RAF Mustang Mk III gun cam shooting at Fw 190 in turn shooting at Avro Lancaster.

[Sokol1]

 

 

From video commentaries: 

 

“GSAP footage from a North American Mustang Mark III flown by Flying Officer J. Butler of No. 65 Squadron RAF, as he shot down a Focke-Wulf Fw 190D of III/Jagdgeschwader 26 flown by Feldwebel Werner Frass, who was attempting to attack an Avro Lancaster, during a daylight raid by the RAF Bomber Command on the Gremberg railway yards at Cologne, Germany.”

 

"The attacking unit was II/JG26, led by Anton 'Toni' Hackl. The attack downed one of the pathfinder mosquitos and 6 of the Lancs, with Hackl claiming the Mossie and one of the Lancasters, as well as a 364th FG P51, the Gruppe encountered on the way to intercepting the Lancaster raid. All this per the JG26 War Diary by Donald Caldwell (though the Caldwell work stated Frass was shot down by one of the 364th Mustangs )."

[jeanba]

Thank you 

When did this happen ?

[Art-J]

December 23rd '44. There's more info in the video description.

[357th_KW]

Interestingly, Caldwell describes two JG26 losses to 364th FG Mustangs, as well as Toni Hackl’s victory (the aircraft supposedly force landing in Allied territory), all in the vicinity of Cologne.  The 8th AF records I can find don’t seem to support this, with the 364th reporting claims around Trier and Luxembourg and no losses.  
 

65 squadron had two additional damaged claims that day (and no losses reported) - it seems likely that RAF escorts were the only Mustangs present in that battle.

[Robli]

Video title says the Mustang was "too late" to protect the Lancaster, but nothing in the footage indicates that the bomber went down after this attack? I wonder why the Mustang pilot did not shoot earlier, though, to make the Fw-190 break away. Also a bit weird to see that Fw-190 was still carrying it's drop tank during the attack.