Flight A took off from B. 77 led by S/Ldr 'Skipper' Merfort and myself as his wingman. Our objective was to patrol the bombline between Rotterdam and Arnhem. After about 10 minutes patrolling the bombline, we encountered a lone Fw-190 who heavily damaged 'Skipper' and by chance the huns stray bullets meant for 'Skipper' hit my right wing. After disengaging, we left the area of operation to RTB but was engaged at low altitude by a lone 109. After several minutes of vicious manouvering I found a chance to disengage because I couldn't bring my craft's guns to bear due to the extensive damage to it's right wing. Shortly after regroupping with, "Skipper", we discovered that the same 109 had followed us home. After we broke off to engage, 'Skipper's' engine died out though I remained engaged to distract the hun from 'Skipper' vulnerable craft. After distracting the hun, he found me of greater importance. At this point of the fight, I was roughly 10 km away from B.77 and a friendly spitfire was able to come to my assistance and hammered the 109 whose aim was getting more accurate through every pass he made at me. Fortunately for myself, he made a mistake and instead of climbing after diving on me he turned to the left and drifted right through my sight. I gave him a burst of cannon and machine gun fire that sent his craft into the tree's below. Made a successful landing back at base. F/O 'Mac' Steele |
