American Raiders: The Race to Capture the Luftwaffeâ??s Secrets

19. Melun-Villaroche

[ 262 ] MELUN-VILLAROCHE Watson flew into Lager Lechfeld on May 29 to take a look at how things were going. He discovered to his surprise that Sergeant Freiburger and Herr Caroli had nearly finished putting ten airplanes into flying condition. Bob Strobell, who had arrived at Lechfeld only two days earlier, cautioned Watson that he personally didn’t feel very comfortable with the situation. Caroli had no records to show how many flying hours each engine had accumulated since its last major overhaul. “Every engine has to be pulled and thoroughly gone over,” he told Watson, “before we want to move any airplanes out of here.” Watson had complete trust in Strobell’s judgement and agreed with his recommendation. On Wednesday, May 30, Karl Bauer took Watson on a brief instructional ride in Vera, the two-seat trainer. Watson, who had flown the Bell YP-59 experimental jet at Wright Field, found the transition from prop to jet turbine uneventful, but he liked the feel of the Me-262. When he landed he told Strobell he was going to need an aircraft soon to check out the route between Lechfeld and MelunVillaroche . The airplane Watson was going to fly for that purpose was an A-model fighter, the last one to be reconditioned out of fifty or so damaged Me-262s littering Lager Lechfeld and its nearby forests. What remained were hulks good for spare parts, but little else. Freiburger had not given this particular airplane a name yet, so its nose remained 19 Melun-Villaroche [ 263 ] graffiti free. It was simply aircraft number 3332, the last four digits of its German manufacturer’s serial number, the Werknummer 113332. On Saturday, June 2, the 54th ADS redeployed from the Messerschmitt administration building at Lager Lechfeld to a new area of operation. Lieutenant Smith reported in the Unit History for the Month of June 1945 that “We were all quite happy to be leaving the large, drab, grey building in Augsburg. Living conditions were far from good, though we did have showers. . . . We departed from Augsburg at 0645 hours and arrived at our new destination in Mühlacker at 1530 hours the same day. Captain McGuire and M/Sgt Preston had everything quite in order when we arrived, having obtained local German labor to clean up the buildings for us.” Freiburger and his men were released by Watson and accompanied their squadron to its new location at Mühlacker. But Freiburger returned on June 10 on his own initiative to watch the departure of the jets for Melun, France. He wanted to see “his” jets fly just one more time. On Sunday, June 3, Watson took 3332 up for a brief test flight. It checked out fine. Gerhard Caroli had the aircraft refueled and gone over one final time, and on Monday morning, June 4, Watson took off intending to fly directly from Lechfeld to Melun-Villaroche.1 His takeoff was normal, the plane climbing at 270 mph to 9,000 feet pressure altitude with full throttles. He encountered what he called “a rolling moment to the left” and corrected it by slightly increasing the power of the left engine. Once he got to his cruising altitude he applied full power for one minute, achieving a maximum speed of 500 mph, and then reduced power to normal cruising speed of 360 mph. This flight was Watson’s first and only opportunity to check the airplane’s characteristics before moving the remaining aircraft out of Lechfeld. If there was something to be learned he wanted to learn it then,when there was still a chance to pass information to his pilots. He checked the operation of the leading edge slats which extended when he slowed to between 240 and 260 Kph, depending on the angle of attack of the Melun-Villaroche [ 264 ] airplane. “At no time did engine exhaust temperatures exceed 650 degrees Centigrade,” he noted in his postmission report. “With wheels extended and full flaps and engines throttled to 5,000 RPM at 5,000 feet” at 125 mph the airplane exhibited normal stall characteristics. Watson continued to check various power settings and fuel consumption at different altitudes. He found the Me-262 to be an honest airplane with no apparent hidden characteristics which could spell doom for an inexperienced pilot. Watson understood that all of his pilots, no matter how much time they had in the P...