By now the Wolfpack, flying out of Boxted, Essex–and accounting for more than 400 kills–had developed P-47 tactics to a high art, diving to the attack and zooming back up to safety. From that strategy evolved group tactics: a lead squadron flying low, covered by the second at medium altitude, with the third high up in reserve. Spreading out ahead of the bombers to sweep the skies clean of German fighters–the “Zemke Fan”– the 66th Fighter Group presented an awesome array of aerial firepower.

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On June 27 Gabreski downed a Bf-109 to match Bob Johnson’s score, and on July 5 he shot down another Messerschmitt near Evreaux. So Gabreski had 28 aerial kills (and 2 1/2 on the ground) and the ETO had a new high scorer. But like Johnson before him, “Gabby” was nearing the end of his tour. On his last day, July 20, he took time off from a ramrod to Frankfurt to strafe Bassinheim Airfield and set a parked Heinkel bomber afire. “At that time our policy was to make one pass on an airdrome and get out,” he recalled, “because the flak gunners were always ready and waiting if you tried to come back for more. But I figured the flak had been so light that I could get away with another pass.”

Coming back in right down on the deck, Gabreski saw his tracers pass over another He-111. Without thinking, he dropped the nose–and the P-47’s big paddle prop clipped the ground. With no hope of returning to England, Gabreski bellied into a wheat field and was captured. (He went on to fly North American F-86 Sabre jets over Korea–as Mahurin’s commanding officer–downing 6 1/2 MiGs.)

Of the 56th’s original aces, only Zemke and Schilling remained. Offered command of the 479th Fighter Group–P-38 Lightnings–Schilling refused (”Hell no, not P-38s”) and was stunned when Zemke took it instead. “There was only one group Dave wanted…and deserved to command,” said Zemke. “And for me there was need of a new challenge, a new purpose…[but]…behind me was the greatest command of my service life.” (By giving up his P-47, Zemke shortened his war. He scored two kills with the 479th, bringing his final aerial tally to 17 3/4, but on October 30, on escort duty over Germany, the North American P-51 Mustang he was flying that day came apart in a thunderstorm. Zemke got out safely, only to be captured.)

Zemke’s departure marked the Wolfpack’s darkest chapter. On September 17 the group was handed the dirtiest ground-attack work of all: anti-aircraft suppression in support of the ill-fated Allied airborne invasion of Holland (Operation Market Garden). In two days of dueling with flak sites, Schilling’s men took out 34 emplacements, but 17 P-47s were destroyed and a dozen damaged. Two pilots became prisoners-of-war and four were killed. The group’s old nemesis, JG 26, got through the dazed P-47 pilots the next day to knock down 17 helpless troop transports.

Fortunately, October 1944 was a quiet time for the Eighth Air Force. The Luftwaffe was saving its precious planes and fuel reserves for the grosse Schlag–the “Great Blow,” or Ardennes offensive, in which the Germans hoped to prevent the invasion of their fatherland. As they planned, foul weather initially curtailed Allied fighter cover. Not until December 23 could Schilling lead his men over the battleground, where he lost track of two consecutive enemy formations in the clouds. He angrily took his ground controllers to task, and they replied, “Don’t worry about it! There’s bigger game on this heading!”

There was. A large enemy formation was located below and 40-plus more were flying ahead, including new Focke-Wulf Fw-190D “long-nosed” high-altitude fighters. Sending the 61st and 63rd down to attack the Germans below, Schilling brought the 62nd around behind the group that was ahead. “I managed to hit the right rear Me-109 with about a 20-degree deflection shot at a range of about 700 yards,” Schilling recalled. As the Messerschmitt dropped off, Schilling moved up on the next in line, setting it afire. “I then picked another and fired at about 1,000 yards and missed as he broke right and started to dive for the deck. At about 17,000 feet I had closed to about 500 yards and fired, resulting in a heavy concentration of strikes, and the pilot bailed out.”

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