Photograph of Gen. Gunther Rall and Col. Hub Zemke

The infamous 56th Fighter Group, commanded by Col. "Hub" Zemke and known as Zemke's Wolfpack", could offer a serious challenge to any Luftwaffe fighter who rose to fly against them.

The highest scoring USAAF fighter unit of the ETO, they accounted for some 665.5 aircraft destroyed in the air. It proved an unfortunate encounter when Major Gunther Rall found himself the focus of four of the 56th's P-47s.

During a swirling dogfight that descended through clouds toward the valley floor below, Gunther Rall found himself with no path of escape from the closing American fighters. Finally within firing range, two bursts of fire from a P-47 hit Rall's aircraft. Injured and with his Me109 damaged, Rall managed to pull into a half loop and bail out. Rall almost lost his life during this event from wounds from the P-47's but the most apparent being the loss of his thumb on his left hand.