Fw-190 Sturm attack:
The following account of a Sturm attack was written by Oblt Hans-Martin Markhoff, StaffelkapitƤn of 8./JG 4 in September 1944 and describes an attack on B-24s of the 445th BG over Kassel on 27 September 1944.
By the time Markhoff volunteered for home defense duties during mid-1944 he was an experienced fighter pilot, having flown many sorties on the Russian Front as wingman to one of JG 52ās greatest aces, GĆ¼nther Rall.
Charged with screening the Kommandeur of III./JG 52, Markhoffās chances of achieving victories in aerial combat were few and having witnessed a bombardment of Berlin while on leave in late 1943 he decided that his duty lay in defending his fellow citizens back home in Germany. He volunteered to be a Sturm (assault) pilot.
Post war he trained as an architect but never told his family of his war record. It wasnāt until the late 70ās, just a few years before his death, that he told his teenage son about his career in the Jagdwaffe. Like his son, Markhoff himself wore his hair long and was a big fan of the Rolling Stones. One of his final letters contained a poignant footnote; " If you publish these accounts please convey to the reader that such events must never again be allowed to take place. Iām not proud of my successes and what I did during the war. We all of us merely reacted to the pressures of those times. Today I wish that theyād never occurredā¦"
āā¦We closed on the four engined bombers with total disregard for the stiff defensive fire they were putting upā¦ Tracer was flying around our ears but there was only one thought in my mind ā¦I must shoot down another heavy bomberā¦the bomberās defensive fire was broken through recklesslyā¦only after the four engines filled the target circle of the sight did we open fireā¦ā A Fw 190 Sturmbock bores in on a B-24 Liberator from the rear. Hunkered down in his cockpit the pilot opens fire from 100 metres aiming for the inboard engine. In this sequence the 190 has approached from slightly above on the starboard side
" When we made our final attack we approached from slightly above , then dove and opened fire ā¦A miss of the giant monster was almost impossible at this distance. I could clearly recognise the faces of the gunners in their firing positionsā¦" Hits from the 30 mm cannon flareā¦
āā¦As usual the 3 cm cannon were remarkably effective and wrought terrible destruction. Everything happened so quickly, my shells pumped into the bomberās wing-root and I could see a bright sheet of flame as it leapt from the huge fuselageā¦ā
The 3cm explosive rounds continue to strike home; the awesome destruction accounts for the tail gunnerā¦
Breaking off just in time to avoid colliding with the target Markhoff flies through a hail of fragments "ā¦pieces of debris were whirling around my ears in the slipstream. Part of the bomberās tail fin came away. I took avoiding action and dove under the huge machineā¦"
With less than two seconds to unleash a salvo of explosive rounds, the Fw 190 peels away, diving down under the looming bulk of the bomber. The bomberās starboard wing is envelopped in a huge ball of fire and smoke.
" We flashed through the formation all guns blazingā¦emerging from the bomber stream we attempted to reform for a second pass but today, as more often than not, this was impossibleā¦we could hear the cries in the earphones alerting us to the presence of enemy fightersā¦it was then every man for himself as we attempted to reach an aerodrome and put down. That day as I came in to Salzwedel I realized that Iād got problems with my landing gear and elected to put the machine down on its belly. Those machines from my Gruppe that had landed ahead of me were almost all displaying signs of damageā¦
" ā¦ . I had my victory and as it later turned out some wonderful shots on the gun camera. Iād got to within 18 metres of the bomber. Needless to say this film was to appear on the Wochenschau in German cinemasā¦ .but more than half our Fw 190s were missingā¦ 7. Staffel was particularly hard hit. Having already been reinforced with 6. and 8. Staffel pilots, the Staffel now lost its KapitƤn, Oblt. Zehart who was reported missing near Braunschweigā¦"
http://members.aol.com/kaczmarek190/pauke.html
No worries, very nice picture the yours, I wonder how was Rommel behind a pair of MG 81s.
