....Lt. Gerber could not have been more wrong in his assessment, several Messerschmitts were lost due to AA fire. Battery 'A' of the 455th AAA AW Bn (M) was stationed near [ttersdorf, just south¬west of Saarlautern. Between 09.16 and 09.20 hrs this battery engaged eight aircraft of a flight of20 enemy aircraft consisting of Bf 109s,Ju 88s and Me 210s approaching from a north-easterly direction at 100 ft altitude.55 This was the formation of Stab and IV/JG 53. The aircraft appeared to be flying in a loose gaggle, strung out over the area between Kcrlingen and Felsberg. The Messerschmitts started to strafe the positions of the 455th AAA AW Bn and 739th Field Artillery Bn. During this action a personal duel developed when one Bf 109 strafing west along the road fiom Felsberg to Boulay passed over the gun section engaging it, and circled around for another strafing run. The gun section was No. 1 M51 quad of'A' Battery manned by Pfc Flenory Griggs. The aircraft was immediately brought down 200 yards from the gun section. Billy M. Traylor of the 739th FA Bn remembers this event vividly: "I was in the pram-tent taking a crap when I heard small arms fire picking up from the front. The rule was everyone shoots at low-flying
prepared. This had happened before and I wasn't too concerned and thought I'd just finish my job. The small arms fire gets so heavy and close I decide I better get out and see what's going on. Just as I step outside the pram-tent, I see a German fighter coming right straight at me about 300 yards away. I could see the fire from his guns, I hit the ground (snow) with my pants about halfway up, keeping my eye on that plane. It quit Sring before it got to me and 1 could see smoke coming from his engine. He banked the plane sharply and
into my battery area (right in the middle of it)
and made a perfect belly-landing. By the time I got to the plane, die pilot had been shot and his flight-suit taken. He was lying in a pool of blood in his longhandles with one foot on the wing. He had coal black hair, about 20 years old or less, and
Smith,* shot the pilot as he got out of his plane, a Me 109. A Grave Registration Unit picked up the body and the next day officers of Corps Headquarters came to our unit to investigate. They didn't like it because a German had been brought in dead in his underwear. There was talk of a court-martial, but the idea was dropped when told the pilot came in firing all his guns. I think we lost one man, hit in the leg, and I never saw that....