Capt.
Fred J. Christensen
On the 7th of July, 1944, Capt. Fred
Christensen was leading the Thunderbolts of the 62nd Squadron on an escort
mission. Passing over the Luftwaffe airfield at Gardelegen, he noticed
some activity and dropped down for a better look. 35 aircraft lay in
dispersal. He reversed the squadron's direction, turning it back for a
strafing run. Jut then about a dozen Ju 52's approached the field for a
landing. The big and slow transports made tempting targets for
Christensen's fighters, although their very slowness made it difficult to
judge relative closure speed; it was easy for the fast Thunderbolts to
overshoot them.
He approached the air traffic from above
and picked off the next-to-last transport. He saw strikes on its left
side; as he roared beyond it, his wingman witnessed its explosion. He
instantly lined up a second target and fired at close range, setting it
afire. A third Junkers was turning left and Christensen caught it with a
deflection burst. He saw its right gas tanks burning. The pilot
desperately tried to land, but fell short in a field.
Suddenly, as he tried for a fourth
attack, his engine quit. He had run a gas tank dry. After switching tanks,
his engine re-started, and Fred found another Ju 52 in his sights. Now
barely 100 feet off the ground, he made a few hits, forcing the German
pilot to try to evade. The transport nosed down sharply, too sharply, and
crashed before it could pull out. Four down! He got behind a fifth
airplane, moved in to extremely close range, and fired again, scoring many
hits on the fuselage and wing roots. This plane also crashed as it tried
to land.
Before it was over, he shot down two
more. A total of six in one day, a feat matched by a handful of USAAF
aces. They were his last of the war, bringing his total to 21.5
confirmed aerial victories.
Born in Watertown, Mass. on October 17,
1921, Frederick J. Christensen, Jr. attended Boston University and MIT
before enlisting in the USAAC. After completing flight training in
December, 1942, he was assigned to the 62nd Squadron of the 56th Fighter
Group and was in Europe by the Fall of 1943.
He scored his first victory in November,
a twin-engine Me-110 over Papenburg. As the 56th FG was flying a lot of
missions, his score mounted steadily: a Bf-109 on December 1, an Fw-190 in
January 1944, another Fw-190 in February, and his fifth victory, making
him an ace, was a Bf-109 on February 11. By mid-April, he had been
credited with 14.5 kills.
After the war, Christensen served with
the Massachusetts Air National Guard and the US Air Force Reserve. He
retired as a Colonel in 1970. His honours include the Silver Star, DFC
with 6 Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Air Medal with 2 OLC's.
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