ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 74568
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| Date: | Saturday 27 May 1944 |
| Time: | 12:10 LT |
| Type: |  North American P-51B-5-NA Mustang |
| Owner/operator: | 357th FGp /362th FSqn USAAF |
| Registration: | 43-6556 |
| MSN: | 104-22959 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Lütisburg -
 Switzerland
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Leiston /AAF Sta.373, Suffolk |
| RAF Leiston /AAF Sta.373 |
The Mustang Capt. Brown flew on this mission was his assigned aircraft, an olive-drab P-51B-5-NA with serial 43-6556. This particular aircraft, equipped with a Packard Rolls-Royce V-1650-3 engine was rolled out from the NAA plant at Inglewood, CA, on 22nd October 1943 and after a test-flight was ferried to Newark, NJ, where the plane saw some modifications before being sent to the ETO.
It was then dismantled, crated and loaded aboard a freighter which left the harbour on 14th December 1943. Arriving in Blackpool, England, after the Atlantic crossing in January 1944, the plane was reassembled at BAD 2 Warton before being issued to the 357th Fighter Group. Arriving at Army Air Force Base F-373 Leiston, the Mustang was assigned to the 362nd Fighter Squadron and received the code G4-B. Capt. Brown soon personalized his newly assigned plane by applying the nickname ‘Chicago Gun Moll’ on the left cowling
On 27th May 1944, 930 heavy bombers from the 8th USAAF took off from their bases in England to attack important industrial targets in central Germany. They were escorted by 710 escort fighters of the types P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang in order to prevent the bombers from being attacked by German fighter planes. Main target for 150 Boeing B-17 bombers of the 1st Air Division was Ludwigshafen.
Assigned escort was the famous 357th Fighter Group ‘Yoxford Boys’ with their P-51 Mustangs. For the men in their fighters with yellow/red checkered noses this was Mission #65 and the unit was led this day by Major Irwin H. Dregne. Shortly after R/V, the bomber formation was attacked by approx. 60 Focke-Wulf FW-190’s and Messerschmitt Me-109’s which managed to shoot down several bombers from the lead formation.
Although the 357th FG immediately went into action, they could not disperse the enemy fighters on time. The ensuing battle between the German fighters and the Mustangs resulted in the downing of 14 German planes. Lts. Cyril Conklin and Thomas Harris managed to destroy two planes each before being hit, too. Both had to bail out of their disabled Mustangs and spent the rest of the war as POW’s. Lt. Dean Post was fatally wounded and perished in the crash of his plane. 23 years old Capt. Robert D. Brown from Chicago, IL, a veteran and original member of the 357th Fighter Group’s 362nd Fighter Squadron scored his 3rd aerial victory that day, but his aircraft was hit, too, and received heavy damage to the elevator controls. The Merlin engine also was damaged by debris from Brown's victim.
A return to his home-base in England was out of question and he therefore set course for neutral Switzerland. He crossed the northern Swiss border near Lake Constance but decided to wait before bailing out of his stricken aircraft because he feared to land in German territory. After some time the Mustang became almost impossible to control and the engine started to lose coolant and overheat, so the pilot jettisoned the canopy and turned the Mustang on its back to bail out, but the inflatable dinghy pack somehow got stuck in the cockpit. It took Brown several attempts to free himself from his mount, which then went into a steep dive and crashed in the vicinity of Lütisburg.
The Mustang totally disintegrated upon impact in a meadow close to a restaurant and only bent and scorched remains were scattered over a wide area.
In his struggle to abandon the Mustang, Brown had hit the elevator and suffered a broken leg. Saved by his parachute, he landed in a tall fir tree and had to be rescued by local people. He was brought to a nearby hospital where he immediately saw medical treatment before being interrogated by Swiss authorities.
Capt. Brown spent the rest of the war in internment. He returned to England in October 1945 by ferrying another interned Mustang from Dübendorf Airfield back to BAD 1 Burtonwood, but only after buzzing the town of Zurich at very low level.
Sources:
http://www.swissmustangs.ch/4655/4736.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20171111143733.html
http://www.littlefriends.co.uk:80/357thfg.php
http://www.cebudanderson.com/vintagephotoIII01.htm
http://swissinternees.tripod.com/aircraft.html
https://warbird.ch/wb-events/absturz-bei-luetisburg/
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 29-May-2010 02:10 | Alpine Flight | Added |
| 02-Sep-2011 14:36 | Uli Elch | Updated [Cn, Operator, Location, Phase] |
| 26-Sep-2011 16:33 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Operator, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 09-Nov-2011 12:58 | angels one five | Updated [Operator, Narrative] |
| 21-Apr-2020 08:28 | AlLach | Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Operator] |
| 15-Jul-2020 18:31 | Alpine Flight | Updated [Time, Source] |
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