On This Day: An Air Battle Over Belgium in 1945

Seventy years ago, on January 27, 1945, a German pilot was captured on film after hastily exiting his damaged plane, hurtling through the air, legs outstretched, high above the frigid landscape of Belgium. The German aircraft had just been badly damaged by .50-calibre fire from a P-47 fighter bomber flown by Major James Dalglish, a U.S. pilot in the 354th Fighter Group of the 9th Air Force, from Rome, New York. The air battle took place at the end of the Battle of the Bulge, the largest battle fought by the U.S. in World War II. The German plane exploded shortly after this photograph was taken; the fate of the German pilot was unspecified.
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