In his e-mail he stated: "I`m researching the airwar over my village Legden, so I have found alot of information about him. It�s very hard to do a research like this over here,so I�ll hope to get some information from you."

2nd Lt. Denis J. Alison was shot down by a Me-262 on 1 Nov. 1944 near my village, Legden, in the vicinity of Ahaus (most reports included vincity of Enschede or Lingen area) during Mission No 202-203. German Info sources state that he was killed during the crash, the aircraft was 99% destroyed. He was buried in Legden in the Roman-Catholic churchyard. He was the only USAAF pilot who died here. He was buried next to RAF crews.

After the war his remains were moved together with the bodies of the other airmen to Reichswald war cemetery in Cleve. After this his remains were lost and never been found again. In the 50�s there were investigations to find him and two of the graves at Cleve were opened, but the remains which were taken to examination center were those of two RAF Crew members, who were killed and originaly buried in Legden.

Alison was flying P-51D serial No: 44 - 14378, coded LC - A and named "Hookin Bull". He flew on missions: 161 165 166 167 168 172 173 174 175 178 180 184 186 192 193 195 200 201 202-203.

What he is needs to know is:

a) Is there a picture of his plane available? ( Note: I don't have any in the Hudgens Collection.)
b) Are there any reports of his fellows from the briefing and what happened during the sortie.(He has encounter reports, but no personal accounts.)
c) Denis J.Alison was given a air medal and one cluster, what was he awarded these for?
d) I can�t find any information belong the listed mission numbers, can you please help me for that? (Note: I have told Martin about the Mission Reports in "King's Cliffe")
e) On mission number 167, August 27th 1944 Alison had an early return - for what reason?
f) Encounter reports showed that some pilots (Lt Flowers of the77th,and Capt.Jackson and Lt.Nolan of the 62ndFS) took pictures of the downed jet and its pilot in his chute - are this pictures anywhere available?

I hope, that you can give me answers for my questions. If I can be helful to you, don�t hesitate to contact me. My file of Denis J.Alison is really large, so I might be able to give you the information, you do not have. I have a Picture of him in front of a plane (I think it�s a P-40,although Alison is wearing a weapon, that indicates that he had been already in his operational Unit.

Martin can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]

The following is the EXACT info on the back of the photographs :
"Pete and myself in front of our girlfriend showing her four Maltese crosses. This was taken about 0800 Apr. 10, 1945 and when she came home in the afternoon we have another cross to paint on her."
Obviously this was taken sometime after/during the aircraft's prep, as you can see the tanks already on and ready to go, etc. Now, as you can see, there are four A-T-A victory marks (the Maltese crosses). Do you think these were the total number of victories for this aircraft (including when the A/C was "Jean" and/or anything else it might have temporarily been)? I have a feeling these include all the confirmed and unconfirmed victories the a/c had to this time, both Jennings and North's.
I'm actually working on possibly finding out who was the pilot of the Me-262 that North shot down in this A/C. He had, apparently, the two confirmed victories, a few unconfirmed and many others on the ground. There was also a pilot named McCully who got a victory on 8/12/44 in this A/C. So far I have found three pilots that served with this particular aircraft, though I can only find the name changed twice. Did 20th FG/77th FS members paint unverified victory marks on their aircraft?
Peter McDermott is, of course, the guy on the left, I would like to know who is the other crewman?
JG-7 lost 27 Me-262s that day, and from my research it seems that that was the unit the 20th tangled with during that mission. It would appear that Feldwebel Schwartz of 1./JG-7 may have been the Me-262 to go down in Berlin. Maybe. There may have been others, but so far my research leads me to believe it was him. He did not survive the crash. Now, there was a rather infamous victory during this mission, but by who I do not know. Oberleutnant Franz Schall, Kapitan of Staffelkapitan of 10./JG-7 crashed in a field near Parchim after shooting down a Mustang due to probable battle damage. He crashed into a bomb crater and was killed. Pretty famous German ace. As far as I can find, there were 4 P-51s lost in the engagement, three of which I have documented. I have no idea who the fourth was, but probably not 20th FG pilot(?). Unless the P-51 shot down was from another group, with the current records available I'd have to guess he either shot down Peterburs or Stewart. Maybe a pilot that was there that is still with us could answer that? Schall was killed shortly after knocking out the P-51, but that's all I know (at this time). Gefreiter Heim, also of 1./JG-7 was also shot down in/near Berlin. Of the 27 Me-262 downed that day, the 20th FG had 5 of them.

"Jean' and her crew, yours truly on the left, Capt Jennings in center and Pete. Taken 21 Feb. 1945"
This is, of course, the same A/C as above, P-51 serial #44-13798, coded LC-W. S/Sgt Peter McDermott was the crew chief for both North and Jennings.
I wish the actual photo had been a bit bigger...you can only enlarge it one or two times before it really starts to lose definition.
I think mystery man must be a 77th crewman, probably the Assistant Crew Chief or the like. Does anyone have any information on either McDermott or the mystery crewman...one of them was the source of these pics, however, and is no longer with us.

Bill Sharpe Replied: "Firstly. Tech Sgt Lawrence.E. Messier appears to be the guy you are looking for from the 77th. Have a close look on Page 44 of "Kings Cliffe" and examine ENGINEERING 'D' FLIGHT. Also in the picture is Tech.Sgt. Pete Mc Dermott."

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This photograph is not the greatest, not even alot of digital editing seems to help it. It looks like that there are 22 of the markings that look sort of like blocks (they're hard to make out, might be top hats perhaps?). There's another two below the top two rows that look a little different, but might just be my eyes playing tricks on me. The there are the umbrella/waterdrop type marks below the top hats (or whatever they are). There's two rows of four each.
How would you call these? Top Hats escort missions, and the other four assault/attack missions (i.e. loco missions)?

Bill Sharpe replied: "On the P-38, the following are clarification of Mission Markings: The Top Hat and Cane depicts an ESCORT Mission; The Witches broom, a FIGHTER SWEEP; Bombs depict the 'Droop Snoot' missions; Steam Engines TRAINS and a Boat either a river Barge or sea going Ship. I recall on one P-38 a COW and on another a NISSAN HUT."

On the back of the photo is simply written "Me". Again, the same crewman as in the picture above. I would like to know his identity and the serial number, pilot and squadron coding for the P-38 as well.

"On left, front to rear, T/Sgt George Henry, crew chief, Sgt Arthur W. Other, (neighbor - just in for the picture), S/Sgt David H. Raynard, (also muscling in),�� and on the right, Sgt Douglas D. Sparks, Armourer on the 'Bucket of Bolts'. The round object in the center is a little gift to Adolph and his gang"

My questions are: what is the red (?) circle on the A/C at far left. I am searching for any information on the men in the pictures of course, and their current contact info (if they're open to talking to folks bout it, etc).

Also, what A/C did Raynard and Other service (if any...they say neighbors, so I am assuming they're another 20th/77th or possibly another squadron in the 20th's crew...or they might be from a HQ unit or the like, or maybe they are totally unrelated to the group, perhaps neighbors in the sense of having a billet near them?

It would be nice to find out what mission this was taken before, as well as the a/c info and serial numbers.
--Syd Edwards replied: The round area you mention may well be an area where the paint has been removed and the bare aluminum polished. This allowed the pilot to see whether the nose gear was retracted. There is also a photograph of a similar oval on Lt. Harry Bisher's P-38 in Bill Hess' book "Aces and Wingmen II (Vol.2)".

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