Lt. Fieg Downs German ME109

(Put down the blunderbuss -- this did not happen recently.)

Following is a December 1944 newspaper article emailed from Steven Fieg about his dad, Lothar "Bud" Fieg Jr.

On a recent bomber escort mission to Germany, 1st Lt. Lothar Fieg, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lothar Fieg of 10 North Sixth, shot down an ME109 while helping to disperse a large formation of enemy fighters that was attempting to attack the Flying Fortresses and Liberators.  His victory was one of the 23 that the 352nd fighter group, based in England, scored that day to raise its total bag of enemy aircraft destroyed, in the air and on the ground, to more than 540.

"I was leading a flight of four P-51 Mustangs, escorting the heavies to their target at Merseburg, an important synthetic oil-producing center," said Lt. Fieg.  "The heavies had bombed their objectives and had started the withdrawal when we saw about 25 ME109s below.  We were at about 18,000 feet when the enemy fighters were observed heading for the bomber formations and we dropped down to head them off.  I picked out an ME109, fired a short burst, but missed.  My second burst was effective, and the nazi fighter went down, out of control and smoking."

Three weeks previously the 352nd established a new record for the number of enemy aircraft destroyed by a single group by bagging 38 nazi aircraft while escorting heavy bombers to the same target.

Lt. Fieg, who pilots the Mustang 'Denali,' is a veteran of 78 combat missions over enemy territory.  During his long combat career he has been decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross with an Oak Leaf cluster and an Air Medal with four Oak Leaf clusters for outstanding achievement.  A cluster indicates an additional award of the same decoration.

A 1937 graduate of OHS, Lt. Fieg attended the University of Alaska prior to entering service.

Score one more for the Fiegs!