Focke-Wulf 190 (opinions & info please)

[Owen]

Jules
Brilliant story.
Thanks.

[von Poop]

Originally Posted by jhor9

Re: FW190
The policy in my group (99th) was that no pilot wold finish a tour as a copilot.
About halfway through my tour I was checking out my copilot in the left seat. We had about about 25 planes over the target, In my sqdn my plane was on the extreme right side. I had nothing to do except to look out of the window. I saw a FW190 attacking my plane from 4 o'clock level. This incident probably lasted 5 or 6 seconds. I remembered that we had a flare gun in the ceiling of the plane, it was loaded, I tried to pull it down to shoot at him but in the heat of excitement I forgot that it was screwed in a half turn, I could see 20mm shells coming closer and closer. He didn't hit me but in breaking away he flew under my wing, he saw my hand raised to pull down the gun, he thought that I was waving at him,so he waved back, luckily he missed me. While being debreifed I told S2 about the incident, they sent the story to my hometown paper, Several weeks later my folks sent me a copy of the story. It said " Nazi pilot and Jewish pilot salute each other in the heat of combat", after that incident I realized why the military issued us brown underwear..

Jules Horowitz, B17 pilot, 99th B.G. 15th A.F. 50 missions, July '43 to Feb '44.

and in one Fell swoop the best best fw190 snippet we've heard yet... Good Stuff.

[Gnomey]

Good stuff Jules, interesting story!

[Gage]

Originally Posted by jhor9

Re: FW190
The policy in my group (99th) was that no pilot wold finish a tour as a copilot.
About halfway through my tour I was checking out my copilot in the left seat. We had about about 25 planes over the target, In my sqdn my plane was on the extreme right side. I had nothing to do except to look out of the window. I saw a FW190 attacking my plane from 4 o'clock level. This incident probably lasted 5 or 6 seconds. I remembered that we had a flare gun in the ceiling of the plane, it was loaded, I tried to pull it down to shoot at him but in the heat of excitement I forgot that it was screwed in a half turn, I could see 20mm shells coming closer and closer. He didn't hit me but in breaking away he flew under my wing, he saw my hand raised to pull down the gun, he thought that I was waving at him,so he waved back, luckily he missed me. While being debreifed I told S2 about the incident, they sent the story to my hometown paper, Several weeks later my folks sent me a copy of the story. It said " Nazi pilot and Jewish pilot salute each other in the heat of combat", after that incident I realized why the military issued us brown underwear..

Jules Horowitz, B17 pilot, 99th B.G. 15th A.F. 50 missions, July '43 to Feb '44.

Outstanding!

[jimbotosome]

jhor9,

Too bad you didn't have a big star of David that you could put in the window and flip him off as he flew by. Would have been interesting to see the look on his face. A Jewish pilot bombing the hell out of his homeland. Sort of like the chap in Saving Private Ryan where he was mocking the German POWs.

That would have made nice "nose art" for a fighter especially if you had a very experienced Jewish pilot.

Nice story. Keep em coming. We're all ears.

[jhor9]

Originally Posted by jimbotosome

jhor9,

Too bad you didn't have a big star of David that you could put in the window and flip him off as he flew by. Would have been interesting to see the look on his face. A Jewish pilot bombing the hell out of his homeland. Sort of like the chap in Saving Private Ryan where he was mocking the German POWs.

That would have made nice "nose art" for a fighter especially if you had a very experienced Jewish pilot.

Nice story. Keep em coming. We're all ears.

you have to ask leading questions

[jimbotosome]

Originally Posted by jhor9

you have to ask leading questions

Ok, did you ever get your plane shot up and wonder if you were going to make it back?

[jhor9]

Originally Posted by jimbotosome

Ok, did you ever get your plane shot up and wonder if you were going to make it back?

When I joined my group I flew as copilot for several missions to get combat experience. On my 1st mission with my crew and sitting in the left seat I had my baptism under fire. We bombed an airfield at Foggia, Italy , we came under extreme flak fire. The element leader had his controls shot away, they had to bail out, but they were able to get to friendly areas, the plane on the other side had 1 or 2 people killed, I was lucky , only my navigator was wounded. When we got back to base I counted over 100 holes in the plane
.
It never entered my mind that we wouldn't get back ,once we left the target area.

[Gage]

Originally Posted by jhor9

When I joined my group I flew as copilot for several missions to get combat experience. On my 1st mission with my crew and sitting in the left seat I had my baptism under fire. We bombed an airfield at Foggia, Italy , we came under extreme flak fire. The element leader had his controls shot away, they had to bail out, but they were able to get to friendly areas, the plane on the other side had 1 or 2 people killed, I was lucky , only my navigator was wounded. When we got back to base I counted over 100 holes in the plane
.
It never entered my mind that we wouldn't get back ,once we left the target area.

This might sound like a stupid question but on ops how scared are you when you're actually on a mission? Are all the nerves before take off or don't you have time to think about it while flying?

[jhor9]

Originally Posted by Gage

This might sound like a stupid question but on ops how scared are you when you're actually on a mission? Are all the nerves before take off or don't you have time to think about it while flying?

I was scared on every combat mission, but I had a job to do, so I put it behind me and did it. During flight going to and from a target I just didn't think of it. It was pretty hard work keeping the plane in formation, also the discomfort at high altitude. Relaxation came when we left enemy territory, provided that the plane was functioning properly.

Most of the time I didn't see enemy aircraft because I had to keep the plane in very tight formation, however I saw the flak, beleive me it was scary, knowing that I would have to go through it.