Colin Heaton - The Me 262 Stormbird

Killed by fighter at Hesepe.

At Schwabstadt.

Jumped by a Spitfire near Liege, Belgium.

Hit by enemy flak, pilot killed at Liege.

Near Fassberg.

Shot down by a fighter near Wittstock.

Shot down by a fighter near Wittstock.

Crashed near Krivits, cause unknown.

Logow, Neuruppen, pilot unknown, no casualty reported.

Cause unknown, pilot’s parachute failed to open.

Eder was coming in for a landing at Parchi, jumped by a fighter, shot through left leg and both legs were broken. Altogether, he flew 572 combat missions of which 150 were with the Me 262. On the Eastern Front he scored ten victories, and on the Western Front, sixty-eight, of which no less than thirty-six were four-engined bombers. With the Me 262 he scored at least twenty-four victories (most of them could not be officially confirmed). He was the leading scorer against the four-engined bombers, although Eder himself was shot down seventeen times, bailing out nine times. He was wounded fourteen times.

Weihs and Waldmann collided on takeoff at Schwarzenbeck.

Shot down 1st Lt. Earl R. Lane shot down in Me 262 “Yellow 3,” bailed out at 17,000 feet, landed in tree.

Shot down by 1st Lt. Roscoe Brown.

Shot down by 2nd Lt. Charles V. Brantley.

Ulrich was shot up by a fighter near Parchim, bailed out. Report was that he was strafed in his parachute.

Rettberg died in his fighter, Ulrich was his wingman. They were jumped by many fighters as they broke off the attack on a bomber formation.

Pilot killed when his Me 262 fired rockets into a B-17. Bomber exploded, destroying the jet, sending it out of control.

Body found in wreckage.

Schnörrer and Oberfähnrich Viktor Petermann (sixty-four victories, Knight’s Cross) intercepted USAAF four-engine bombers over Hamburg. Schnörrer claimed two B-17s shot down, but his Me 262 was hit by crossfire from the bombers. He was intercepted by P-51s. Damaged, he bailed out, striking the tail fin (leg amputation in hospital) and managed to open his parachute and land safely. This was his last mission, severely wounded and out for the rest of the war. “Quax” Schnörrer flew a total of 536 missions and recorded forty-six victories. He claimed thirty-five victories over the Eastern Front, including 10 IL-2 Sturmoviks. Of his eleven victories recorded over the Western Front, all were made flying the Me 262 and included nine four-engine bombers. Schnörrer, who was Nowotny’s best friend and wingman for over 200 missions, died on September 25, 1979, at Nürnberg.

While leading a flight of eight Me 262s, Sinner’s group was attacked by P-51s of the 339th Fighter Group. Sinner was hit and had to bail out. Tangled in his harness, his parachute deployed late and did not completely open. He landed hard in a field and was dragged into a barbed wire fence. He played dead as the P-51s tried strafing him. After the P-51s left, he crawled into a furrow in the field for cover. His wounds kept him out the remainder of the war.

Schall’s jet landed at Parchim after engaging fighters, left wheel hit a bomb crater at high speed. His jet cartwheeled, exploded, killing him.

Barkhorn was nearly decapitated when his jet lurched and the canopy slammed down on his neck, ending his combat career.

Forced down in Dübendorf, Switzerland, pilot interned.

Galland was shot down by 22-year-old Capt. James Finnegan in his P-47.

See Colin D. Heaton and Anne-Marie Lewis, Night Fighters: The RAF and Luftwaffe Air Combat over Europe, 1939–1945 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2008).

Hermann Buchner interview.

Colin Heaton interviews with Hannes Trautloft 1984–92.

Colin D. Heaton, “Luftwaffe Ace Günther Rall Remembers,” World War II , Vol. 9, No. 6, Leesburg, VA: Primedia Publications, p. 39.

Erich Hartmann interview. See abridged version by Colin D. Heaton, “Erich Hartmann’s Last Interview,” World War II , Vol. 17, No. 3, September 2002, Leesburg, VA: Primedia Publications, pp. 30–42, 85.

See Hugh Morgan, Me 262: Stormbird Rising , Osceola, WI: MBI./Osprey Books, 1994, p. 12.

Ibid., p. 10.

John Foreman and S. E. Harvey, The Messerschmitt Me 262 Combat Diary , Surrey, UK: Air Research Publications, 1990, p. 230.

Hermann Buchner interview.

Courtesy of Jeffrey L. Ethell.

Morgan, p. 31.

Interview with Fritz Wendel by Jeffrey L. Ethell, 1976. Courtesy of Jeff Ethell.

Morgan, p. 32.

Ibid., p. 33.

See Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945: Nemesis , New York, London, 2000, p. 621.

Morgan, 37.

Ibid., p. 38; also Galland interview.

Ibid., pp. 23–24.

Hermann Buchner.

Morgan. p. 39.

Ibid.

Buchner interview.

Schenck interview.

Steinhoff interview.

Morgan, p. 100.

Pelz interview.

Steinhoff interview.

Wolfgang Späte, Top Secret Bird: The Luftwaffe’s Me 163 Comet , Missoula, MO: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1989, p. 261.

Morgan, p. 96.

Galland interview extract from Jeffrey L. Ethell, 1978. Courtesy of Jeff Ethell.

Wendel interviews and data provided by Jeffrey L. Ethell.

See Robert F. Dorr and Thomas D. Jones, Hell Hawks: The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler’s Wehrmacht , Zenith Press, 2008, p. 244.

Ibid.

Colin Heaton interview with Dietrich Pelz in November 1990 (Jeffrey L. Ethell in attendance) and supplemental information obtained in 1993–1998 and 2000.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Morgan, p. 13.

Ibid., p. 14.

Ibid., p. 28.

Ibid., p. 13.