(1 Bf 109 destroyed and 2 damaged)

 

 

I was flying Red 2 on an Armed Recce to the area south of Breman; after about 20 mins. Flying we altered course E.S.E., as the weather was bad, & found a gap in the clouds in the Munster area. Here I reported E/A on the runway of an A/D, but my R/T appeared to be faulty as I got no reply. A few minutes later I saw aircraft below me at one o’clock flying south, & reported that I was going down to investigate. I turned to starboard & found later that my message had not been heard, the remainder of the Squadron breaking to port to attack a truck seen on the road. I had not noticed this, but kept my eye on the unidentified a/c.
     

As I closed I saw them jettison their tanks & turn N.E. & recognized them as Me.190’s. I reported them as Me.109’s & said that I was going in to attack, thinking the remainder of the Squadron were behind me, & picked on the starboard Me.109 of a section of 4. He had seen me closing & broke, & as he did so I noticed another section of 4 Me.109’s to port, making 8 in all. As I turned after the E/A that had broken away I noticed others positioning themselves to attack me & I was forced to break. I found that the E/A were not very keen to mix it & were making for cloud cover & gave chase. I obtained strikes on one E/A but was forced to break as another Me.109 was on my tail. I out-turned this one & eventually closed to very short range & gave him a 2 second burst, seeing smoke come from him. At this time the other section of E/A had reformed & were attacking me & I was forced to take cloud cover. On coming out of cloud, I discovered a Me.109 circling another which was evidently trying to force land. The remainder of the formation had scattered & I positioned myself to attack the circling E/A. I then saw an explosion & fire on the ground & saw that the Me.109 which was force landing had crashed in a wood & blown up. I claim this Me.109 destroyed. I attacked the other E/A & obtained strikes noticing that the a/c appeared to get out of control & also that something was wrong with his guns, as they were firing aimlessly into the ground. I watched this Me.109, thinking it was certain to crash, when to my surprise it recovered & straightened out. I closed to very close range & then discovered I was out of ammunition. He continued to fly straight & level & as I could only fly alongside him I turned for base. I was shaken to find a Me.109 chasing me back, but left him behind after a time.
     

As a result of this encounter in the course of which I fired at many of the E/A., I claim 1 Me.109 destroyed, 2 Me.109’s damaged. Cine camera used.

F/L J.S.B. Wright