New Year's Day legend

PILOTS AND CREWS DESCRIBE THE INCREDIBLE AERIAL BATTLE OVER Y-29 ON 1 JANUARY 1945

The facts have been known for 57 years about the fantastic "white wash" 23-to-0 victory by the 487th Fighter Squadron over the Luftwaffe on 1 January 1945. The story of this aerial melee over Asch was penned at the end of the war, entitled The Legend of Y-29, and has been printed previously in Air Classics. However the entire story, from the men who participated, has never been put to print. This is their story, with a surprise recent addition to the 23 victories thought to have been achieved.

The 352nd Fighter Group (the famed "Bluenosed Bastards of Bodney") was notified in December 1944 to prepare for a move to the Continent. As Axis airfields and terrain for new airstrips were overrun, the Allied Air Forces began shifting fighter units from England into Europe proper. This had several benefits. The tactical fighter groups, which bombed and strafed in support of ground actions, could stay close to the ground troops. They could therefore provide faster response and increased attack missions per day. The escort fighter units, such as the Bluenosers under 8th Fighter Command, could fly farther into Axis territory, stay in the target area longer, as well as escort tactical fighters. These forward bases also allowed the RAF's shorter-legged fighters (such as the Spitfires) to get into combat over the gradually shrinking Axis territory. These rapidly proliferating Allied fields proved to be too tempting a target for the beleaguered Luftwaffe, much like a steak before a hungry dog. So the stage was set.

Operation Bodenplatte was hatched by the Luftwaffe as a do-or-die attempt to wipe these hated Allied aircraft from the Continent, and prevent them from harassing the German troops retreating from the Bulge. The ten Jagdgeschwadeni (JG) assigned to undertake this task could conceivably commit 100 aircraft each (1000 total) to the mission to strafe the 17 targeted Allied advance airfields. Numbers regarding the mission vary widely, but it is generally agreed that the JGs were only able to get somewhat less than this total number into the air, perhaps as few as 800. Of this total, many pilots were true greenhorns, with little flying time under their belts. The plan was to attack these 17 RAF and USAAF bases on New Year's Day at 9:20 am, flying west from this round trip to and from Germany. The Luftwaffe's JG 11 (including 1, II, and III/JG 11), commanded by 32 victory ace Guenther Specht, sped towards Asch after they rendezvoused near Koblenz on New Year's morning.

An advanced skeleton unit of the 352nd FG was temporarily attached to the Tactical Air Force and moved towards Y-29 at Asch, Belgium two days before Christmas of 1944 (the field was located just north of the current town of Zutendaal). Here they would share the field with the P-47s of the 366th FG (9th AAF) and attempt to make the best of things.

Pilot Ray Littge of the 487th FS wrote after the war, "We arrived on the Continent on the afternoon of 23 December. After completing an escort mission to a target in the Ruhr Valley we landed at A-84 near Brussels towards evening, having been unable to find Y-29 (our base-to-be) due to weather. We were never to forget this date. It started a period of time, elapsing over several months, which was punctuated with thrilling air flights, casualties that hurt us deeply, and a score of aerial combat victories which put our squadron in the lead for victories in the Eighth Air Force. Around noon the next day, we flew to our newly assigned base, Y-29. By coincidence, the base we left was to be our permanent base two months later. At the moment it didn't impress us much, as it was empty and the P-47 outfit that had been there was taking away the last of its equipment. We were eager to get out of there, and to the new base near the front lines. Rumors were that we were to fly with General Quesada's 9th Air Force. This was great news. This outfit had been meeting the Hun often, had inflicted heavy losses, and was supporting our troops in dive bombing missions. All of us were sweating out our first mission here!"

Though their base at Bodney, England, was Spartan living, the conditions at Y-29 airfield were brutally primitive despite the best intentions of the 852nd Engineer Aviation Battallion who constructed the base. In the roughest winter in anyone's memory, the officers and enlisted men were housed in tents, with virtually no protection from the pervading cold and deep snow other than their heavily layered clothing. This is the same appalling weather experienced by the ground troops during the famous Battle of the Bulge. Littge adds, "We lived in tents hidden partly in the woods on the south side of the field, and it was extremely cold in those tents at night. Most of us were frozen stiff the first night, when we hit the sack without adequate cover, not knowing how cold it got there after dark. The morning found covers frosted, and the ground inside the tent covered with a layer of white frost. After the first night we went to bed in our heavy flying suits and wrapped ourselves in ten or twelve blankets. The last one to turn in would fill the stove with fuel until it was red hot and then retire in the same manner."