Fw. Schmidt's B-17 claim

Feldwebel Schmidt's victory claim

Schmidt’s claim was timed at 13.08 CET (12.08 GMT) and corresponds most closely to the crash of a B-17G (43-38693) of the 322nd BS, 91st BG. This aircraft, piloted by 1./Lt. Howard L. Mitchell, was one of many hit by Flak over Berlin that day. Witnesses reported that its No. 3 airscrew was feathered (or that three engines were in that condition) and that 51 minutes after bombing Mitchell requested a course for base, saying he doubted he could reach England. After the aircraft left formation, six parachutes were seen and six men were duly captured but Mitchell was not among the survivors. Sergeants Frank Schnurstein (waist gunner) and Ralph Fugatt (radioman) were apprehended at 13.30 CET at Suttrup, 1/Lt. Thomas (navigator) was taken at Schapen and both these places lie to the south east of Lingen. The Flying Fortress itself was recorded as coming down at “Telge-Wlisten” but since the hamlets of Talge and Wilsten are 37 km. apart, the crash was presumably somewhere along a line between the two.

Technical Sergeant Fugatt:

… we were badly damged by flack [sic] over Berlin. The Pilot managed to get the ship in the vincinity of Osnabrück where we hit storms and dense clouds — in an attempt to drop below the weather, we had no instruments, our frayed control cables snapped, throwing the ship into a spin at 17,000 ft. alt.

Pilot gave the bail-out order and we proceeded to do so … I left the ship at extremely low altitude …

Neither Fugatt’s testimony nor that of co-pilot 1/Lt. Irving C. Miller makes any mention of fighter attack. Fugatt says that the Boeing’s controls failed at 17,000 ft. (5,200 m.) while Schmidt’s claim cites an altitude of 1,800 m. From this it seems clear that the German pilot attacked a bomber that was already crippled, out of control and being abandoned by those crew members able to do so.

NOTE: Another B-17G Flak-damaged over Berlin fell at Lohnerfeld to the west of Lingen just over 20 minutes later. This was 44-8518 of the 729th BS, 452nd BG and the sole survivor, T/Sgt. Josef Korosek, was captured at Lohne at 14.00 CET. His aircraft had been finished off by Maj. Karl Borris of Stab JG 26 whose claim was timed at 13.36 CET, west of Lingen (although another German document puts the crash at 13.31 hours).

Sources

The armyairforces.com MACR search facility.

Missing Air Crew Reports (MACR) 11051 and 11333 (and for the purposes of elimination: MACR 11036, 11037, 11038, 11039, 11040, 11041, 11043, 11045, 11046, 11331, 11343) via Fold3.com.

Luftwaffe victory credits via http://don-caldwell.we.bs/claims/tonywood.htm.

A thread on the AAF Forum which, had I found it sooner, would have saved me a lot of work.