The easiest way to preserve fuel would have been to leave the bombers and fly west. Howard knew that. He also knew that German fighters were still attacking.
The Medal of Honor citation later emphasized that his fuel supply became dangerously low. The wording matters because it shows that Howard's persistence eventually went beyond the normal reserve expected for a long return flight. He was spending fuel that belonged to his journey home.
A pilot who runs out of ammunition can sometimes disengage. A pilot who runs out of fuel has no choice.
The Mustang would become a glider.
Howard kept fighting anyway.
THE FOUR GUNS WERE BECOMING A SECOND CLOCK
The P-51B carried four wing-mounted .50-caliber Browning machine guns. Later P-51D models carried six and used an improved ammunition-feed arrangement. The earlier installation in the P-51B could suffer feed problems during hard maneuvering.
Howard's fight produced exactly that failure.
Repeated high-G turns shifted ammunition inside the wing feed system. Eventually three of the four guns stopped working. Air & Space Forces Magazine's detailed reconstruction explains that the ammunition feeds jammed under the stresses of maneuvering, leaving Howard with only one functioning weapon.
The official citation summarized the same problem more cautiously: three guns went out of action.
Either description produces the same tactical reality.
Howard had entered the fight with four heavy machine guns. Near the end, seventy-five percent of his forward firepower was gone.
A fighter with one .50-caliber machine gun could still damage an aircraft, but the probability of producing rapid destructive hits dropped sharply. The P-51's normal strength came from concentrating several streams of bullets into a narrow area ahead of the aircraft. One gun reduced density, increased the time required on target, and made every remaining round more valuable.
Howard could have interpreted the malfunction as the natural end of his mission.
Three guns had failed.
Fuel was low.
He was still alone.
The German fighters still outnumbered him enormously.
Instead, he changed tactics.
WHEN HE COULD NO LONGER SHOOT EFFECTIVELY, HE STARTED BLUFFING
One of the most revealing moments in the engagement occurred after Howard's ammunition and gun problems became severe. A twin-engine Ju 88 approached the bomber formation.
Howard did not have enough reliable firepower to conduct the kind of attack he had used earlier.
He still had a Mustang.
So he aimed the aircraft itself at the threat.
Howard made aggressive feints toward the Ju 88, forcing the German crew to react as if another firing attack were coming. The Ju 88 broke away. When it tried to return, Howard threatened it again.
The tactic depended entirely on uncertainty. The German crew did not know Howard's guns were nearly useless. From their perspective, the Mustang diving toward them could still deliver a lethal burst. Waiting to discover whether the American was bluffing could be fatal.
Howard exploited that uncertainty repeatedly.
This is the part of the story that demonstrates most clearly that his contribution cannot be reduced to four credited victories. By the end of the fight, his primary weapon was no longer bullets. It was position and reputation.
A Mustang approaching at high speed looked dangerous because Mustangs had already been killing German fighters around the bomber stream. Howard's earlier aggression made the later bluff credible.
The aircraft itself became a threat signal.
WHY DID THE GERMAN FIGHTERS NOT SIMPLY TURN ON HIM TOGETHER?
This question naturally follows from the thirty-to-one image. If more than thirty German aircraft were nearby, why did several not simply surround and destroy the lone Mustang?
The first answer is mission priority. The German fighters were there to attack bombers. The B-17s were the strategic threat carrying tons of bombs toward aircraft factories. A fighter chasing one Mustang away from the formation might gain an aerial victory while allowing several bombers to escape.
The second answer is geometry. Air combat is three-dimensional and fast. Thirty aircraft cannot all occupy useful firing positions against one target simultaneously. Pilots must avoid colliding with one another. They approach from different altitudes, headings, and energy states. Some have already fired. Some are climbing. Some are low on ammunition or fuel. Some may be damaged.
The third answer is uncertainty. German pilots could not be certain Howard had no support. P-51s from the 354th were operating throughout the area. Attacking Howard might expose a German fighter to another Mustang arriving from above.
The fourth answer is the bombers' defensive fire. Howard deliberately stayed around the B-17 formation. Any German fighter trying to settle behind him could enter the firing arcs of multiple .50-caliber guns from the Fortresses.
The bombers therefore provided Howard with a dangerous kind of sanctuary. Their gunners could accidentally shoot him, but they also made it difficult for German fighters to pursue him carelessly.
Howard was alone as a fighter pilot, but he was not fighting inside empty sky.
He was using the bomber formation as part of the tactical environment.
THE B-17 CREWS WATCHED THE SAME MUSTANG RETURN AGAIN AND AGAIN
The most powerful evidence of Howard's effect came from the men he was protecting. After the mission, bomber crews independently described the lone Mustang moving across the formation, attacking German fighters from different angles, then returning to intercept another threat.
Major Allison Brooks, who led the 401st that day, later described the Mustang as being all over the wing, across it and around it. The comment was not a precise tactical diagram, but it captured what the bomber crews saw: one fighter repeatedly appearing wherever the German pressure became strongest.
From a bomber cockpit, the sight must have been extraordinary. The B-17 crews had limited ability to maneuver individually because leaving the formation increased vulnerability. Their defense depended on staying together and maintaining overlapping gun coverage. They could watch German fighters approaching but often could not do much beyond firing and holding position.
Howard possessed the mobility they lacked.
Each time he accelerated toward an attacker, the bomber crews received several more seconds to maintain formation and continue west.