P-38J 42-104280

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MACR No. 04981
Lt. Walter was last seen over Germany, first by 2/Lt. Robert Littlefield, and then by 1/Lt. George Korinek.  All pilots had their port engines feathered, which meant that all their electrical equipment, including the radio, was turned off (early model P-38s had generators on the port engine only).
Lt. Littlefield reported: "I had lost my left engine to flak and was flying alone at about 14,000 feet when I saw a lone P-38 with his left engine feathered too.  I joined him and recognized that he was a 338th aircraft.  He was on a wrong heading for a safe course to England so I motioned to him to fly more southerly and he shook his head and pointed northerly.  We waved goodbye over north central Germany."  Lt. Korinek encountered Lt. Walter somewhat later and stated much the same story.

A German report stated: "Shot down Lightning at Flensburg-Osteebad, 21.5.44, time 14.33, anti-aircraft fire. Pilot dead.  Buried Friedenhuegel cemetery in Flensburg."

It is Robert M. Littlefield's theory that Lt. Walter was not lost but trying to follow the land mass to Sweden and minimum over-water flight, hence being downed so far north.  Lt. Walter was from Sharon, Massachusetts.  He is buried at Long Island National Cemetery, Farmingdale, New York.
Reproduced with kind permission of Mr. Robert M. Littlefield from the author's book Double Nickel - Double Trouble