media-27297.jpeg UPL 27297 44-14868 P-51D flown by Major Peterson at the end of his second tour of duty, shown here temporarily refueling at an abandoned German airbase in Auxerre, France, in January 1945.

Patton had just liberated the town, and after some delay, parted with some precious tank fuel to allow the grounded squadron of 3 P-51s to return to Leiston after burning their fuel up dogfighting with Me262 jets.

The exhaust soot on the fuselage was the result of Major Peterson chasing a jet in a full throttle dive to 700mph at 25,000ft, losing aileron control when encountering compressibility at the sound barrier, and regaining control by throwing the prop pitch to minimum which forced the engine RPMs to scream over the tachometer's redline, but broke up the air and allowed him to pull safely out of the dive with his trim tabs. The soot is likely the forced engine oil and unburnt exhaust from the redlining. The squadron followed the jet to its Lechfeld, Germany base where they split into pairs and circled "fence post high" around each end of the runway, awaiting the jet and dodging anti-aircraft gunnery. Major Peterson's wingman, Roland Wright, flying "Mormon Mustang", shot the jet down, and they ended up in Auxerre where they finally ran out of fuel.

Judd Peterson, son of Richard Peterson