Common pseudonym: Führer's Guard
Since 2000, he has published many original articles and translated subtitles for German films and television series Chinese subtitles in military history websites such as "The Art of War", "German Military Center", sonicbbs and other military history websites, as well as "Assault" and "War History Research"
Pay attention to this headline: Twilight Study of the Gods, which will bring more little-known historical details in the future.
This is the Tot oder Lebendig "Between Life and Death Series" - Aces and Aces, moments of life and death on the battlefield
Links to past episodes to read
Tot oder Lebendig (1) - Withered White Lilies: The Death of the Number One Queen Pilot in History
"This polite and brave pilot will always be remembered by us because he was our comrade-in-arms, with excellent character, quick wit and accurate judgment. is a potential leader. ”
- Lieutenant Edward Phillips in the official war history of the 354th Fighter Group of the United States Army Air Force
On Saturday, April 15, 1944, at Boxed Air Force Base in Essex, England, pilots of the U.S. Army's 354th Fighter Group huddled early in the morning to listen to today's mission objectives.
In anticipation of the upcoming Normandy landings, the entire group was also about to be dispatched to Lashenden in Kent, where today was their last mission at the old base: a "Fighter Sweep" in The Rostock and Rügen regions of Germany.
However, the mission ended in disaster: as the group crossed the Dutch-German border, the airspace was engulfed by thick clouds, and soon the two Mustangs collided, Lieutenant Lamb crashed and died, and Lieutenant Kegbin was captured despite parachuting in time. The formation suddenly dispersed and fell apart, and the pilots had to return to their own aircraft.
On their return to Britain, their comrades found another fighter jet missing: the P-51B piloted by Lieutenant Edward E. Phillips.
On February 2, 1944, the pilots of the 354th Fighter Group were grouped, from left to right: Lieutenant William Picher, Lieutenant Franklin Hendrickson, Lieutenant Edward Phillips, and the only recipient of the Medal of Honor among the U.S. fighter pilots in the European Theater, Major James Edward and Lieutenant Loren Long
Born in New Jersey, Phillips initially served in the Coast Guard, then transferred to army air, qualified as a pilot, and was assigned to Squadron 355 in November 1943 for England. She had just finished marrying her girlfriend, Norma Griffiths, just before she left.
So, what the hell happened to him?
Turning the hour hand back to 13:00 noon that day, in the skies southeast of neutral Sweden, a large number of foreign planes roared in. Swedish air defenses began to move, and fighter jets scrambled to take off in pursuit of the invaders. But the foreign planes were too fast, and they circled up and down over Sweden.
Over the town of Laholm on Sweden's southwestern border, the sound of aircraft engines was heard, two planes could be seen shuttling between clouds, and two objects were seen falling from one of the planes. bomb? No, it's the secondary fuel tank that falls into the swamp.
An air battle was unfolding before the eyes of onlookers on the ground, and two planes were flying low against the Valley of the Lagan River, flying at high speed toward the town of Lahorm. The two planes swooped down one after another, and the sound of machine guns was heard in the air.
Suddenly a puff of smoke came out of the plane in front of it, and a transparent cockpit cover was thrown in the air and then dropped. Immediately after that, the plane began to make a final dive, and the pilot broke free from the plane and fell to the ground.
A farmer named Hilding Bengtsson was working in the fields when he heard the roar of engines and the whistle of bullets. He looked up and saw a plane crashing into him, and at the same time a figure popped out of the crash, and in a panic, he quickly jumped into the ditch.
With a violent impact, the plane crashed to the ground, flames enveloping the fuselage, followed by a large cloud of black smoke. The pilot fell about 50 meters in front of the crash site, and the parachute did not open due to the low altitude. He lay motionless, his legs unnaturally bent, and the man was dead—it was Edward Phillips.
On 15 April 1944, Lieutenant Phillips piloted the P-51B, tactical number GQ-T, serial number 322126
Bentsson recognized from the wreckage of the fuselage that it was an American plane, so he carried Phillips's body to a carriage and transported it back to the farm to bury it.
A local schoolboy also watched the whole process from a distance, and he saw a thick plume of smoke rising toward the clouds, and it wasn't long before he heard the sound of engines again, and a German fighter jet flew from the southwest at a very low altitude.
"It was a Messerschmidt," he recalls 48 years later. "I saw the Nazi logo on the side of the fuselage, and I also saw the pilot's leather helmet." German warplanes made a final turn over the city, flying west and over the sea toward Denmark.
The pilot of the Bf 109 was the 10th Squadron of the Luftwaffe 11th Fighter Wing, 21-year-old Sygfried "Napp" Rudschinat, edward Phillips was his 6th victory and the first P-51 he shot down.
However, the Luftwaffe's operational archives do not mention the location of the victory. It may be that the Germans did not want to disclose that the engagement actually took place in Swedish airspace.
Siegfried Rudhynat piloted the "White 1" Bf 109 G-6 on 15 April 1944 from Aalborg Ost in Denmark and shot down Lieutenant Phillips near the town of Laholm in Sweden
Rudsinat shot down two more P-51s over Denmark over the next month, ending up with a career record of 12, including two B-17s, two B-24s, one B-26, one P-47, one Spitfire and one Typhoon. He was fortunate enough to survive the war and died in Hamburg in 2001 at the age of 78.
Rudshenat with his White 1 plane, photographed at East Aalborg Air Base on 15 May 1944
In the summer of 1992, a local historical memorial group in Sweden excavated the wreckage of Lieutenant Phillips's landplane. At the crash site of that year, Svensfat Farm, the wreckage of Aircraft 43-12126 was dug up from the soft mud piece by piece. It was not an easy task, but the Swedes meticulously completed it, and some repairs were carried out afterwards.
On April 15, 1994, the Swedes built the monument in honor of Phillips where he fell. The inscription reads: "In memory of Lieutenant Edward E.Phillips, the pilot who crashed here on April 15, 1944".
Soon after, the Swedes found Phillips' wife, Norma. In 1997, Norma and her brother-in-law, Frank Phillips, flew from the United States to Sweden and arrived at the monument at the crash site. They also looked at the fragments of the Phillips landline, and saw Hildin Bentsson, who witnessed the Phillips crash, and learned the whole process of what happened that year.
So far, after 53 years, Norma has once again "seen" her husband, whom she has not heard from since 1944, and knows his desperate experience before the last moments of his life on that gloomy afternoon.
At this moment Edward Phillips could finally rest in peace.