<P> On 4 April, Sinner led seven other Me 262s off from Rechlin . Emerging from the clouds shortly after take - off, the flight was bounced by P - 51 fighters of the 339th Fighter Group, USAAF . In the ensuing combat "Rudi" Sinner's aircraft was hit . With his face and hands badly burned, he bailed out at low level . His parachute deployed at the last moment, but did not completely fill, and he was hanging by just the left strap when he hit the ground heavily in a ploughed field and dragged into a barbed wire fence . He reported that the P - 51s then strafed him, but he feigned death and, as the P - 51s departed, made his way to the safety of a deep furrow . </P> <P> With a little course correction, he is in my crosshairs and I fire: the Mustang shows a white trail and makes a turn downwards . But at the same time, the pilot in the other Mustang has me in his crosshairs and fires . I notice that my bird has become uncontrollable, jettison the canopy, unbuckle and get out . To my horror . I notice that we are really, very low--will my chute open in time? I immediately pull my ripcord--the chute opens--I am just over some woods, see a Mustang flying towards me, it shoots at me . </P> <P> I have arrived in the tops of some trees and finally hang suspended between the branches . I turn the buckle on my harness, leave my chute in the trees and climb down using some branches . Already the first people arrive at the scene . They have seen the dogfight and have also seen that the Mustang fired at me in my chute . </P> <P> Thaen Kwock Lee was a B - 17 waist gunner with the 483rd Bomb Group, a 15th Air Force unit, when his aircraft was shot down by German Me - 262s on March 22, 1945 . He recalled that he and his crew bailed out in their parachutes and while descending back to earth, they were attacked by German Me - 262s: </P>

When were chief petty officers allowed to fly as pilots in aircraft