1st LT. Ted Harwood's B26 Marauder VS Adolf Galland's ME262 Jet Fighter

1st LT. Ted Harwood's B26 Marauder VS Adolf Galland's ME262 Jet Fighter

The official 323rd Bomb Group, 456th Bomb Squad combat mission target number #375 was flown on the afternoon of 4-20-45 and lasted 4:20 hours. 35 ships went up at 11,000 feet. April 20th was Adolf Hitler’s 56th birthday, as a gift, TV Harwood's plane, Martin B26 Marauder; 42-96090 WT-M (Buckeye Blitz Wagon), dropped 2 x 2000 lbs. bombs on the railroad yard at Memmingen, Germany. A total of 450 Marauders flew from division, flak was intense four ships were lost and 45 received battle damage, none from the 323rd were hit on this mission. Group leaders were Smith, Clover and Flittie. Crew: Theodore V. Harwood (P) 2nd/1st Lt., Eugene T. Muszynski (CP) 2nd/1stLt. , Anthony B. Caezza (NB) S/SGT., James N. Night (?) T/Sgt., George W. Boyd (RG) S/Sgt., Raymond Deboer (TG) S/Sgt. It was April 20th, 1945, in the afternoon. Thirty-five B-26 Marauders OF THE 323RD flew out toward Nordlingen, Germany to drop their bomb load from 10,000 feet in the sky to the railroad yard below. b26 vs me262 This was our next to the last mission of the war and like any mission; it could have been our last. From the skies below came a vision of death, the foremost of the German Luftwaffe Jet, rocket aircraft, the ME-262 armed with a 50 mm cannon. It was only seconds before the ME-262 was upon us. I could see the 50 mm cannon of the ME-262 cut loose. It was very close. The whole ordeal was like watching it happen right in front of you in the fast lane of the freeway. The 50mm cannon bursts hit the number two plane, right wing man, and sheered the nacelle door off. I could see it as clear as day. We had no fighter escort on most missions and on this mission we were alone so we had to take care of the problem ourselves. The entire squadron opened up with everything we had. Quite possible it was out turret gunner, but someone found the target and the ME-262 went down. One of the first jets ever shot down in combat. That same ME-262 craft is now on display at the Air Force museum in Dayton, Ohio. This occurrence was perhaps accidentally noted by Major General John 0. Moench on a different date, but this misunderstanding is understandable given the time since the dog fight and the organized chaos of war at the time. He had documented the ME-262 attack on 4-25-45, which would have been the B-26 bombing raid on the German airfield at Erding. The mission that had the ME-262 attack was on 4/20/45 on the B-26 Nordlingen railroad yard bombing raid. This element is listed in the official mission folder. The account documented by Major General Moench is as follows: "Flying the left wing on the Box I, number four flight leader, Ist Lt. Theodore V. Harwood s postwar account of the ME-262 attack included an observation of fire from the attackers against the lead flight and the sudden loss of a nacelle door from Capt. Trostle's right wingman. "Our top turret was chattering like mad and the air in front of us was filled with 50 caliber casings." This element of the attack was not noted in the mission folder." It appears the date here or in Meonch's book may be off - 4-25-45 ---The 262 may have hit on both days! He was on both missions.

MEONCH RECORDING OF HARWOOD: "The second question you have on the last mission April 25, 1945 to Arding, Germany. On the ME 262s ah I was in ship 090 (Martin B26 Marauder; 42-96090 WT-M; Buckeye Blitz Wagon), in the low flight, as I recall, according to your diagram everything was in the rear of the flight, however, as I recall, I saw the Me262 come up from our right position, below us and shoot at the lead flight, as I recall, according to your diagram here number 969 which was on the right of 131 the lead ship, I don't recall any other ship numbers except our own, however I could see the 37 MM. puffs of smoke from his cannon as he fired, and as I recall the right nacelle door flew off number 969 in your position ah, that was about all there was to that mission as I could see. Our top turret gunner was firing which that was the first mission in my 45 mission that the gunners ever fired a shot and that was sort of startling because I didn't know they were going to fire, it made considerable rattle, the whole sky in front of me was filled with 50 Caliber empties coming out of, I guess the lead flight there but I don't know how they got back there because according to your diagram, this ME 262 was, ah unless I got this thing reversed, but I wasn't in the lead flight,but this trail you got here shows everything in the rear of the flight, but defiantly we saw the 262 and I saw it fire and saw the smoke from the, when the cannon went off you could see a little puff black smoke every time it fired. Ah, our top turret gunner engineer was considerably ah –hepped up he thought he hit the thing (laughs) I don't know there was so much brass in the air that was my big problem worrying about the brass coming though the canopy or through the bombardier's nose compartment." Once in 1969, I was being driven to my Aunts house, I was 9 years old, and my father, whom rarely talked to me at all, said, out of the blue, “during the war we had an encounter with a German jet fighter and it was just like this here on the freeway, we looked over and could see the pilot through his canopy, just like you can glance over and see these other people driving near us here on the road”. The call to Dad by a German pilot: I am just trying to put this together, I am thinking the call came in in the summer of 1976, cause the swamp cooler in the kitchen was on and dad came in from the garage when I German called asking for Dad on the phone, Dad was surprised at first and the excited and then into the conversation they both seemed to be laughing. I think Dad through in an "All be damned" I have read several books about the ME262, and Think the dog fight was ether with Adolf Galland or one of only 16 other pilots under his command. I think the 2 ME 262 encounters with Dad and the 2 of 4 B26 shot down on the 16th of April 1945 were Adolf Garland, one clue in one of the books it said he became friends with the RAF and USAF pilots that he had been in combat with after the war. He answered the same questions as in the recording he made for MG Meonch, I only found it was the ME 262 pilot when Mr Senko came over and was bullshitting with dad about his job in Alaska, Mr Senko had a funny accent, like he talked a bit like he may have been in Chicago or something, short breath filled sentences that were extenuated at the end. It was a few years later when he was tell Mr. Senko about the German calling him and he handed Mr. Senko a small paperback book that apparently was written by the German or or he was a major contributor. "On 31 March 1945, Galland flew 12 operational jets to Munich to begin operations. On 5 April, he organised the interception of a USAAF raid. The Me 262s destroyed three B-17s. On 16 April Galland claimed two Martin B-26 Marauder bombers shot down. On 21 April, to his surprise, he was visited by Göring for the final time. Göring officially assigned Günther Lützow to him and confessed to Galland that his assertions about the Me 262 and the use of bomber pilots with experience as jet fighter pilots had been correct. He enquired about the progress of his unit with outspoken civility. As they parted, Göring said, "I envy you Galland, for going into action. I wish I were a few years younger and less bulky. If I were, I would gladly put myself under your command. It would be marvelous to have nothing to worry about but a good fight, like it was in the old days. From Forsyth, Robert; Scutts, Jerry; Creek, Eddie J (1999). Battle over Bavaria : the B-26 Marauder versus the German jets, April 1945. East Sussex, England: Classic Publications. ISBN 978-0-9526867-4-3. The ME 262 perhaps would have downed more than the two Marauders, except for the strikes from the gunner on Buckeye Blitz Wagon and a possible cannon jam on the ME 262. "The 108 cannon ( on the ME 262) was one of the most advanced weapons of its type but it jammed frequently at its use on attacks on enemy bomber formations bristling with hundreds of large caliber machine guns , dictated tactics whose success was becoming increasingly problematic" (Mano Ziegler) TV Harwood's graphic account of the 50 cal. brass impacting the front canopy during the aerial combat brings fair image of the controlled ciaos of the combat. German Mano Ziegler recounts "There were few airfields still left intact and undamaged bu bombs inside beleaguered Germany. The skies above had become hell, and the earth beneath a mass of craters, rubble and fire spitting guns. The choking , acrid smoke from the holocaust that had been a city climbed almost uninterrupted into the sky, which seemed to be continuously full of bombers pouring white hot iron into the gaping wounds below. The enemy escort fighters twirled and cavorted like shinning toys, and the anti-aircraft barrage provided a continual cacophony (P.156). We had long since learned not to take death too seriously, and although we mourned our comrades , we we felt that, in some respects , they might have been fortunate. We were inured to dangers, having lived with it so long, and our early fears had evaporated. All of us felt we no longer had anything to lose and it is not difficult to be courageous once that state of mind had been reached"(P 160) The introspective shared by the German rocket fighter Pilot Ziegler was to some degree felt by the Marauder crews as well, the missions seemed to endless in number and the duration of intensity cuased the time to tick by ever so slowly. My father, 1st Lt. TV Harwood, related to me that they were not scarred really or obsessed with being killed in action or captured as we were concentrating on the mission at hand and we all had an important function that required all our faculties. 1st Lt. TV Harwood related to me on one occasion that sometimes on low altitude combat missions the it was a chore to tell up from down as the horizon was in golfed with fire and smoke with flashes and concussion surrounding you. Mind you, he did not talk much, especially about the war, I had to do considerable prying and careful coaxing to get a tidbit of information.