Chuck Yeager evades capture

5th March 1944: A talented young fighter pilot has a lucky escape when he is bounced by three FW190s

B-24 Liberators of the 458th Bomb Group are escorted by P-51 Mustangs of the 352nd Fighter Group, 1944

‘Flying Fortresses battling their way through snow and a temperature of nearly "60 below", blasted a path through flocks of German fighters Saturday March 4, to bomb Berlin for the first time in daylight. It was a gruelling ordeal, with cloud often five miles high. "But it was easier than anyone expected said the jubilant crews as they climbed from their planes on their return. Associated Press Photo shows: The crew of the lead ship; "I'll Be Around"; and first to bomb the target walk from their plane to the interrogation room.

A damaged P-51 Mustang (QP-B) of the 334th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group, flown by Captain Duane Beeson under repair inside a Nissen hangar, 5 March 1944.

On 4th March Flight Officer Yeager had scored his first kill while escorting bombers on the first USAAF raid on Berlin.

Captain Charles E. Yeager, later in 1944.

On 5th March 1944 20-year-old Yeager was a fighter escort to bombers on a mission to hit a Luftwaffe airfield in southern France.

He was flying P-51D ‘Glamourous Glen’ named after after his girlfriend, Glennis Faye Dickhouse, who became his wife in February 1945.

A German image of FW190s in flight in 1943.

The young pilot’s illustrious future came perilously close to a premature end¹.