50th FG: War Stories...P-47 Combat!

Lt. James J. Finnegan10th Fighter Squadron

Taken from the squadron's history:

April 26, 1945 - Lt. James J. Finnegan, was leading Green Flight of the 10th FS, part of a 16 P47 formation, escorting medium bombers of the 17th and a formation of French AF B26s on a mission to Schrobenhausen, Germany.

Unable to prevent casualties among the Marauders as JV 44 attacked, the Thunderbolt pilots never the less ruined the cohesion of the German interception,and left one German Me 262 diving away, hit by rounds from the bomber gunners. At the controls was none other than General Adolf Galland, leader of this elite unit (JV44). He was in turn attacked by the P-47 flown by Lt. Finnegan, leading Green Flght of the 10th FS. Galland continued to dive away, mometarily leaving the P-47 behind.

Finnegan, who had not previously seen a jet, had actually completed his tour of 127 missions and was not scheduled to fly that day. Indeed, he was only aloft in an effort to "kill time" before awaiting permission to marry!

Over the B-26s target at Schrobenhausen, Finnegan heard the warning 'Jet Bandits,' which alerted the pilots. He then spotted Galland's fighter and dived after it. Not even an Me 262 could easily escape a P-47 in a power dive, and Finnegan soon caught up with him, and got off a short burst of fire. He observed strikes to the jet's right wing root, before Galand banked left into a cloud.

Finnegan broke off the pursuit and returned home, where he duly reported the encounter, and was credited with a damaged and probable. Nobody in the group knew who the German jet pilot was; and it wasn't until years later that Finnegan found out.

Galland, having brought off an exeptional dead stick landing, had suffered a knee injury painful enough for him to be hosptalized, and was lost to JV44 Squadron for the remaining weeks of the war.

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Adolf Galland, describing the same incident:

I was shot down by a Republic P-47D flown by a man named James Finnegan, whom I met some years later and we became friends. We were intercepting bombers near Neuberg. I was leading a flight and I attacked from astern. My rockets did not fire but I poured 30 mm cannon shells into one bomber which fell in flames and flew right through the formation, hitting another. I could not tell if that bomber was finished off, so I banked around for another run, all the while my jet was receiving hits from the bomber's defensive fire. Suddenly my instrument panel disintegrated, my canopy was shattered and my right knee was struck. I was losing power and was in great pain. I thought about parachuting out but realized that might be dangerous as some of our pilots had been strafed upon exiting their jets. I flew for the deck and headed for this field at the air base, which was under attack. I cut the power to my good engine and thumped across the field. My nose wheel had been flattened, smoke was pouring from the plane. I climbed out to get away in case it should explode, only to find aircraft dropping bombs and firing rockets at me. Well, our mission netted five victories total and none of the pilots were killed.

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Looking Back...an interview in 1996 with James Finnegan who shot Adolf Galland down in April of 1945.

What fighter group were you with?

I was with the 50th Fighter Group. I had been in the European theater since May 20, 1944, but my first combat mission was on D-Day, June 6th, 1944.

Did you know of Adolf Galland during the war?

No I did not know of him. I first met him in 1979.

The way we met was through a Japanese-American student at San Jose State University. As part of his required reading in school, he read Galland's book, 'The First and The Last'. After graduation, his parents sent him to Japan as a present, and there the student met some ex-Zero pilots, who asked him to check American Air Force records of aerial actions that had taken place in the Pacific theater, as theirs were destroyed.

The Air Force sent him the reports, and when he saw how detailed they were, and was able to help the Japanese pilots, he then remembered reading Galland's book, and remembered the passage about him being shot down. He looked up Galland and wrote him to ask if he wanted to know who had shot him down. The student found my name in the action reports for that area on April 26, 1945, and deduced that it was Galland's Me-262 that I had listed as a probable.

So, then Galland and I exchanged letters and put the mission together. Galland had initially thought it was a P-51 that shot him down, but realized later that it was P-47's that were escorting the B-26 Marauders.

The two of us began corresponding, and we first actually met at an Air Force Association meeting in San Francisco in 1979. Galland wrote and said he and Bob Stanford-Tuck were invited to the meeting and would like to meet. I went to pick them up from the San Francisco airport, and we went for a few drinks.

That began our association. I last saw him in 1991 or `92 when he came to San Jose, California for an appearance, and asked if my wife and I would like to be his guests for dinner.

He and his wife had stayed at our home, and we had visited and stayed at his home in Oberwinter.

Can you describe the combat against Adolf Galland in his Me-262?

I was leading the top flight cover of P-47's that was escorting the B-26's to their target. As I gazed down, I saw 2 objects come zipping through the formation, and 2 bombers blew up immediately. I watched the 2 objects go through the bomber formation, and thought "that can't be a prop job...it's got to be one of the 262 jets."

I was at about 13,000 feet and estimated them to be at about 9-10,000. They were climbing, and I pulled a split-S towards the one that turned left, and almost ended up right on top of him - about 75 yards away!!

I gave a 3 second burst and saw strikes on the right hand engine and wing root. I was going so fast, I went right through everything, and guessed my speed at about 550 mph. I recorded it as a probable.

I was flying a D model Thunderbolt with a bubble canopy, a natural metal finish and a black nose.

The 262 had a green and brown mottled camouflage with some specs of yellow.

That turned out to be my last flight in a P-47. My total kills for the war were three, an FW-190 and an Me-109, in addition to the Me-262.

What thoughts did you have about Adolf Galland?

Galland always impressed me as being a true warrior. He loved combat and the involvement, but was not out to kill. That was just part of it.