Richard Gomez Candelaria vs.
               Schulungslehrgang "Elbe"
                         photo of  Lt Richard Gomez Candelaria

                                    Written by Santiago A. Flores
 
 

On April 7th, 1945, elements of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, Air Divisions of
the 8th Air Force bomber command with their escorts flew across the European continent to bomb their assigned targets in Germany, as the formation of Boeing B-17s and Consolidated B-24’s were heading towards their targets, allied radio listening posts were picking up the instructions that were being issue to
the German fighters,that were taking off to intercept the attacking force. 

What they heard was the voice of a German woman, telling the German
fighter pilots to engage and destroy the much hated “Viermot” (four-engine bombers), that had brought death and destruction to the Fatherland, and to avenge the death of their love ones, by ramming into the incoming bombers !!! 

What the allies were listening to, were the instructions that were being
given to about 120 BF-109G’s and K’s of “Schulungslehrgang Elbe”(training Course Elbe), a volunteer unit formed from inexperience volunteer fighter pilots, under the command of Oberst. Hajo Herrman (An ex-bomber pilot, who later flew as a night fighter pilot, the creator of the “Wilde Sau” method of night fighting and current commander of 9 Fliegerdivision, with 9 allied bombers to
his credit, he would later be captured by the Soviets and held Prisioner
of war, for about ten years). 

His plan was to launch these light weight fighter, unarmored, virtually
unarmed, with only one MG 131 with 50 rounds in the cowling, with the objective of ramming into a US bomber, using their propellers to hit the tail of the bomber, and hopefully the German pilot would bail out and return to base. 

Oberst Hermann plan was to inflict a massive number of losses on the
bomber formations, to cause the allies to suspend temporary daylight bombing, so the Luftwaffe could bring in more Me-262’s jet fighters into service. 

A majority of the German pilots were inexperience, that groups were led
by experience pilots, to help guide them towards the bomber formations, while the Me-262’s would take care of the escorting fighters. 

By the end of the day, about 53 “Elbe” aircraft had been shot-down by
the defending fighter escorts, with the death of about 30 to 40 pilots. (Other sources put the death toll to 77 German pilots). In return about 13 bombers were reported loss to ramming attacks while three more were lost to Me-262’s and one to flak. (While the German people were told in the army bulletins that
64 bombers, had been brought down by ramming!!) 

The only losses suffered by the defending fighters were 5 North American
P-51 Mustangs, three
to friendly fire (One pilot being killed and two taken POW), plus two
more lost in reported bad
weather near Bremen, with both pilots being killed, while German sources
claim that three
P-51’s, were shot-down by German fighters. 

The most notable “Elbe “ pilot was Unteroffizer Heinrich Rosner of
III/JG.102, who brought
down two B-24’s of the 389th Bomb Group, he rammed the B-24 flown by the
group commander
Colonel John B. Herboth, this collided with the B-24 flown by the deputy
group commander, as
both bombers went down, Rosner managed to bail out, we he woke up, he
had landed among
farm buildings and after receiving medical aid he returned to Stendal,
one of the 29 pilots of the
operations participants> 
 

Transfer interrupted!

s lay Dead or Wounded in hospitals in Northern Germany.

In return the American fighter pilots claimed the destruction of 58
German aircraft shot-down 5
probables and 11 damaged, among the top scorers was a certain 1st
Lieutenant of possible
Hispanic heritage that would become the only “Ace” for his fighter
squadron on that particular
day against the “Elbe” group, and who came close to be an Ace in a Day. 

This honor fell upon 1st Lieutenant Richard Gomez Candelaria of the
435th Fighter Squadron of
the 479th Fighter Group, who would claim four BF-109’s and one Me-262
probable. 
 

                               THE TOP SCORER

Candelaria, was born on July 14th, 1922 in Pasadena, California, he
joined the U.S. Army
Reserves, and was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. and received his wings on
February 8th, 1944 at
Williams Field, Arizona, he joined the 479th Fighter Group on September
22nd, 1944. 

This particular fighter group, was assigned to the 8th Air Force since
its arrival in May 1944 in
Scotland, the unit initially flew the Lockheed P-38J twin-engine
fighter, the group was assigned
to the 65th Fighter Wing and was the last fighter group to be assigned
to the VIII Fighter
Command. 

They would be assigned to the 2nd Bomb Division, and finally to the 2nd
Air Division with the
65th Fighter Wings in January 1945. 

The 479th made its first operational mission on May 26th, 1944 with two
fighter sweeps along
the Dutch coast, while flying the Lockheed P-38J Lightnings from May to
October 1944 the 479th
would claim 52-2-13 German aircraft in the air and 102 destroyed and 66
damaged on the
ground. 

With the arrival of the North American P-51D’s and K’s, its reported
that Lt. Candelaria was
assigned a P-51K squadron code J2-K, s/n.44-11755, which was named “My
Pride And Joy”,
his crew chief was T/Sgt. Leslie A. Mullen and the armourer was Sgt.
Morris Gohring. 

Lt. Candelaria opened his scorecard on December 5th, 1944 on a mission
to support the bombers
to hit targets in the Berlin and Munster area, a total of 89-13-20 where
claimed in the air with 2
damaged aircraft on the ground. 

While US losses were 18 P-51’s with 10 pilots listed as KIA and 8 taken
POW (10 P-51’s were
lost to enemy fighters and 1 to ground fire). On that day Lt. Candelaria
shot-down 2 FW-190’s,
about NW of Berlin. While his squadron, the 435th shot-down 3 more
German aircraft, 1
damaged and one damaged Me-262 on the ground. 

On March 3rd, 1945, Lt. Candelaria with Lt. B.C. Means attacked German
aircraft on the ground
at Dummer Lake. Candelaria claimed 3 BF-109’s damaged on the ground,
while Lt. Means
claimed a BF-109 destroyed on the ground. 

But his big day would be on April 7th while protecting the bombers from
Schulungslehrgang
Elbe , while other sources claim was Sonderkommando Elbe. 
 

                 “ I HAVE A BUNCH OF GERMANS CORNERED!”

This statement is reportedly what Lt. Candelaria radioed to his squadron
mates on that particular
day as noted in the book: “The Last flight of the Luftwaffe” by Adrian
Weir: 

“…..one of the 435th FS pilots searched the sky around him for signs of
contrails. Already
feeling alone 1st Lieutenant Richard G. Candelaria had lost contact with
the rest of his flight
and on reaching the rendezvous with the bombers had decided to attach
himself to the low
squadron of Liberators. Finding no signs of the German fighters,
Candelaria held his
position and held on his tanks. Little did he know that he was about to
experience a day to
remember.” 

While other elements from his squadron were engaging a rotten of
Me-262’s in which a jet
fighter was shot-down by Capt. Verner E. Hooker. Candelaria would be in
the fight of his life. 

“From his position alongside the lower bombers, Lieutenant Candelaria
was at last alerted to
the presence of the jets when the bombers began to fire flares as a
general warning to the rest
of the group.” 

“Spotting a pair of Me-262’s which had started to climb back towards the
bombers, he turned
towards the jets, facing the leading aircraft head-on. Hoping to divert
the jets from their
approach, Candelaria must have began to have doubts as to the wisdom of
his move as the
rotten made no attempt to alter its course.” 

“With only fractions of a second separating the fighters from a
collision, the Me-262 pushed
his aircraft into a shallow dive beneath the Mustang. In a very unusual
move, Lieutenant
Candelaria tried to drop his tanks on to the jet below, them half-rolled
his fighter into a
position on its tail just as the German pilot opened fire on the
bombers”. 

With the drop tanks tactic having no effect, Candelaria opted for his
more conventional
armament and let loose a burst which scored direct hits on both fuselage
and wings. 

With the fighter still in his sights, his concentration was broken by
the sight of streams of red
and white tracers, the size of golf balls flashing past him.” 

At that moment the second Me-262 was right behind him and firing on him,
before he could free
himself from the danger, he receive hits on his aircraft right wing,
luckly the damage was not
serious. 

“At the same time the leading jet broke to the left and entered a
half-roll which became a
steep dive with smoke trailing behind. Hoping to catch the second jet
Candelaria attempted to
haul his fighter into a turn, but the jet was diving at high speed,
perhaps in a attempt to assist
his crippled Kamerad.” 

Candelaria was later given a probable Me-262 destroyed, it appeared
later that the jets were
being used to draw away the escort fighters away from the bombers, so
that the Elbe pilots
would commence their attack runs, with no problems from the escorting
P-51’s. 
 

At that particular moment the 434th Fighter Squadron received the
warnings from a lone pilot
who had spotted a formation of about 15 BF-109’s heading directly
towards the bombers, as the
pilots of the 434th immediately headed at full speed to assist the lone
pilot, that had given the
warning, that pilot Lt. Candelaria was preparing to meet the attack. 

The enemy formation consisted of three four aircraft flights lead by a
experience leader,
Candelaria decided to attack the nearest flight leader, but this tuned
out to be a very competent
German fighter pilot. 

Candelaria tried to put himself in the best firing position, as he
followed after the the flight
leader BF-109, he noted that the rest of the flight did not attemped to
fire on him or even the
bombers they simply followed the leader, as he made several passes on
the bomber, which he
shot-down one of the bombers. 

Its guessed that the flight was formed from pilots of the “Elbe: group
but probably lead by pilots
from JG 300 and JG 301, and the aircraft that Candelaria was following
had enough
conventional ammunition to carry out a conventional attack on the bomber
formation and flown
by a experience pilot, but he failed to notice the P-51 that was right
behind him as he was firing
on the bombers even rolling his fighter. 

“With mounting frustation Candelaria chased after the BF-109 and for a
split moment found
him in his sights. The luck of the Luftwaffe pilot had finally run out:
the brief burst of fire
struck his fighter. Perhaps in order to escape the confines of the
bomber stream to
concentrate on the annoying American.” 

“The BF-109 broke away from the B-24’s with his formation remaining in
close contact. None
of the other BF-109’s made any attempt to intercept the P-51, which
reinforces the belief that
they were very inexperienced in the techniques of aerial combat.” 

“The leading BF-109 now aware that the Mustang on his tail was out for
blood, would have
to fend for himself and eliminate the danger by his own skills. However
with a number of
aircraft in close proximity he selected the wrong direction to attempt a
roll and the battery of
Browning machine guns being aimed at him unleashed a burst of hot metal
which ripped into
the Messerschmitt.” 

With a trail of smoke and coolant erupting from the BF-109, panic
erupted amongst the now
Leaderless Schwarn. Breaking their formation, they belatedly attempted
to discourage
Lieutenant Candelaria but the damage had already been done and the
leading BF-109
continued to lose altitude until the pilot jumped free at about 2,000
ft.” 

The leaderless flight formation tried to hit or chase away Candelaria,
that a second “Schwarn”
leader arrived to assist them, but the German pilot misjudge his speed
and overshot the Mustang,
which put him in the center of Candelaria’s K-14 gun sight, Candelaria
opened fire after firing a
short burst, the German pilot cut his speed that the two fighter found
themselves flying side by
side. Candelaria looked over to the BF-109 and saw the German pilot
bailed out. 

Now with two “Schwarn” with no flight leaders, there was now confusion
with the German
fighters, now the subject of attention of many BF-109’s Candelaria
continued to fight it out. 

“Able to out-turn his pursuers, he again opened fire and almost
instantly a third BF-109
stalled out and the pilot jumped free. A fourth BF-109 followed only
seconds later as the pilot
lost control of his fighter attempting to follow the Mustang. This
Luftwaffe pilot was trapped
in his wildly spinning machine as it crashed to earth.” 

“As Candelaria claimed this fourth BF-109, his fifth victim of the day,
help finally arrived as
other P-51’s reached the bombers. The first pilots to arrived included
1st Lieutenant Charles
Heathman and William Barksky who were both in position to observe the
final moments of
Candelaria’s combat and confirm the burning wreckage of four BF-109’s
all within a radius
of less than five miles.” 

This combat is reported to have taken place between 1225 to 1230 hours. 

After his hectic aerial combat, Candelaria decide not to risked it and
stayed with this Group of
pilots for the remainder of the mission, later in his after combat
report he credits the arrival of
these P-51’s that saved him for the surviving Bf-109s. 

For this particular mission Lt. Candelaria achieved the status of “Ace”
with a score of six
German aircraft destroyed plus one probable, while the rest of the 435th
fighter Squadron put in
claims for one Bf-109 and one Me-262 shot down by Capt. V. E. Hooker,
while the rest of the
479th claimed 4 more Bf-109s plus one Me-262 shot down plus one more
damaged. 

But on April 13th 1945 the Germans got even with Lt. Candelaria, while
straffing a German
airfield South of Tarnewitz , he was shot-down by ground fire, while
flying his P-51K “My
Pride and Joy” as reported by Capt. Theo J. Sowrby of the 435th fighter
squadron: 

“I was leading lakeside on a dive straffing pass on Tarnewitz airfield
at 1630 hours on the
13th of April. On pulling up after the first run Lt. Candelaria called
me on the radio and
asked if he could make another pass as he had something spotted. I OK
and he started a
shallow dive 30 degress from the bay in toward the airfield. We picked
up a lot of flack and
soon called on the radio that he had been hit and had no oil pressure
and asked for the best
steer for friendly territory. I told him to fly 200 degrees which he did
for about five (5)
minutes. He them called and said his ship was pretty hot and guessed he
would have to bail
out. This was right near the town of Wittenburg. He bailed out O.K. and
on reaching the
ground ran into some near by woods. There was no traffic or persons seen
near by. His plane
exploded in the woods some ways to the North of where he landed in his
chute. I think that
Lieut. Candelaria had made good chance to escape.” 

But Lt. Candelaria was captured and reportedly taken to a POW camp. But
other sources say that
he and a RAF aircrew man managed to escape by taking a German Officer
hostage and driving
his staff car westward, reaching an approaching British armor unit. 

After the war is reported that Candelaria became a restaurant owner in
California, serving better
food that the he had at the POW camp and served in the Air National
Guard, reaching the rank of
Colonel. He is reported to be living in California. 
 

                               APPENDIX NO.1 

      KNOWN SUCCESFULL SCHULUNGESLEHRGANG ELBE PILOTS

Rank and Name Former Unit e/a Unit Status 
------------------------------------------------ 

Uffz. Heinrich Rosner. (ex-III/JG.102). 2 B-24 389thBG. Survive. 
Obfw. Werner Linder. (ex-EJG.1). 1 B-17 388th BG KIA 
Fhr.Eberhard Prock 1 B-17 452nd BG KIA Shot-while descending in his
parachute. 
Fw.Reinhold Hedwig 1 B-17 452nd BG. KIA 
Shot-down by 339FG P-51’s. 
Uffz.Werner Zell 1 B-17 452nd BG WIA Shot-down by P-51’s. 
Ogfr.Horst Siedel 1 B-17 452nd BG KIA 
Lt. Hans Nagel (ex-IV/JG.102) 1 B-17 490th BG KIA Shot it down by
conventional armament,
damaged a second B-17 by ramming . 
Uffz. Klaus Haus 1 B-17 WIA 
Unknown BF-109 pilot 1 B-17 100th BG KIA 
Unknown BF-109 pilot 1 B-17 490th BG KIA 

           KNOWN AMERICAN BOMBER LOSSES BY RAMMING.

3RD AIR DIVISION 
388TH BG 2 Ramming attack 
452nd BG 1 Ramming attack + 3 to fighter attack. 
100th BG 1 Ramming attack + 1 Rammed damaged RTB. 
385th BG 1 Ramming attack 
490th BG 1 Ramming attack + 1 landed in Continent 
487th BG 1 Ramming attack damaged landed in Belguim. 

2ND AIR DIVISION 
389th BG 1 Ramming attack 

Total Bomber Losses: 
2AD: 3 B-24’s 
3AD: 14 B-17’s 

Minus one to Flak, one to accidental bombing and 3 to Me-262 jet
fighters, its is calculated that
13 bombers were destroyed by Elbe Pilots. 
 

                               APPENDIX NO.2 

 VICTORIES CLAIMED BY THE 479TH FIGHTER GROUP ON APRIL 7TH 1945

Rank & Name Claims Location 
----------------------------------- 

434TH Fighter Squadron: 

Maj. Robert Olds 1 BF-109 +1 Me-262 Damaged Dummer L-Bremen 
Lt. G.E. Jacobson 1 BF-109 Celle 
Lt. R.L. Munson 1 BF-109 Celle 
Lt. J.K. Nagel 1 BF-109 Soltau 
Lt. H.O. Thompson 1 Me-262 Luneburg 

435th Fighter Squadron: 

Lt. R.G. Candelaria 4 BF-109 + 1 Me-262 probable SW Luneburg 
Capt. V.E. Hooker 1 BF-109 + 1 Me-262 SE Bremen 
 

                               APPENDIX NO.3 

    SHORT HISTORY OF THE 479TH FIGHTER GROUP “Riddle’s Raiders”

The 479th Fighter Group was activated on October 15,1943 at Glendale,
California, with the
434th, 435th, and 436th Fighter Squadrons, after arriving in the ETO the
479th, flew the Lockheed
P-38J’s Lightning twin engine fighters and later the North American
P-51D and K models from
September 1944 to the end of the war. With the P-51’s the group claimed
103-11-26 in the air
and 166 destroyed and 95 damaged enemy aircraft on the ground plus
flying a total of 351
combat missions. 

On the debit side the 479th suffered 77 aircraft lost and 16 pilots
killed during the war. This unit
received the Distinguish Unit Citation for its actions while strafing
enemy airfields on August
18th, and 5th and 26th September, and air combat near Munster September
26th 1944. Other
Claims to fame accredited to the group was the last FG to Join the 8th
Air Force, the first unit to
fight enemy jet fighters, on 29 July 1944, when Capt. Arthur F. Jeffery
shot-down a Me-163
Komet jet fighter. 

The 479th also claimed the last air to air victory claimed by the 8th
Air Force, during the war,
when Lt. Hilton Thompson of the 434th FS shot-down an Ar-234 jet bomber
on April 25th, 1945. 

After the end of the war the 479th, returned to the USA and was
inactivated at Camp Kilmer New
Jersey on December 1st 1945. 

                           479th Fighter Group Aces

Lt. Col. Arthur F. Jeffrey 434th FS 14 aerial victories 
Maj. Robin Olds 434th FS 13 aerial and 11 ground victories 
Capt. George W. Gleason 434th FS 12 aerial and 2.5 ground victories 
Lt. Richard G. Candelaria 435th FS 6 aerial victories 
 

SOURCES AND REFERENCES: 

THE LAST FLIGHT OF THE LUFTWAFFE, THE SUICIDE ATTACK ON THE EIGHT AIR
FORCE, 7 APRIL 1945
by Adrian Weir. Cassell Military Paperbacks. 1997. 
FIGHTER UNITS & PILOTS OF THE 8TH AIR FORCE. September 1942- May 1945,
Day to Day Operations- Fighter
Group Histories by Kent D. Miller. Schiffer Military History book. 
STARS AND BARS A Tribute to the American Fighter Ace 1920-1973 by Frank
Olynyk, Grub Street, London. 
USAF HISTORICAL STUDY NO.85 USAF CREDITS FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF ENEMY
AIRCRAFT, WORLD
WAR II. AFSHRC Air University Office of Air Force History HQ USAF 1978. 
MACR #13904 Lt. Richard G.Candelaria POW 13 April 1945. 
AIR WAR EUROPA, America’s Air War Agaisnt Germany in Europe and North
Africa 1942-1945 by Eric Hanmel. 
ACES & WINGMEN Men, Machines of the United States Army Air Force, Eight
Fighter Command and 345th Fighter
Group, Ninth Air Force, 1943-5. by Danny Morris.Neville Spearman. 
MIGHTY EIGHT WAR DIARY by Roger A. Freeman. 
EAGLE’S WINGS, The Autobiography of a Luftwaffe Pilot by Hajo Herrmann,
Motorbooks International. 
GREEN HEARTS, FIRST IN COMBAT WITH THE DORA 9, The Men of III/JG54 and
JG26 Unite in Defense of their
Homeland 1944-1945 by Axel Urbanke. 
ACES OF THE EIGHT by Gene B.Stafford and William N. Hess, Squadron/
Signal Publications. 
FIGHTER ACES OF THE LUFTWAFFE by Col. Raymond F. Toliver, USAF (ret) &
Trevor J. Constable. Schiffer Military
History book.

 

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