The Encounter Report of Captain Yeager’s first destruction of an Me 262 jet fighter and damage to two Me 262′s. This report details the daring chase that separated Capt. Yeager from his squadron and the encounter near an enemy airfield. Capt Yeager shot the Me 262 down as it was on final approach to land at the enemy airfield. Yeager’s only option was to fly down the runway low and fast. Airfield defenses fired shots missing Yeager but hitting airfield defenses on the opposite side of the runway.
If you read the FACTS AND HISTORY! He shot it as it approach his landing back. Yes he’s ONE OF the first who shot it down. But not In COMBAT! As you ME-262 Flew a lot faster than our fighter planes. Credit for the first Me 262 shot down by gunfire, however, belongs to five pilots from No 401 Squadron RCAF on October 5th. Flying a high patrol over the Arnhem-Nijmegen area the twelve Spitfires from 401 Sq soon spotted a Me 262 diving toward Nijmegen at 1445hrs. The Me 262 did show some fight and returned fire on several occasions with little result. The Me 262 was hit by five individual pilots causing it to burn in the air and crash in friendly territory. So fighter pilots Joseph Myers, Manford Crory and Chuck Yeager did take the ME-262 but not by force, Not one shot was fire by either german or american pilot.
Chad, just because the ME-262 was landing doesn’t mean it wasn’t in Combat. Going to the fight and returning from the fight is all part of combat, especially if you’re getting shot while you are trying to land. That was actually the way most of the ME-262’s were shot down. No way any of the prop planes could keep up with it in level flight once it got up to speed. There were some P-51’s that were able to overtake one as the ME-262’s were turning (bleeding off speed) and the P-51 was hitting around 500 mph in a dive. The ME-262 could hit 600 mph+ in level flight and there was nothing that could catch that. But if they turned too hard, then a plane diving near 500 mph (presuming its wings didn’t come off at that speed) had a chance at it. Otherwise the only way to catch it was just after take-off when it was trying to build up speed, or after it had reduced speed to land. Did you read Yeager’s report on this page. He definitely fired on him, definitely hit him, and knocked him out of the sky before he could land. I think that German pilot might not buy into your “not one shot was fired” statement. If you haven’t already done so, read about in section 3 of Captain Yeager’s report.
quit crying, choad. if you are in the air, you are in combat
Chad is not crying. The first Me262 shootdown was on 5 October 1944. Jager did not get his till 6 November 1944.
As November in most countries comes after October, Chuck was not the first, but maybe the first American.
I’ll wager that the pilot of the Me262 which Yeager shot down would say that he had been combat. Getting shot will give one that impression.