Forgotten Battle 18

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This month's Forgotten Battle is...

The Legend of Y-29

Intro

The Legend of Y-29 was a 45 minute dogfight that occurred on January 1, 1945. It was fought between squads of German FW-190s and Bf-109s against American P-51 Mustangs and P-47 Thunderbolts near the city of Asch, Belgium. This dogfight would go down in history as one of America's greatest aerial victories in the European theatre of World War II.

Part I

At the end of 1944, the Battle of the Bulge was still being fought on the Western Front of World War II. But the tide of the battle had completely turned against the Wehrmacht. The Siege of Bastogne had been lifted by General George Patton. And the German army was in full retreat from all of their captured territory. For many Allied pilots, it seemed like the battle had been won. They could not have been more mistaken.

By 1944, the German Luftwaffe had suffered multiple defeats in the face of Allied air power. When Hitler decided to launch his December offensive into Belgium, the Luftwaffe was initially supposed to lead the operation. However, bad weather had grounded their planes (along with the Allies' planes) and left them unable to support the Wehrmacht infantry. Therefore, by the time the weather cleared enough for them to launch, the German Army had suffered horrific casualties and failed to capture their objectives. 

However, Hitler refused to give up and ordered the Wehrmacht to launch Operation Northwind (a flanking offensive into Northern France). The Luftwaffe in turn was to launch Operation Bodenplatte (baseplate) in support of this new offensive. The objective was to attack and destroy Allied airfields (along with all the parked planes) located in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. If achieved, this could shatter the Allie's air power advantage and allow the Luftwaffe to regain control of the skies above Europe.

Part II

One of the targets of Operation Bodenplatte was a base located near the town of Asch, Belgium designated Y-29. Stationed here, were the American 352nd and the 336th Fighter Groups. The 352nd consisted of twelve P-51 Mustangs led by Captain John Charles Meyer. The 336th was made up of eight P-47 Thunderbolts (aka: Jugs) led by Captain Lowell B. Smith.

The German flight that would be attacking Y-29 was, Jagdgeschwader 11 (JG 11). This group numbered 61 Focke-Wulf (Fw)-190s led by the flying ace, Lieutenant-Colonel Günter Specht (whom had 32 kills). Their mission was to fly a low-level strike on the airfield and hopefully destroy all the aircraft on the ground. They were hoping to catch the Americans by surprise.

What they didn't know was that the Americans at Y-29 had all gotten up early and were preparing to conduct a morning patrol. The P-47s led by Captain Smith took off at 9:15 AM and quickly detected JG 11 on their radars. Captain Smith ordered his squadron to drop their bombs and prepare for a dogfight. At 9:20, the jugs swooped down and took the Germans by surprise. The stage was set for one of the most spectacular air battles of World War II.

Part III

First blood was drawn by Lieutenant Mel Paisley dove into the six o'clock of an FW-190 and shot it down. At the same time, Captain Smith sent a second FW-190 down in flames. Then 1st Lt. Jack Kennedy closed in on a third FW-190 and scored hits. However, his thunderbolt was simultaneously hit by enemy fire that set his right wing ablaze. Knowing that he was too low to bail out, Kennedy decided to duck his plane into the slag heaps just beyond Y-29.

Noticing the dogfight taking place were the twelve P-51 Mustangs commanded by Captain John Meyer. Less than a minute after 9:20, the mustangs throttled up and took to the sky. As he was taking off, an FW-190 flew right into Captain Meyer's gunsight. He immediately shot it down. The twelve mustangs then headed over to the aid the Jugs that were engaging the enemy. Lt. Al Rigby spotted another FW-190 closing in on his wingman. Rigby told his wingman to break left and lead the enemy pilot into the former's gunsight. His wingman did so, the German followed, and Rigby shot him down. He then spotted a German Bf-109 and dove down into its six. The violent maneuver damaged Rigby's gunsight. Using his hunter's instinct alone, he sent the Bf-109 down in flames.

Meanwhile, Capt. Sanford Moats and his wingman found themselves being attacked from the rear by two FW-190s. Moats and his wingman broke left into the Germans' attack and made them overshoot. Moats lined up behind of them and shot him down. His wingman (Bill Halton) took down the other. At the same time, Lt. Bob Brulle in his P-47, successfully chased and shot down an elusive FW-190. Later, Lt. Kennedy (with his right wing still burning) successfully turned the tables on the two Bf-109's that damaged his plane and shot one of them down. Lt. Rigby shot down the other.

Epilogue

As a whole, Operation Bodenplatte was a complete failure for the Luftwaffe. Although they had managed to destroy or damage more than 200 Allied fighters and bombers, they had lost more than 250 of their own (most of these pilots were killed). While the Allies could easily replace their losses, the Germans could not. Some historians would later refer to this operation as the, "death of the Luftwaffe".

The dogfight at Y-29 went on for a total of 45 minutes. After taking heavy losses, the German fighters of JG 11 bugged out. The losses were completely lopsided. The American pilots had only lost one P-47 (destroyed on the ground) and no P-51s. Amazingly, no Americans had been killed during the entire battle. By contrast, the Germans of JG 11 lost a total of 24 aircraft in the dogfight, with 20 pilots killed (including Ltc. Günter Specht) and 4 captured. In addition, four more were shot down by anti-aircraft guns. For their incredible defense at Y-29, both the 352nd and 366th Fighter groups received the Presidential Unit Citation. They would both continue to see heavy combat until the end of World War II. 

https://crazyhorseap.be/galleries/galleries-2011/return-to-y-29.html

https://home.army.mil/benelux/my-fort/news/zutendaal-community-commemorates-75th-anniversary-wwii-air-battle-legend-y-29

https://www.deseret.com/2007/6/29/20026999/the-legend-of-y-29/

https://taskandpurpose.com/history/hangover-raid-world-war-ii-luftwaffe/