he was wounded and taken captive. After several months in captivity, he was killed by a female SS guard during a POW march which he could not take, owing to his critical health condition. Germany On 22 February 1944 a Messerschmitt Bf 109 rammed B-17 231377 of the 327th Bombardment Squadron. On 25 May 1944 Oberfähnrich Hubert Heckmann used his Messerschmitt Bf 109 to ram a P-51 Mustang when his guns malfunctioned, severing the tail and rear fuselage from the American aircraft. Captain Joseph H. Bennett of the 336th Fighter Squadron managed to bail out to captivity, while Heckmann made an immediate belly landing near Botenheim, Germany. On 7 July 1944 Unteroffizier Willi Reschke used his Messerschmitt Bf 109 to ram a Consolidated B-24 Liberator when his guns malfunctioned. The two falling aircraft were locked together, and it was some time before Reschke was able to free himself and bail out near Malacky, Slovakia. Late in World War II, the Luftwaffe used ramming to try to regain control of the air. The plan was to dissuade Allied bomber pilots from conducting bombing raids long enough for the Germans to create a significant number of Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighters to turn the tide of the air war. On 4 April 1945 Heinrich Ehrler rammed a B-24 and was killed. Only a single dedicated unit, Sonderkommando Elbe, was ever formed to the point of being operational, and flew their only mission – only a month before the end of the war in Europe – on 7 April 1945. Although some pilots succeeded in destroying bombers, Allied numbers were not significantly reduced. Perhaps the most famous example of aerial ramming carried out by Elbe that resulted in the pilot surviving ramming their plane during this mission was that of Heinrich Rosner's Bf 109 vs. B-24 44-49533 "Palace of Dallas", which was leading a formation of B-24s of the 389th Bombardment Group at the time. Rosner's plane sliced through the cockpit of "Palace of Dallas" with its wing, destroying the bomber and crippling the Bf-109, which then collided with an additional unidentified B-24. Rosner was able to successfully bail out and parachute to safety. Projects of aircraft such as the Zeppelin Rammer were intended to use the ramming technique. France On 3 August 1944, Captain Jean Maridor of No. 91 Squadron RAF used his Supermarine Spitfire to ram a V-1 flying bomb, killing