World War II German Jet Pilot Parachutes in for Mom’s Pancakes

“All hell broke loose. Pieces of fuselage and wing were flying all around us, along with smaller pieces that looked like confetti. Three jets following one another in 10-second intervals zoomed up from the six o’clock position, and then dove on the formation. The first and second jets barely cleared the lead Marauder…The third jet would have collided with (Lt. James) Hansen’s bomber, but at the last second, the German dove his jet under the Marauder’s right propeller. Half the jet’s rudder flew off, and the aircraft fell away.” — Lt. Col. Louis S. Rehr, B-26F-1 Marauder bomber pilot, April 20, 1945.

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Young Sergeant Eduard Schallmoser, age 21, from Memmingen, in southern Germany, 60 miles west of Munich, found himself at the very epicenter of World War Two, aviation history as a fresh recruit pilot flying the fearsome, Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a Schwalbe (“Swallow,” the bird) jet fighter from Munich-Riem airfield, with the famous Jagdverband 44 (JV 44, or Fighter Unit 44) “Squadron of Experts,” commanded by Lieutenant General Adolph “Dolfo” Galland, an esteemed, fighter ace with 97 confirmed kills to his credit. In fact, Schallmoser was handpicked as Galland’s new wingman!

He was initially assigned to aircraft “White 5,” one of only 12 fighters flown by the elite squadron in March 1945, armed with four Mk 108 30mm cannon in the nose. It was finished in overall RLM 82 Light Green (actually, medium green) paint on the upper surfaces, over RLM 76 Light Blue (actually, pale bluish-gray), in a very simple, monotone paint scheme.

Me-262A-1a #111745 “White 5” of JV 44, Munich-Reim, April 1945, Eduard Schallmoser. Artwork by Don Holliday.

Schallmoser and Krupinski — Eduard Schallmoser, and Captain Walter Krupinksi (197 kills) with Eduard Schallmoser. Photo credits: German Luftwaffe.

At this late stage of the war, pilot training was relatively poor, and they were being rushed into combat literally unprepared for the harsh circumstances. Schallmoser was a decent pilot, but woefully inexperienced for the fierce dogfighting over central Germany as the Third Reich was collapsing all around them.

On April 4, 1945, young Eduard scored his first aerial victory, actually the first recorded kill for the entire JV 44 squadron, when he accidentally rammed an American P-38L Lighting twin-engine fighter, one of 12 encountered over Riem, flown by Lieutenant William Randle.

This was the result of Schallmoser’s excessive speed and carelessness at the controls of his jet fighter, and his inexperience in operating the gun controls in a timely manner. His Me 262 jet was very fast (540 mph), but the 30mm cannon had short, 23-inch barrels and a very short range of only 600 meters, so the pilots had to be quite skillful with the timing of their shots. Eduard managed to land his damaged aircraft, while Randle parachuted over southern Germany and became a prisoner of war for the next five weeks.

Me-262A-1 — Eduard Schallmoser’s “White 5” Me 262A-1a jet in action, April 17, 1945. Artwork by Hansen Fine Art.

On April 16, 1945, Schallmoser scored his second kill, a B-26F Marauder bomber over Landsberg am Lech, by hitting it with his own jet fighter, and on the very next day, April 17th, he brought down a B-17G Flying Fortress bomber by hitting it. So, his first three confirmed kills were all due to close, aerial contact, earning him the squadron nickname of “The Rammer.”

In the B-17 incident, an American gunner, Technical Sergeant Murdock K. List of the 305th Bomb Group, shot out both of Schallmoser’s engines and shattered the canopy. Eduard lost control of his fighter and accidentally crashed into another B-17G, flown by Lieutenant Brainard H. Harris, bringing it down with no parachutes and no survivors.

Schallmoser was pinned in the wreckage of “White 5,” his primary aircraft, as the right wing ripped away, and the jet went into a deadly spin, and he was finally sucked out into the subzero, cold air. His head struck the fuselage as he fell, knocking him briefly unconscious, but he soon recovered, pulled the ripcord, landed in a nearby field, and caught a ride with a passing car.

Colonel Klaus Neumann, JV 44 pilot (with 37 kills, including five in the Me 262A), later stated, “Schallmoser rolled just slightly left, and then he crashed into this bomber…I thought for sure that Schallmoser was gone…He showed up, with a bandage on his head, and his arm in a sling. He had dislocated his left shoulder. Someone said that his new nickname was ‘The Ghost,’ because he came back from the dead. Oberst (Colonel Günther) Lützow (missing in action on April 24th) said, ‘No, he is the Rammer,’ and the name stuck with him. You know that he flew the next day? Incredible!”

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First Lieutenant Hans “Specker” Grünberg, a respected ace with 82 aerial victories in 550 missions, including five kills in the Me 262A, was also on this mission, and recounted that, “The ‘Rammer’…I think that he simply became tunnel-visioned, too focused, wanting the kill at all costs…How he survived that crash, and all the others, still puzzles me. They say that God protects drunks and fools. The Rammer was both.” Soon after this very dramatic incident, Eduard Schallmoser was issued “White 11” as his next assigned aircraft, sometimes erroneously referred to as “White 14.” Friday, April 20, 1945, was Adolf Hitler’s 56th and final birthday, before his suicide in Berlin, and Schallmoser, still flying as Adolf Galland’s (in “White 3”) wingman, helped to intercept a squadron of B-26F-1 Marauder bombers from the 323rd Bomb Group directly over Eduard’s own hometown of Memmingen. He was actually born in Aying, Bavaria, 74 miles farther east, as the oldest of three boys in the Schallmoser family. B-26F-1 Marauder bombers from the 323rd Bomb Group over France. Photo credit: U.S. Air Force. For the American B-26 crews, it was supposed to be a four-minute bombing run, flying straight and level, but Adolf Galland, Eduard Schallmoser, and one additional JV 44 jet pilot came blazing in, and the keen-eyed Galland instantly blasted one Marauder out of the sky, with no parachutes from the stricken bomber. It was Galland’s 99th aerial victory. First Lieutenant James Vining, a B-26F-1 pilot only 20 years old, and on his 40th combat mission, fired his fixed, forward-firing, M2 .50-caliber machine guns very briefly at a Me 262 jet, striking the left engine, but then his own bomber was hit by cannon fire, and his leg was severely injured. Vining just barely made it to Uberherrn, Germany, where he crash-landed in an open field. B-26 pilot Lieutenant Colonel Louis S. Rehr later recounted that, “All hell broke loose. Pieces of fuselage and wing were flying all around us, along with smaller pieces that looked like confetti. Three jets following one another in 10-second intervals zoomed up from the six o’clock position and then dove on the formation. The first and second jets barely cleared the lead Marauder…The third jet (Schallmoser’s) would have collided with (Lt. James M.) Hansen’s bomber, but at the last second, the German dove his jet under the Marauder’s right propeller. Half the jet’s rudder flew off, and the aircraft fell away.” Indeed, Eduard Schallmoser’s guns jammed, and his jet was hit by .50-caliber rounds from a B-26, but he passed closely enough to clip one of the Marauder’s propellers, which tore off most of his own rudder, forcing him to bail out high over Memmingen. Incredibly enough, he landed in his own mother’s back yard, entangled in her outdoor clothesline, with an injured (sprained) knee! His mother, Johanna Reidmaier Schallmoser, age 44, helped him down and then tried to telephone the local hospital for help, but couldn’t get through. So, she cleaned and bandaged her son and made a large meal of pancakes to help him regain his strength. He was briefly treated at the hospital the next day and returned to his unit, JV 44, on April 25, 1945. World War Two parachute deployment. Photo credit: blogspot.com. Sergeant Eduard Schallmoser and his mother, April 20, 1945.Photo credit: Pinterest. On the very next day, April 26, 1945, with beautiful, clear weather, Lieutenant General Adolf “Dolfo” Galland, now with 102 aerial victories to his credit, scrambled with five more jet pilots to intercept a formation of American B-26F Marauder bombers near Neuburg in his new, Me 262A-1a/R7 Schwalbe fighter (but not “White 3” this time), armed with four 30mm Mk 108 cannon and two dozen R4M Orkan (“Hurricane”) 55mm, unguided, air-to-air rockets. One B-26 directly in front of him exploded in a blinding fireball after his initial cannon burst, and he quickly targeted a second bomber, inflicting heavy enough damage that it was unable to return home. These were his 103rd and 104th confirmed kills of the war (plus nine unconfirmed kills), and his sixth and seventh aerial kills as a jet pilot. Young Eduard “Rammer” Schallmoser, now flying a rocket-armed Me 262A-1a/R7, also destroyed a B-26F Marauder in this same engagement, using his 55mm R4M rockets. It was his fourth and final aerial kill of the war. Moments later, Galland’s jet was hit by .50-caliber gunfire from a stricken B-26F, just as American P-47D Thunderbolt fighters arrived on-scene, and his Me 262 was pummeled by a hail of gunfire from First Lieutenant James J. Finnegan of the 10th Fighter Squadron. After taking multiple hits from the American fighter, further damaging his right engine, then the left engine, Adolf Galland swooped down to his airfield, crash-landed under heavy gunfire with a blown nose-wheel tire, and had to leap away from his stricken aircraft into a bomb crater to avoid being strafed. After this violent crash-landing, Galland was hospitalized at picturesque Tegernsee, 30 miles south of Munich, for his wounded knee, and Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich “Heinz” Bär (with 220 confirmed aerial kills) took over operational command of the squadron, although Galland remained officially in overall command from his hospital room until Germany surrendered. In April 1945, B-26F Marauders bombed not only the railroad marshaling yard at Memmingen (April 20th), but nearby Memmingen Air Base, built in 1935, the home base for German Dornier Do 17Z and Heinkel He 111H-20 twin-engine bombers. It remained part of the German Luftwaffe (Air Force) until 2003, housing Tornado IDS strike fighters then. It’s currently known as the Allgäu Airport Memmingen, with the highest altitude (2,077 feet) of any commercial airport in Germany, served daily by five Boeing 737s of Ryanair, and several other airlines. Eduard “Rammer” Schallmoser miraculously survived the war, later emigrated to Argentina, as many Germans did, and died on October 7, 1991, at Oberá, Misiones Province, in northern Argentina, at the age of 68. An excellent, Spanish-language book entitled “The Luftwaffe in Argentina” by Horacio Rivara (2008), details that, “1,000 scientists and more than 300 Luftwaffe pilots entered Argentina secretly and illegally, as part of the largest intelligence operation in the history of this country…Adolf Galland, a general at the age of 29 (until 1955, as a test pilot in Argentina), and brave enough to face Hitler…(and) Eduard Schallmoser, recruited for the war…with the stories of the protagonists’ lives more incredible than any fiction.”