33. Scaring an Enemy to Death – Literally
Carr notched his squadron’s first kill on March 8th, 1944, when he pursued a Me109 near Berlin, and chased it to near-ground-level while firing his guns. Only a single bullet hit the enemy fighter, but its pilot panicked. Unable to escape in his Me109 from Carr’s P-51, the Luftwaffe airman tried to escape by abandoning his plane and parachuting to the ground. Unfortunately for the German, he jumped too close to the ground for his parachute to fully open.
Unfortunately for Carr, higher-ups declined to give him credit for the downed Me109, arguing that it had crashed, rather than been shot down. He argued that it was his daring pursuit and aggressive flying that had caused the crash. As Carr saw it, he had literally scared the enemy pilot to death and caused him to kill himself.