A young Luftwaffe pilot in a Me262 rammed multiple American bombers, bailed out wounded, and drifted into his own mother’s backyard. WW2 air combat rarely reads this unbelievably.
80 Years After WW2: Honor, Loss, and Hard Truths
It has been 80 years since the guns fell silent after World War 2. While our world used to be littered with a thin patina of WW2 vets, almost all of those awesome old guys are gone now. We are all diminished by their passing.
WW2 is remembered as America’s last truly great war. The good guys were very good, and the bad guys were very bad. Those who fought returned rightfully revered as heroes. However, WW2 was not a great war, not at all. No wars are truly righteous. They are all blood, death, loss, and pain.
Sixteen million Americans served. 416,800 of them perished. If you were an American who went to war in WW2, there was a 1-in-38 chance you would not survive to come home. The Second World War touched almost everybody on Planet Earth.
As bad as we had it, folks in Europe had it hugely worse. 27 million Russians died. 1 out of every 7 Russians perished in the war. That’s not Russian soldiers, that’s 1 out of 7 total Russians. While I disagree with most everything the Russians are doing these days, you can see why they might be a wee bit paranoid.
Where You Fought Mattered: Some Jobs Were Worse
Some jobs were worse than others. You could find yourself guarding some ammo dump in Milwaukee and never face anything more dangerous than a few feral dogs. Or you could be a combat Marine assaulting such hellholes as Peleliu, Iwo Jima, or Tarawa. Curiously, attacking well-defended beaches still wasn’t the most dangerous job to be had in the military. That ignominious distinction fell to the bomber crews.
Aviators accumulated rank and combat decorations at a disproportionate rate. There were full colonels in their early twenties flying fighter planes over Europe. However, most of the earth pigs would not consider trading places with them. Being a fighter pilot during WW2 typically meant you died alone. It took a special sort to do that job.
We have discussed it in this space before, but there was a strange duality to the Allied bombing campaign against Germany during the war. Part of that was to destroy the Germans’ ability to make war. A second, comparably critical piece, however, was killing German fighter pilots.
American bombers absolutely bristled with .50-caliber heavy machine guns. The Germans had to throw everything into defending their homeland. With the British bombing at night and the Americans pummeling them by day, the overall effect was absolutely relentless. Unlike American combat pilots who flew a tour or two and then rotated home to teach younger aviators the finer points of survival in combat, German fighter jocks flew until they died. One of those young men was Luftwaffe fighter pilot Eduard Schallmoser.
Luftwaffe Hardware: From Bf109 Workhorse to Me262 Predator
At the onset of the war, the German Bf109 was arguably the finest fighter plane in the world. The Messerschmitt was fast and maneuverable. It had a little armor, unlike the Japanese Zero, and some fairly serious firepower. The Bf109 was steadily upgraded throughout the war and remained in constant production until the bitter end. 33,984 copies rolled off the lines. That made the Bf 109 the most-produced combat aircraft in military history.
As the war progressed, so did aviation technology. Machines that were pure death in 1940 were lyrically obsolete by 1943. The apex predator among German production fighters was the jet-powered Me262 Swallow.
The Jet Age Arrives: Why the Me262 Terrified Bomber Crews
The British Gloster Meteor jet fighter flew operationally during the war, but it was reserved for such tasks as intercepting V1 buzz bombs. The Meteor seldom, if ever, mixed it up with enemy aircraft. However, the Me 262 was a dedicated interceptor. It was specifically built to take down American heavy bombers. It was exceedingly good at that.
Despite being specifically contrived as a counter-bomber interceptor, Hitler famously insisted that it be configured as a bomber. While it was a truly extraordinary fighter plane, the Me 262 was a fairly abysmal bomb truck. This foolhardy decision delayed the Me 262 program somewhat, but likely had no bearing on the trajectory of the war.
First introduced in April of 1944, the Me 262 was a rude awakening for the Allied crews who faced it. The Me 262 could sustain 530 mph, nearly 100 mph faster than Allied piston-driven aircraft. It was also armed with four 30mm cannons in the nose. Even one of those hefty 30mm high-explosive rounds delivered to a critical spot could bring down an enemy bomber. Eduard Schallmoser logged most of his combat time at the controls of these advanced jets.
The Man: Eduard Schallmoser Earns a Grim Nickname
Schallmoser had a slow start, but he was a successful fighter pilot. His first combat was in a Me262 assigned to JG44 under famed Luftwaffe General Adolf Galland. On 4 March 1945, he flew his first combat mission but did not fire a round. His superiors castigated him upon his return, alleging a lack of aggressiveness. He drew first blood on 3 April in combat against American P-38 Lightnings. While he did not technically shoot down an enemy aircraft, he did inadvertently ram one of them. LT William Randall’s Lightning crashed on the spot, but Schallmoser was able to nurse his damaged jet fighter back to base safely.
On 16 April, whilst flying against a formation of American B-26 Marauders, Schallmoser rammed one of the bombers. Again, he brought down the enemy aircraft and coaxed his own plane back home. The day after that, he repeated the performance with a B-17 Flying Fortress. This was beginning to seem like a trend. By now, he was credited with three downed enemy aircraft. However, in each case, he had run his plane into them to do the deed. His fellow pilots began calling him Der Rammer as a result. When he returned from the engagement with the Fortress, his Me 262 was so shot up that it had to be written off.
As complex as the Me 262 was, the Germans still had more planes than pilots. They produced 1,430 copies by war’s end. Schallmoser simply drew another jet and got back in the fight.
The Bomber: Why the B-26 Was Feared by Everyone
On 26 April, Schallmoser rose once again to face off against a formation of Marauders. This time, as luck might have it, he was flying over his hometown of Memmingen. The B-26 was profoundly dangerous to both its crews and the enemy.
The B-26 was called the Widowmaker by the men who flew it. An immensely powerful, high-performance machine, such a thing as an engine failure on takeoff or climbout was all but unsurvivable. Despite its handling difficulties, the Marauder still had the lowest combat loss rate of any American warplane.
The B-26 was one of the most aerodynamically efficient designs of the war, incorporating a sharply tapered fuselage and thin, fast wings. However, these very attributes gave the aircraft a fast takeoff and landing speed. Approach speed for the B-26 was around 150 mph. This made the plane terribly unforgiving in these regimes.
As a twin-engine medium bomber, the B-26 was not as heavily armed as the B-17 or B-24. However, the Marauder was faster and still sported eleven .50-caliber machine guns. This made formations of B-26s particularly difficult to attack by Luftwaffe fighter pilots, even those flying the Me 262 jets.
The Engagement: Me262 vs B26 Over Memmingen
Schallmoser clearly had a thing for running into American aircraft. During one sweep through the US bomber formation, he clipped one of the Marauders with the vertical tail assembly of his fighter. The impact damaged the B-26, but its crew limped the crippled plane safely back to its base. Schallmoser’s jet, however, was toast.
During the attack, Schallmoser had caught a burst of .50-caliber fire to his plane’s armor plate. Some resulting high-velocity shrapnel tore into his leg. Realizing his plane was done for, Schallmoser ejected his canopy, unstrapped from the crippled aircraft, and threw himself over the side. His plane exploded upon impact with the ground.
Shock Ending: A Parachute Into His Mother’s Backyard
Despite the circumstances, Schallmoser was in decent shape once he exited his flaming machine. Period parachutes used to egress combat aircraft were rudimentary at best and essentially uncontrollable. Driven by the wind and fate, Schallmoser unbelievably fell to earth in his family’s backyard, finding himself tangled up in his own mother’s clothesline.
Schallmoser’s mom was out tending her garden as the aerial battle raged overhead. She was shocked to see her own son, battered and bloody, drop to earth very nearly on top of her. Once she got her offspring freed from the clothesline, she tried to call the local hospital, only to find that the lines were down from the bombing. She therefore took the young man into the house, cleaned and bandaged his wounds, and did her best to make him comfortable.
A military vehicle eventually came by to collect the downed German aviator. However, before he left, his mom cooked him up some pancakes. They also shot a photograph. The young pilot was then taken to the hospital for treatment. By the time Schallmoser had recovered enough to fly again with his unit, the war was all but over. Once the dust had settled, Schallmoser moved to South America to spend the remainder of his days free from war. I hope his life was long and fruitful.
Quick Facts: Eduard Schallmoser and the Me 262 Incident
| Pilot | Eduard Schallmoser |
|---|---|
| Unit | JG44 |
| Aircraft | Messerschmitt Me262 |
| Notable Actions | Rammed P38, B26, and B17 during April 1945 combat |
| Location | Over Memmingen |
| Outcome | Wounded by .50-caliber fire, bailed out, and landed in the family backyard |
Pros and Cons: What This Story Shows About WW2 Air Combat
- Pros: Vivid look at Me262 interceptor tactics, rare firsthand-style incident details, strong context for bomber crew risk.
- Cons: Jet reliability and pilot attrition overshadow traditional dogfight narratives, and grim realities may challenge nostalgic views.
Related Reads from GunsAmerica Digest
- B17 Flying Fortress: Why Crews Survived the Worst
- P38 Lightning Combat Tales from Europe
- B24 and the Daylight Bomber Offensive Explained
Will is still trying to figure out what he really wants to be when he grows up. However, shooting guns and claiming it was work seemed like a pretty sweet hustle. As a result, Will serendipitously transformed an avocation into a vocation.
Raised in the Mississippi Delta, Will flew UH1H, OH58A/C, CH47D and AH1S helicopters operationally as an Army Aviator. He is SCUBA-qualified and has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes at 3 o’clock in the morning. Will has summited Mount McKinley, Alaska, six times…always at the controls of an Army helicopter, which is the only way sensible folk climb mountains.
Will has delivered sixty babies and occasionally wrung human blood out of his socks. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has three awesome adult children. Turn-ons include vintage German machineguns, flying his sexy-cool RV6A airplane, Count Chocula cereal and the movie “Aliens.”
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