My Grandfather was probably one of the first few Americans to see a jet flying

[Roon]

During the war, my Grandfather and crew were in Belgium along a canal in their gunner's nest. When out of the blue, and very quietly, this plane came and dive bombed them. (he missed, obviously). They have never seen this plane before. It was one of hitler's jets! The junk JU something or another. After it dropped it's bomb it fired up the engines and screamed off!! The men were flabbergasted. LOL..My Grandfather has an old photo of one of his buddies pointing to a chunk of handrail taken out by the shrapnel from the bomb. Sorry,no scanner and the picture is now at the cabin. :-(

[liberaltrucker]

1. Must've scared the crap outta him

I would me!

To your grandpa:

:patriot:

[Roon]

2. Thanks liberaltrucker

I drove for Werner when I was a kid.

My Grandfather keeps taking me aside and telling me more and more about the ecounter as he remembers it. It was towards the end of the war, but they still had to add that plane's profile to their flash cards so they can ID it.

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. Junkers built only one jet-engined aircraft in WWII

And it, the Ju 287, was but a prototype. Only one was completed.

Junkers did manufacture jet engines, though. In fact, the Junkers Jumo was pretty much the German jet engine of the era.

It's possible that your grandfather's post was attacked by a Messerschmidt Me 262, the first mass-produced jet aircraft, but they weren't typically deployed as bombers, despite Hitler's wishes. I'd guess it was a piston-engined Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber, which had an air horn on one wheel strut that produced a shriek that could easily be mistaken for the sound of a jet engine. You can hear it at about 1:00 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CssQSINRCRE

[hobbit709]

6. Could have been one of the Arado AR234 variants

That was designed as a bomber and used operationally. Used Junkers engines as did the ME262.

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. The 'Blitz' had variants?

I thought there was just the 234A, which had a skid in place of regular landing gear, and the B, which had retractable wheels.

In either case, I didn't know it was ever used for dive bombing. :shrug:

[hobbit709]

9. Yep

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_234

[hobbit709]

8. posted in wrong place

[tigereye]

4. we saw some early American jets at a small airport in Ohio

or at least that's what one of the guys hanging out said. It was pretty cool!

[Swede]

5. My brothers father-in-law was in the Luftwaffe.

But he was on the Eastern front.