A Grand Trip - Mustangs Over Germany

[Dave Homewood]

“A GRAND TRIP”

NEW ZEALANDERS’ FLIGHT

(United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright, (Special Correspondent) LONDON, Nov. 22

Two New Zealanders, Flying-Officer W. Hawkins, of Wellington, and Pilot-Officer O. R. Chapman, of Timaru, recently took part in the first flight made by fighters over the German frontier. They flew Mustangs within a few miles of Bremen and attacked an enemy camp, a factory and a gasometer. They also attacked barges on the Dortmund-Ems Canal. The whole flight covered a journey of over 700 miles.

Pilot-Officer Chapman said: “We flew over the North Sea almost at sea-level to the Frisian Islands and then turned south over Holland. We strafed a railway line from less than tree-top height before crossing the German border. We attacked a German hut encampment just over the border, firing explosive and incendiary bullets, which left the buildings burning. Then we flew on until we picked up the Dortmund-Ems Canal.

“At Lathen,” he continued, “we attacked a factory and a gasometer. At Mappen we fired at a small ship in the lock gates, and also at several barges. We returned by the Zuyder Zee where we attacked shipping. We did not see a single German fighter during the whole trip, the only opposition being a little flak. It was a grand trip.”

Mustangs serve with the Army Co-operation Command. They have recently been over Holland and have attacked over 20 locomotives.

WAIKATO TIMES, 24 NOVEMBER 1942

[Dave Homewood]

Any idea which squadron/s these two chaps belonged to?

[colford]

No.268 Squadron, Royal Air Force, based at RAF Snailwell at the time. Actual date of the sortie was 21 October 1942.

I actually have an article part written about this particular sortie and a couple of other pioneering long range Mustang sorties these two RNZAF pilots were involved with during their time with 268. I have had access to a lot of original material from Chapman and Hawkins plus the other pilots involved, so I have a lot to work with. Plus of course being the Squadron Historian....................

[Dave Homewood]

Great stuff Col. So was this genuinely the first time any Allied fighters had flown over Germany?

[colford]

Dave, this was the first time that single engined RAF fighters based in the UK had penetrated the German border and flown over Germany. There were earlier instances in 1940 when the Hurricanes based in France had made short incursions over the German border when escorting reconaissance aircraft - usually Battles or Blenheims, then it tended to be just a short distance, more along the line of the border and defensive rather than offensive in nature.

This operation of course came a few weeks after the oft mentioned unauthorised sortie to Stavanger in Norway by F/L Lewkowicz of No.309 (Polish) Squadron from Dalcross, refuelling at Peterhead and only carrying ammunition for the 0.30 MGs, not the 0.50HMGs to save weight vs range. He proved a point, but it had already been taken some time before when a number of the already operational Mustang Squadrons in the south had also been doing their sums and had commenced a series of long range test flights and by the time he did his sortie in September were doing full scale dress rehearsals of a planned flight into Germany as well as increasingly longer Rhubarbs and Rangers penetrating almost to the German border over the Netherlands. By a strange co-incidence Lewkowicz ended up being posted to 268 for a full operational tour in mid-January 1945 and stayed with them well past VE-Day. In an even stranger twist, he arrived to join the Squadron the day after F/L Chapman DFC left the Squadron - well hung over from his farewell thrash - at the end of his second operational tour with the Squadron for repatriation home to NZ.

[Dave Homewood]

Interesting. So this is before any USAAF fighters flew over Germany too then?

[colford]

Yep, these guys were the pioneers, and did it all at low level, with only internal fuel, no drop tanks, Allison engine Mustang Mk.I. Only things flying over Germany from the UK at the time were the RAF bombers and the occasional high flying PR Spitfire. USAAF B-17s didn't reach Germany until January 1943, and first USAAF fighters based in UK didn't make it - just - until mid-1943.

[davidd]

All very interesting stuff! Thank you so much Colford for supplying this information, and pointing out the Kiwi content.
David D

[ErrolC]

Jun 7, 2021 11:36:47 GMT 12 colford said:

Yep, these guys were the pioneers, and did it all at low level, with only internal fuel, no drop tanks, Allison engine Mustang Mk.I. Only things flying over Germany from the UK at the time were the RAF bombers and the occasional high flying PR Spitfire. USAAF B-17s didn't reach Germany until January 1943, and first USAAF fighters based in UK didn't make it - just - until mid-1943.

A bunch of the P-38s that went to England mid-1942 operated with the bombers over France etc, then moved down to North Africa for Torch.

[colford]

Some of the other news stories about this operation. First two are transcribed from copies of the original UK newspaper articles that were glued into pilot's log books, third is from copy of US period newspaper held in US Archives.

MUSTANG’ HISTORIC RAID INTO GERMANY
Day Attacks on Three Countries

Mustangs, the R.A.F.’s powerful new fighters, made history yesterday by attacking in daylight targets in Germany, the first time on record that single-engined fighters based in Britain had reached that country. News of their feat discloses for the first time their immense range.

Allied aircraft were also over two enemy-occupied countries. Flying Fortresses of the U.S. Army Air Force smashed the great U-boat pens at Lorient and the long-range bomber base at Maupertus, near Cherbourg, and Mustangs and Mosquitos, the latter Britain’s secret light bombers, attacked targets in Holland.

Dortmund Canal Targets.

Leaving their aerodrome during the morning, the Mustangs, led by their squadron commander, carried out a series of attacks against military objectives in Holland, and on the Dortmund-Ems Canal, states the Air Ministry News Service.

At one point, just before reaching the Dutch-German border, they machine-gunned a military camp. Attacking at tree-top height they fired several bursts at three lines of huts. The last pilot to fly over the target reported that two out of the three lines were ablaze.

The Mustangs then flew towards the Dortmund-Ems Canal and delivered a surprise attack against a factory and a gasometer at Lathen. Hits were seen on both the gasometer and on the factory. Continuing south along the canal, the pilots saw a large number of barges, many of which were attacked and hit. Whilst attacking a small ship in some lock gates the pilots experienced their first opposition, which was ineffective.

In the Zuider Zee a ship of about 500 tons was left burning, and an explosion was caused in another small vessel. Apart from the opposition met from the ground defences at the lock gates the pilots met with no interference.

Mosquito aircraft of Bomber Command, operating singly, were also over Holland and Western Germany. An aerodrome and other objectives were bombed. None of our aircraft is missing.


Another British newspaper report that day stated:

700-Mile Trip

The operations disclose that these single-seat fighters have an “extreme distance” range, writes an air correspondent. It is at least 300 miles from London to the Dutch-German border “as the crow flies”, and the Mustangs probably made a round trip of something like 700 miles.

American-built Mustangs are the fastest co-operation aircraft in the world and were first announced in operation with R.A.F.’s newest Command in July this year. They had their first really big test in the Dieppe raid, and came through with flying colours.

The Mustang is especially effective in attacks from “zero” feet because then its engines are almost inaudible. It is also heavily armed. Several times lately they have operated over occupied Holland, shooting up Nazi targets and communications, particularly trains working for the Germans.


An article appearing in a US newspaper reported:

British Press Lauds American Mustang

LONDON, Oct, 22 – The entire British press today paid tribute to the North American “Mustang” the American-built fighter, which yesterday gave residents of Germany their first taste of daylight strafing from the air.

The Mustang, which has always been described here as an army co-operation plane, made history by going over, on a round trip of more than 600 miles, to shoot up factory and gas reservoir at Lathen, 35 miles south of Emden, and to raise cain with barges moving slowly along the Dortmund-Ems Canal. Under command of their squadron leader, they had a field day and escaped without a scratch.

The Mustang, which is known as the Apache in the United States Army, is probably the world’s finest performer at low altitudes. It is known among RAF pilots as one of the most manoeuvrable planes close to the ground.


From this last US article a couple of things to note.

First use of the 'Apache' name in relation to the aircraft used. Most people associate the 'Apache' name with the later dive bomber variant of the Mustang, the A-36A. But that is in fact incorrect. According to all period North American Aviation and USAAF documentation, the A-36A was only referred to officially as a 'Mustang'. National Museum of USAF in recent years has amended display boards for the A-36 they have on display in their collection and on their website to properly reflect the 'Mustang' name. The 'Apache' name was a name created by someone in North American Aviation marketing when they were initially trying to get the USAAC/USAAF interested in the early Allison engine Mustang, particularly the equivalents of the RAF Mustang Mk.I and Mk.IA. A couple of advertisements showing a line drawing of a Mustang Mk.I type aircraft with USAAC markings were put into the US aviation press in 1941. However, by the time the USAAF did show interest, decision had been made by senior NAA management and advised to USAAF that all aircraft in the line, including the A-36 - which was just entering production for the USAAF - would be known by the name 'Mustang'. Attachment of the 'Apache' name to the A-36 came in the 1970s by a story writer for a fairly widely circulated aviation magazine at the time and spread from there.

Secondly, some books about the Mustang will state that this first sortie was an escort for Wellington bombers who carried out a low level bombing raid, including low level strafing of barges on the canal supported by the Mustangs, or that this operation was carried out in August 1942 in Squadron strength by a different RAF Squadron and both of those are factually incorrect. The first error from my research appears to come from the contraction of the offical Air Ministry Communique in order to reduce the word count for onward transmission to press agencies in the USA. It then also appears that editors for the news agencies in the USA did some further editing for the press release version they put out across their various agency networks. Those 'mash-up' versions of the press releases combined the separate operations by various RAF units over the 24 hours being reported into one large operation. The Squadron sized operation in August didn't happen, and I can't find any rationale source for this one. It appears in a number of Mustang histories and I suspect, from again going through a lot of RAF Records and Air Ministry Communiques from this period, this one may originate from comments on "future intentions" rather than actual operations in AM Communiques of the time. It is often credited to being performed by a specific RAF Squadron, but a quick check of their Operational Records shows that they weren't flying the Mustang on operations on that date and were actually quite busy flying their Mustangs for a big Army exercise in the UK on the date in question. Again a lot of these errors initially tend to come from publications in the 1960s and 1970s before public access to the RAF wartime records were readily available, but the errors have then been perpetuated in other more recent works which cite the older works as sources or references.

[davidd]

All good stuff Colin.
David D

[colford]

Jun 7, 2021 12:38:21 GMT 12 ErrolC said:

Jun 7, 2021 11:36:47 GMT 12 colford said:

Yep, these guys were the pioneers, and did it all at low level, with only internal fuel, no drop tanks, Allison engine Mustang Mk.I. Only things flying over Germany from the UK at the time were the RAF bombers and the occasional high flying PR Spitfire. USAAF B-17s didn't reach Germany until January 1943, and first USAAF fighters based in UK didn't make it - just - until mid-1943.

A bunch of the P-38s that went to England mid-1942 operated with the bombers over France etc, then moved down to North Africa for Torch.

Hi Errol,

Went to my 'go to book' on USAAF fighters in ETO and the P-38s didn't do much beyond 'nibbling around the edges' of France supporting the early B-17 operations before they were sent to the MTO.

The P-47s got the external fuel - belly tank - to combine with their internal tankage, to make it to the German border in an escort role in September 1943, the P-38s got their similar external tank capability to make it to the German border in October 1943. The P-47s could do escort to targets as far as Bremen with larger drop tanks and addition of the original small underwing drop tanks by January 1944, the P-38s got their bigger wing tanks which let them go about an extra 50 miles beyond Bremen also in January 1944. This is all part of the background why the big rush by the USAAF to get the P-51B into service in early 1944, as on original internal fuel, before they added the fuselage tank, it was going just short of Bremen, add the original smaller size drop tanks and they were outstripping the P-47 and P-38 for range in the same timeframe.  Once they added the fuselage tank, they took a big jump in range beyond the other two for the same timeframe.

So basically, the RAF Army Co-operation Command Mustang Mk.I were getting to Western Germany at low level, a year before the USAAF high altitude fighters.

[ErrolC]

Jun 7, 2021 22:49:38 GMT 12 colford said:

Jun 7, 2021 12:38:21 GMT 12 ErrolC said:

A bunch of the P-38s that went to England mid-1942 operated with the bombers over France etc, then moved down to North Africa for Torch.

Hi Errol,

Went to my 'go to book' on USAAF fighters in ETO and the P-38s didn't do much beyond 'nibbling around the edges' of France supporting the early B-17 operations before they were sent to the MTO.

The P-47s got the external fuel - belly tank - to combine with their internal tankage, to make it to the German border in an escort role in September 1943, the P-38s got their similar external tank capability to make it to the German border in October 1943. The P-47s could do escort to targets as far as Bremen with larger drop tanks and addition of the original small underwing drop tanks by January 1944, the P-38s got their bigger wing tanks which let them go about an extra 50 miles beyond Bremen also in January 1944. This is all part of the background why the big rush by the USAAF to get the P-51B into service in early 1944, as on original internal fuel, before they added the fuselage tank, it was going just short of Bremen, add the original smaller size drop tanks and they were outstripping the P-47 and P-38 for range in the same timeframe.  Once they added the fuselage tank, they took a big jump in range beyond the other two for the same timeframe.

So basically, the RAF Army Co-operation Command Mustang Mk.I were getting to Western Germany at low level, a year before the USAAF high altitude fighters.

Besides the USAAF slow-pedalling bigger drop tanks, it took longer than it should have for the 8th Air Force to work out that escorts in shifts lets the fighters cruise at more efficient spends for them. The postwar analysis and maps sold the story that they needed the Mustang to effectively escort to Germany proper, when they could have gone further earlier.
chicagoboyz.net/archives/54434.html

[colford]

For those who want to do a deep dive into the development of the P-51 Mustang into a long-range escort fighter, may I commend:

www.booktopia.com.au/p-51b-mustang-james-william-marshall/book/9781472839664.html

Also available from most of the other usual online booksellers. 352 pages, close to A4 in page size, so big and hefty.

First in a two part work, main focus on the path from pre-war ideas to the P-51B up to D-Day and early P-51D development. Contents include:

Acknowledgments
Overview and Introduction

Chapter Zero - November 1939 through November 1941.
Chapter One - December 1941 through December 1942
Chapter Two - January 1943 through December 1943
Chapter Three - January 1944 through D-Day on June 6, 1944
Chapter Four - Illustrated examples of Long Range Fighter evolution 1941 through D-Day

Appendices
A. Operational Data, Tables and Charts - Key Fighter Aircraft - December 1941 through June 6, 1944
B. Performance of Key Fighter Aircraft - December 1941 through June 6, 1944

References
Citations and credits
Index

The two primary authors put a lot of time and effort into this.

Bill Marshall (aka James William Marshall) has devoted a lifetime studying to World War II military aviation history, with primary focus on the ETO and MTO battle against Germany. He has bachelor's and master's degrees in Aero Engineering and has published two WWII unit histories - Angels, Bulldogs & Dragons: History of the 355th FG in World War II and Our Might Always: History of the 355th FG in World War II (his father was a WW2 pilot with them). He has written several World War II historical articles. He is based in Texas.

Lowell Ford spent forty years in the aerospace industry, working at North American Aviation, Inc., Rockwell International and The Boeing Company, as well as four years in the US Navy. His interest in the Mustang grew out of the mystery of what happened to the prototype X73, and continued into a greatly expanded appreciation for the men who designed it, built it and made it the premier fighter of World War II. He lives in the USA.

But they did tap into a lot of the P-51 community world-wide and I can include myself in that (a lot of what is in this book on RAF development and operational use of the Mustang was written/contributed by myself, along with multiple reviews and edits) and it does get very technical and convoluted in parts - just like the real thing in its gestation. In particular, they had access to a lot of original NAA documentation and correspondence between NAA and the USAAF, which helped chart the development of the P-51 and put the full story into print.

They have the follow on volume which covers the P-51 story from D-Day onwards including the development and introduction of the P-51D/K and the various other high performance prototypes and development to the P-51H in the works - but will likely be a couple of years before it is published.

[Dave Homewood]

This is probably not the same squadron, and yes there's a glaring error in the subtitle, which I'll copy here for a laugh.... but I guess these will also have been Allison-engined Mustang 1's flown by Kiwis.

PILOTING MUSTANGS

NEW ZEALANDERS IN PACIFIC

LONDON, Jan. 26 |

Three New Zealanders in a Mustang squadron are Flying-Officers J. G. Thomson, of Manakau, S. T. Thomson and I. Dayman, of Wellington.

Flying-Officer J. G. Thomson recently accompanied Mitchell bombers in the raid against an oil refinery. This pilot was flying so low that a German firing from a sand dune hit the top of his wing but no harm was done, the bullet ricocheting. He was travelling at over 400 miles an hour.

After diving at the gun positions he met no opposition for the remainder of the flight to the target, but he got in a “quick squirt” at a Focke Wulf 190, which dived away. Flying-Officer Thomson encountered more anti-air-craft fire when recrossing the gun positions, but returned safely.

The New Zealanders like flying Mustangs, stating that they are beautiful and smooth to control at high speeds — and they can certainly work up a high speed.

WAIKATO TIMES, 28 JANUARY 1943

[nuuumannn]

Great information Colin, as always. It's worth noting that the first Eight AF daylight raids were escorted by RAF types and the initial doctrine of the Eighth was unescorted (what they called) 'precision' raids, meaning, no fighter escort at all. Thankfully they came to their senses.

[ErrolC]

Mentioned by Bud Anderson in this podcast interview that his newly-raised unit trained on P-39s in the States before getting P-51Bs in England. They were expecting to be part of US 9th Air Force (twin-engined bombers and support) but the 8th Air Force eventually worked out that they needed their range and got them instead.
www.fighterpilotpodcast.com/episodes/016-p-51-mustang/

[Dave Homewood]

I have that episode queued up to listen to.

[Antonio]

Also mentioned in the wikipedia page on 268 Sqn:
Link:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._268_Squadron_RAF