.....We were approaching Hesepe, Nowotny was 500M directly in front of me, we had our gear down, flaps set and had throttled back.... Walter had almost ' zero' fuel and was gliding home, his canopy open. He waved at me to land first - always thoughtful of his comrades, he thinks I too am low on fuel and wants to see me land safely.
Our mission had been a success. The field was now clearly visible 3KM ahead, I glanced down at the large 'patchwork-quilt' Countryside below me. and, I thought 'we are home safe again'!
I had about 160 liters in my reserve tank so I gave him our usual signal 'tilting my wings left and then right' to show him I was ok for fuel and that he should continue his descent!
Just then, I couldnt believe it! - a pair of P51's came out of nowhere - almost in a vertical dive they swooped down out of cloud and were straight on Walter, their mg's tearing into his tail, fusealage and port wing section! I saw his Me262 buck wildly, I guess as he tried to come to terms with his fatal predicament....
His port engine was out and I heard his radio message 'meine gott I am burning'....
I know that he was now in real trouble - no flight controls and too low to bail out at 100 metres...
I watched, tears in my eyes, as Nowotny's 262 tore into the ground and rip apart, the port engine-nacelle shredded and metal pieces seemed to fly everywhere - and then the explosion. I cried out but there was nothing I could do except look on in horror!
Angry and without a second thought for my own safety, I rammed the throttle. The powerful twin Jumo's roared into life, after what seemed an eternity, I had full power - I climbed vertically from 100M to 600M and inverted and rolled, pulling about 3 G's I almost blacked out as I rolling out behind and under one of the P51's who was trying to find cloud-cover to avoid our Flak!
I fired all four cannons simultaneously and sprayed the 'lagging' P51 with a deadly hail of 50 cal. shells - as I arced upwards and barrell-rolled to port - I saw his aircraft erupt in flames then dive towards the ground creating a giant fireball as it crashed!
I was now travelling much faster than the remaining P51 so I knew he could never catch me, but I knew he could easily 'out-turn' me! I decided to take that risk - I turned towards him, as he circled 1Km East of me. He was now attempting to turn into my arc.
Now we were heading straight towards each other. I could see the flames now from his mg's as he closed on me - I prayed his marksmanship was bad this day! because I had a neat little trick up my sleeve for him, something that Quax had shown me earlier!
I inverted, still heading towards him, I pushed down on my stick - the usual nose-down was now reversed. I had the advantage of attitude angle.
He started firing - narrowly missing my belly - as I pushed my stick further.... he passed about 15 metres directly underneath my inverted canopy.... now was my turn.....
I pulled back as hard as I could on my stick completing an inverted loop - I opened my throttle, streamers coming from my wing-tips, I was on his 6 as I levelled out.
I remember thinking of Nowotny waving to me - as I silently mouthed the word 'HORRIDO' and opened fire.....
Memorial To Walter Nowotny Kdo.III/JG7 KIA 8/11/44 
