(2 Fw 190 destroyed)

 

I was leading Nalgo Squadron on a patrol of the forward troops on the River Weser, between Nienburg & Minden. As the weather was very bad we flew low & when flying north at about 200 ft. saw a/c ahead bombing the bridgehead near Stoltzenau. I called up & we closed up behind them at 100 ft. They were strung out roughly in line astern, turning to port for the execution of another attack. Closing on the last two I identified them As FW.190’s. Picking the one to starboard I opened fire at 100 yds angle off 10 ° - 20° & saw strikes in the region of the cockpit. The one to port swung across toward me, so allowing 30° deflection at 150 yds. I obtained strikes on the starboard wing root & forward fuselage. The E/A started to smoke, flames appearing later. It continued turning to starboard, diving into the ground and broke up in flames. The first a/c had turned to starboard so I swung back & saw him well out of range. I waited till my No. 2 had finished firing without success, then gave chase roughly in an easterly direction. I caught it up after about four minutes, the Hun’s only evasive tactics were to dive & climb making no use of cloud cover. As he was pulling up I fired from 250 yds. line astern & obtained strikes. He started to turn to port & I closed in to about 150 yds. at approx. 20° - 30° off & obtained further strikes. The 190 went down with the inside of the cockpit a mass of flame & crashed below me. I was getting intense, accurate light flak, so pulled up for cloud cover. The remains of the E/A were burning on the ground near the gun positions, the location of which I could not identify, except as being somewhere in the Hannover area. The E/A were camouflaged a grey colour & had bomb racks under each wing. No long range tanks were fitted.

I claim 2 FW.190’s destroyed.

 

S/L MacKichan