Myself and F/O 'Mac' Steele were transferred to A Flight to assist on their patrol over the bomb line between Cologne and Bonn. We were designated Yellow Flight with Mac as lead (Yellow 1) and myself as wingman (Yellow 2). With the callsign "Bumper", the entire flight took off from Y-45 and got into a Fluid 6 formation without issue. Made our way to first patrol point Cologne and did not find any enemy. We then proceeded down the bomb line towards Bonn where our flight leader S/Ldr 'Skipper' Merfort (Red Leader) noticed a large A/C taking off from the enemy airfield in the AO. He then commanded Yellow flight to dive in to investigate while the rest of flight kept angels for top-cover. I followed Yellow 1 in and when we got to the deck I could recognise the A/C as a Ju-52. I saw F/O 'Mac' Steele give the it a couple of squirts and saw tracer hit the engine portion of the wing. The Ju-52 then took a hard list to port and its staff started to bail out. I then saw the A/C crash into the ground and was able to confirm it as destroyed. Yellow 1 and I broke shortly after in opposite directions and I lost him for several minutes; and so we attempted to regroup. Moments later I saw a friendly Spitfire fire on and destroy an enemy A/C and based on call-outs over R/T was able to determine the attacker was F/O 'Mac' Steele (Yellow 1) - and therefore was able to get back into formation while confirming his second kill. Shortly after F/Lt 'Madov' Emblin formed up on us and together we attempted to regroup with the rest of the flight. We found S/Ldr 'Skipper' Merfort (Red 1) over a town engaged in combat with a small group of enemy fighters. Yellow section supported by F/Lt 'Madov' Emblin dove down to engage the Hun here; however neither myself nor Yellow Leader were able to get guns to bear and we broke up and left to climb back to altitude. While climbing, I saw a German jet fighter (Me 262) cross my nose to F/O 'Mac' Steele 's 6 o'clock and so I turned to engage. I was able to get a quick squirt out that hit the 262 somewhere in the rear (confirmed by F/O 'Mac' Steele) and forced it to RTB. I chased the 262 for a few miles but then let Yellow Leader know that the enemy was out of range and so I was ordered back into formation. During this action I lost sight of F/Lt 'Madov' Emblin however I assumed that he had linked up with Red section - moments later he stated that he might be going down over R/T and this was the last official transmission I heard from him. While Yellow Section was en route to RTB back at our own airfield, we got an alert of potential enemy A/C in the area and did a quick circuit to recce. I spotted an unidentified bogie on the deck right over the unknown town and F/O 'Mac' Steele ordered me to give chase. I dove down supported by Yellow Leader but at the last second as I was lining up for a shot was called off as the A/C was identified as friendly. After this Yellow section was able to RTB safely back at AF Y-45. F/O 'Zach' Z. Lamothe |
