This story took place during Operation "Bodenplatte" which was a German Luftwaffe offensive during the Battle of the Bulge which was intended to knock out Allied tactical air in the area to keep there troops safe during the operation. As you can probably tell from the story it didn't work out very well, many pilots were brand spanking new guys and some Allied air crews watched these poor guys come in against the airfield air defenses and told them to wave off. "Incidentally I roughly remember reading an anecdote of a recently bailed-out Luftwaffe pilot being marched into the CO's office at the US airfield he had been attacking when shot down, and where he landed. As he stood there he gestured towards a group of burning P-47 wrecks and said 'how do you like that?'. The CO pointed in the other direction at a flight of brand-new replacement P-47s which were just landing to replace the losses, mere minutes after the end of the attack, and said 'how do YOU like THAT?' The German pilot shrugged and said 'That? That is why you will win the war." So there ya go, a nice little World War 2 story, pretty light hearted and dark at the same time. Tell me if you guys want a post on Bodenplatte it was certainly an...interesting operation, and I can see it being pretty fun to research/write up. Just as the Battle of the Bulge was one of the last gasps of the Panzerwaffe, Bodenplatte was also one of the last gasps of the Luftwaffe offensive arm as well.