Well, after two + years of it being "filed away for future ref", I've come to the following conclusion...
Ain't gonna do this:
That ain't a bad idea... Gonna file that one for future ref.. Maybe a Mustang and an M-16 half-track...
Turns out that it is, indeed, a bad idea, since that's what happened below in the action described.
Christmas Day, 1944.
The 328th FS of the 352nd FG had arrived at Y-29 in Aache, Belgium just two days before. The 352 FG (8th AF) had been temporarily attached to the 9th AF, along with the 366th and 361st FGs...
Shortly before the end of the afternoon patrol, Ditto White Leader, along with Ditto White Two, was vectored to a position SW of Colblenz, where bandits had been spotted at barely a thousand feet AGL by US ground units... Given the "Buster" call from the GCI controller, a pair of Bf 109s were soon sighted, and Ditto White Leader picked one out. He made several turns with it at low altitude, and was closing with it when another 109 cut in between him and his first target.
He gave the second 109 a quick burst, "hip-shooting" (without the sight), and observed "a lot of hits" from his six .50 cals... The canopy came off, and the German hit the silk. Ditto White Lead immediately swung his blue-nosed P-51 back onto the first 109 and his K-14 gunsight was on it, almost as if it was tied to the hapless German... The two Germans didn't even know that they'd just been up agianst the ranking US Army Air Force Ace in the ETO, Major George E. "Ratsy" Preddy... They lived to tell about it though, and would happily able to "eat another sauerkraut sammich" someday... 
Receiving a new vector, Preddy and his wingman, Lt James G. Cartee, changed course toward Liege, where bandits were reported to be strafing American troops. Now flashing 1500 feet AGL SE of Liege, a lone FW 190 was sighted by the pair at tree-top level. Preddy told Cartee to cover him as he dropped even lower after the now-fleeing Focke-Wulf...
Snow piled up among the thick trees of the Hurtgen Forrest and the whole landscape was bleak and forbidding in the area of operations where Germany, Belgium, and Holland come together near Aachen... The 12th AA Group (SP) had moved South shortly after the beginning of the Battle of Bulge, with their mission being the Anti-Aircraft Defense of XIX Corps AO.
The Group's main AA-batteries were 40mm Bofors cannons, but their most effective weapon by far against low-level attacks were the quad-fifties on the M16 AA Half-track. The guns, mounted in an electrically-powered turret with a 60-degrees-per-second traverse speed and high volume-of-fire were devastatingly effective against "tree-top level" strafing attacks, and, used as fire-support for Infantry attacks, could eat a wall... The 12th was officially creditied with 291 enemy aircraft kills in WW2...
The individual batteries were equipped with an open-loop fire-control net (both radio and telephone) and that gave the guns needed early-warning speed against the fast-moving low-level aircraft. Gunners generally had about ten seconds to identify an aircraft as threat or friendly, then track, and then engage and destroy an enemy aircraft... They were generally out of range of the fifties after that period of time.
Anyway, Friendly aircraft had been flying overhead all Christmas Moring, always at high-altitudes and usually blocked out by the overcast.... The gunners tried mostly to just keep warm in the iwnd as they manned the guns. The radios crackled from time to time with reports from observers who spotted approaching aircraft, then suddenly the "FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! " signal came through the net that alerted all the guns in the area. The message that followed was clear:
"Two enemy BF 109s aproaching from the South-East at low altitude and strafing."... This was the direction of the German lines and all guns swung to point SE... An instant later two aircraft entered the area from the SE, flying just over the tops of the snow-covered fir trees... The sound of machinegun fire was heard...
The AA Gunner had only an instant to react as the aircraft suddenly appeared over the trees surrounding the the field in which his M16 was located. They were flying directly towards him and, in his estimation, were the hostile fighters reported. He swung his guns slightly and touched the trigger briefly. The guns had a combined rate-of -fire of some 3000 rounds per minute, but less than 60 rounds went downrange before he realized to his horror that the aircraft sweeping overhead were friendly.
Lt Cartee was receiving hits from the groudfire and called for Preddy to break, but it was too late... "Cripes A' Mighty had run into the hail of fire. Preddy blew his canopy and and nosed down, bellying-in in the same field as the AA Track. Cartee made a wide circle and flew over the several times before heading back to Asche...
The AA Gun-crew ran to the crashed P-51, which had made a good landing on its belly and didn't burn. In the opinion of those present, Preddy could have survived the crash, but he had been hit by two of the fift-cal rounds and was already dead...
Thus ended the career of the USAAF's leading ETO Ace. The Group credited him with 27.83 air-to-air and five ground-kills (the 8th AF gave kill-credit for enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground, a practice unique to them, and later stopped)...
The US Air Force Fighter Victory Credits Board, in 1956 and 1957, adjusted his final tally to 25.83 and further determined that ground-victories would not be included in determining total victories of any WW2 victory claims from the 8th AF. (Or my dad woulda been a Fighter Ace too, lol)..
During his 17-month tour in the ETO, Major Preddy was awarded the DFC for actions on 6 August 44. When asked once if he feared death, he replied in a letter that, "Although my aircraft might be shot down, I will not fall, because I have wings... Wings made not of wood or steel, but of a firmer kind, wings that God has given to me."...
Major Preddy was 24 years old when he was shot down...