BONUS CONTENT!

The Most Brutal Gun Camera Footage I Have Seen...

In December, I was browsing X (Twitter) and I located a post by a friend that I had begun to follow. His name was @Hw97Karbine and his account had quickly become one of my favorites for his original and often rarely-seen archive clips. In addition, he often added great write-ups to his posts that set historical context and insight into his great footage.

hw97karbine @hw97karbine No. 607 Squadron RAF Supermarine Spitfire Mk VIII fighters taking off past a fellow fighter that has come to grief at Imphal in India in July 1944 4:6 AM • Jan 6, 2026 19 Retweets 159 Likes Read 1 replies

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One of these posts that caught my attention was some gun camera an American fighter plane. As someone who spends an inordinate amount of time browsing gun camera footage, I immediately noticed something unusual - a shot of a man in his parachute. And the clear fact that the plane recording the footage was flying directly at him.

hw97karbine @hw97karbine 385th Fighter Squadron P-51 pilot Gilbert L. Jamison blows the wing off a Bf 109 on September 13th 1944 The firing indicator on the top left corner that disappears when the trigger is pulled suggests he then shot at the pilot descending in his parachute 1:48 PM • Oct 20, 2025 90 Retweets 788 Likes Read 48 replies

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This is extremely rare in combat footage, as pilots often had more important things to deal with. But sometimes, pilots would record men in parachutes or the burning wreckage of an enemy aircraft in order to confirm a kill. But @Hw97Karbine had pointed out something darker - this American pilot was not simply confirming his kill. But instead, based on the firing indicator, he was shooting at the German pilot in his chute.

This was a rather rare occurrence in aerial combat and was generally frowned upon by most pilots. But it did happen, and both sides of the conflict would fall victim to the cold-blooded act.

My version of the colorized and restored footage, courtesy of my friends Clayton, and Rick from Archives Reloaded.

With this particular case being caught on film, I decided that I wanted to dig into it further. Plus, with the outstanding initial research done by @Hw97Karbine, I had plenty of context to go with. Little did I know that what I would uncover would be far better than I could have ever imagined.

Now—spoiler alert—I won't go through every detail of my research, as you can watch my video for all of that! But to summarize, I was, against the odds, able to successfully identify the German pilot in the parachute. His name was Willi Stuber, and he was a member of JG 3. He would be shot down and killed on September 13th of 1944.

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(In case you haven't watched the video, seriously - go do that. There is way more to the story than this.)

When I discovered this fact, I was ecstatic. It felt so good to not only put a name to the victim in the footage but also to provide some closure to a brutal killing in heated aerial combat.

This unfortunately led me to an entirely new hunt - to try and find a photo of Gefr. Willi Stuber. To try and do this, I looked all across the internet. I actually reached out to expert Luftwaffe historians that I am connected with, but this was unsuccessful. Tragically, Luftwaffe records are extremely hard to search, not only because I am an English-speaking American but also due to the fact that so many German records were lost during the Allied bombings of 1944-45.

To try and desperately exhaust every channel of research, I even posted on Reddit—where some users offered great suggestions. One of these ideas was to contact a German bakery run by a "Stuber" family located in Homberg, Germany - the same town I had confirmed as Willi Stuber's birthplace. (Bakeries in Germany are often run by the same family for generations). I reached out to them as well, but again, no reply.

In the end, with what I regarded as my greatest historical "mystery" solved so far, I was left with a sour taste in my mouth. Although I had confirmed the identity of the German pilot, I was unable to locate a photo of him. I feel as if this would make the story so much more powerful, and yet we are left without a face of the victim in this event.

Thus, my search will continue. Should I make any progress in this, I will let you all know! Until next time.

Some great historical sources that helped me in this video:

​@Hw97Karbine on X and Instagram

​Michael Balss's Luftwaffe Loss Database (He has no website, but you may purchase his outstanding database by emailing him here: mb010558@gmail.com)

Rick from Archives Reloaded and my friend Clayton who helped restore and colorize this footage!

While I continue to search for more stories to tell, your support on Patreon would be greatly appreciated! Lately, more and more AI "history" channels have been popping up on YouTube (including some that have even stolen my content). This unfortunately means that it is more important than ever to have supporters to help fund my work here. Plus, get all sorts of behind-the-scenes content! You can join here: TJ3 History Patreon!​

Or you can just watch more of my videos if you can't support any other way! Here is a great one in case you haven't seen it:

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The Misunderstood Saga of the P-38 Lightning

Please reply with your thoughts or feedback here! Here's to saving more history together.

-TJ

TJ3Business@gmail.com
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