b Mustang these American Pilots are tasked with the job of protecting the American b-17s and b-24s as escorts during their long-range bombing missions across Western Europe in the last video with Ed he learned that German Pilots were skilled and that he had to be careful in these air engagements With the Enemy as one brief mistake could be the difference between life and death it would prove to be a valuable lesson learned as he would run into the luftwaffe again just a few days later after a couple of escort missions with no action the 355th would take off for one more on March 29th to Brunswick Germany for this Mission Ed took off with his wingman a pilot by the name of Ben Johnston Johnston was a seasoned veteran from the 355th and had been with them for quite some time he had scored one kill on February 21st Anne had participated in a number of combat missions as can be seen from the side of his aircraft in this photo Ed mcneff however while a regular of the unit was still one of the newer Pilots at this time when you get to the Squadron you're the new boy the strange thing about the flying flying combat the new boy becomes the wingman and the wingman has the obligation to clear the air behind the leader who is uh trying to shoot down enemy airplanes when they're available as a wingman you have a a real sense of responsibility you have to be there and you one of the worst things you can do as a way man is lose your leader Ed would unfortunately learn this feeling all too soon as he and Johnston took off for this escort Mission it would go down as a memorable one for Ed and Johnston both as they linked up with the b-17s over France the 355th escorted the bombers to their Target in Germany once over this target however a group of black specks appeared on the horizon German Fighters unlike the last time that Ed faced off with the luftwaffe these were not only messerschmitts but also fakovolf-190s the 190 was an advanced German fighter that had served in a variety of roles it was primarily known however for its heavy Armament and durability that made it the perfect bomber Interceptor before these fockovolfs could get to the bombers however they would first have to make it pass the boys of the 355th and their P-51 Mustangs the Germans blazed into the American flight and an intense dogfight began flying wingman for Johnston Ed mcneff followed his leader Into The Fray quickly Johnston showed just why he was in charge and how a seasoned veteran could fly according to our might always a history of The 355th Fighter Group Ben Johnston pulled behind one fockables and opened up scoring a confirmed kill with the altitude of the engagement continuously getting lower just a few moments later Johnston turned into another and pulled the trigger again his 50 caliber guns flashed to life scoring another hit he watched a second fakov go down his second kill of the day and third overall but while Ed mcneff followed his leader throughout the engagement thick cloud cover at a lower level began to make it more difficult to stay with Johnston he eventually began to lose sight of his leader in the low visibility this did not stop Johnson however now chasing another German fighter he dove into the clouds attempting to score his third kill of the day mcneff however continued to struggle to maintain a visual on Johnston as he dove in and out of the clouds after this happens a few times mcneff pulls out following a run into the clouds and this time Ben Johnston is nowhere to be found he looks around for a few minutes but is unable to see his wingman anywhere knowing that Shirley Ben would have pulled out of the clouds by now Ed mcneff fears the worst but I was flying on Ben Johnson's wing and he was chasing an me109 and we were in the Frankfurt area and there's a lot of cloud build up so we'd go into clouds and come out and he'd be still chasing and we did that three or four times and then I came out one time and he wasn't there Ben Johnson I mean little did Ed know that the likely reason for his wingman's demise was that one of the top German aces of the war was hunting in these clouds but we will cover that in just a little as that fact would not be learned until much later the young Ed mcneff who is now alone has no choice but to head back home without his wingman this would be a tough day but the fighting had to continue and unfortunately there were still more difficulties to come looking at Ed's logbook he would take a few days off after this trying Mission before he was sent back up to combat again on April 8th of 1944. since his last wingman had been lost in combat over Germany he now would need a new leader and this time this wingman would be none other than the leading scorer of the 355th norm Olsen Norm was a North Dakota native and had been one of the first Pilots to arrive with the 355th he was the first pilot here to become an ace in the unit and as of April of 1944 was the leading scorer of the group with six confirmed victories most of these had been scored in his P-47 which was named ma Fran III once the unit switched over to the p-51b however he carried the name over making this current P-51 ma friend V it was clear that he was a skilled pilot and a seasoned Ace but more than that he was an esteemed leader in the unit and today Ed mcneff would be flying on his wing the assignment for April 8th was another escort Mission into Germany as a group of b-24s Were Striking Brunswick after a few hours in the air the 355th met up with the bombers and flew with them in route to their target there was a brief clash with a group of messerschmitts but Ed and Olsen's Squadron were instructed to remain with the bombers and ensure that they were protected they stayed with the liberators until the job was done and then peeled off to head back to England as part of a recent order though the Mustangs had a new objective once they turned for home to attack anything of value on the ground especially any assets or airfields of the luftwaffe unfortunately this order would lead to a devastating loss well I was the wingman and I lost my leader so the next day I'm flying and I'm assigned to fly the wing on this crusty old flight leader Norm Olsen so I'm flying his way and and we go and we do the bombers and then we're starting on our way home and he looks down and I look down and there's an enemy109 on Final Approach so he peel down and shot the me-109 and and after the day before when I lost my wing my leader I wasn't going to lose Norm Olsen so wherever he went I was gonna go and we went across the Airfield and we got the uh golf balls we used to call them they were when they put every fifth round was a tracer and we were flying across the Airfield and I didn't even care about the airplanes on the ground I just wanted to stay with Norm Olson and he went across the field and I said that's fine and yeah and he turned around and people were going to go across the field again I said this is really not good so we were down we're going across the field the tracers are going like this and fortunately for me they're coming from his left side and uh so I didn't get hit and then he peeled out and came around he's going to make a third pass across this Airfield and that's kind of very dangerous because all the guns on the ground know where you are and know what you're doing and there we're going across and the traces are coming up like this and finally we get to the end of the Airfield up and now we're heading 270 we're going home well I and there he is and all of a sudden I looked down and I'm doing maybe 120 now this isn't right and I look over and he's kind of bobbing his head and I say uh only what are you doing and he doesn't answer me and then all of a sudden he peels off like this and he turned all the way around about a hundred and seventy degrees and found a little town and I and I looked at my map afterwards and it was sales Germany and he drove his airplane right into the middle of the town and of course he didn't survive but that was his final final Payback and uh and then I'm on my way home by myself now but there are enough p-51s going west that you could always find somebody to form a format with so it was no problem but it's very very dangerous to make three passes across one Airfield and I think that book may tell you that we probably lost more pilots strafing than we did here at air combat you did yeah you're exactly right the book I believe the book says twice as many in fact yeah this would be a major loss for the 355th Olson was a leader and the highest scorer of the group but his decision to go in for repeated passes at the German Airfield led to his unfortunate fate he was devoted to eliminating the enemy aircraft on the ground and would make the ultimate sacrifice in this effort as heavy as these two losses would be for Ed mcneff a few months later there would be a bit of bright news that would help to make it slightly more bearable as the American forces were pushing into Germany and liberating POW camps throughout the region a familiar face was liberated and showed up again in England now you know when we were after we made the invasion and we were sweeping across the Germany and we were closing down POW camps and the guys in there were being sent home and Ben Johnson came back through the the group to say hello and he's on his way back to the States and he says you know he got under the clouds and hit a tree and and Billy's in his airplane and became a pow as Ben Johnston came back through England he reported that he had been hit by a German fighter and then forced to crashland his Mustang striking a tree on the way down he was lucky to survive and fascinatingly years later historians would gain access to German records that would show which German Ace was likely responsible for this kill looking at the claims of German pilots on March 29th of 1944 and the location and aircraft type we can determine who may have shot down Johnston in right here we can see which German Ace has a claim fitting all of these details none other than Oscar Heinrich Barr this German Ace tallied more than 200 kills in the war and Johnston could have likely been the 186th following this tragic series of missions Ed mcneff would continue to serve courageously learning as much as he could from these losses but he would still have more trials to come including D-Day and his closest call yet all of this will be in part three of Ed's Story coming soon in another video if you know a living veteran of the air War please reach out today so we can tell their story also please consider supporting me here so more videos like this can be made comment what story I should cover next and I'll see you next time

Channel: TJ3 History

Views: 258,822

Keywords: P51 Mustang, P51 Pilot, P-51 Mustang, P51 Veteran, WW2 Air Combat, Mustang WWII, Focke Wulf Dogfight, P51 vs Fw-190, P-51 Documentary, P51 Mustang Documentary, FW-190, dark Skies, FW190, P51 vs 190, Focke-Wulf 190, P-51 War Thunder, P-51 Dogfight, P51 Fighter, IL-2 Sturmovik, Flight Sim, World War II Flight Sim, IL-2 Great Battles, IL-2 Flight Sim, Combat Flight Sim, War Thunder, Realistic, History Channel Dogfights, Historic, Documentary, Mark Felton, Yarnhub, tJ3 Gaming

Id: WuW5BfHr8I4

Length: 15min 2sec (902 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 03 2023