On March 24th 1945, the Tusgegee Airmen flew their longest escort mission of the war. Along with 2 other Escort Groups, they escorted nearly 1000 B-17 and B-24 bombers to Berlin, over 1,600 miles, farther from their airfields in Italy than the 8th Airforce airfields in England. With the longest flight of the 3 Escort Groups, the Tuskegee Airmen were ordered to fly as far as ' reasonable endurance ' would allow. Even with 2 x 110 gallon drop tanks, the trip to Berlin and back would be a struggle and so another Escort Group would take over from them over the target, the giant Daimler-Benz tank factory. As they approached Berlin the familiar shapes of Fw-190 fighters appeared and combat began.....but the Tuskegees relief was no where in sight....Commander Benjamin O Brown made the call, they where here, so they'd fight. The Fw-190's seemed to congregate in the area patrolled by other Escort Groups, possibly cautious of the 'Red Tails', the Tuskegee airmen stayed with their bombers. Trails of smoke were seen climbing rapidly into the sky, Me-163 'Komets' making one of very few attacks of the war...although 12 were launched, none made a kill or any serious contribution to the battle. Then came the Me-262s of Jagdgeschwader 7 "Nowotny", 30 of Germany's most advanced fighters, piloted by many of Germanys top Aces. Commander Ben Brown ordered " Drop tanks "...After several inconclusive clashes, Oberleutnant Franz Kulp, with ten confirmed kills, flew straight at Brown in a shallow dive. Brown raised the nose of his aircraft 15 degrees and poured fire from his six .50cal machine guns into the approaching enemy. The jet was torn apart, both engines exploding in flames, Kulp bailed out at 24,000 feet, severely wounded, he would survive but his war was over. Caught in a nose to tail chase, 2nd Lt. Charles Brantley, eventually out maneuvered his adversary and poured rounds into the jet fighter, killing it's pilot, Ace Oberleutnant Ernst Worner. The Tuskegee Airmen were not finished, 1st Lt. Earl Lane had extraordinary eyesight. Spotting a jet at 2,000 yards in a tight left bank, matching the turn Lane used the relatively new K-14 'lead computing gunsight' to fire far ahead of his target.In his after action report Lane wrote : "He did not quite fill my gunsight, I fired three short bursts and saw the plane emit smoke. A piece, possibly the canopy flew off, I circled and watched the plane go down". Lane had shot down 7 kill Ace Leutnant Alfred Ambs, Ambs bailed out and was reported killed....however he actually survived, although wounded and out of the war, he would live to a ripe old age. Between them the three Escort groups would claim ( later verified ) 9 of Adolph Hitlers much vaunted Me-262 jets during this mission, for their part the 332nd Fighter Group were awarded their first Unit Citation....... A big thank you to Bill, steelrazer for another excellent Vue background....my aircraft...this is why I needed a B-17 :-)