Got orders to do another offensive sweep over Koblenz and Unkel. B Flight, led by F/O 'Mac' Steele took off from Y-54 and headed towards the Rhine river. When we arrived near the objective we were jumped by a BF 109 and F/O 'Mac' Steele quickly brought it down. I then spotted what I thought at first was a friendly A/C but when I got closer discerned it as an FW 190. I was able to get in some accurate bursts of 20mm quickly and saw one of the wings break completely off and it spiraled down towards the earth. Once B Flight regrouped we were attacked by another BF 109 but I was able to get in position on it and get some bursts of 50 Cal that put it into a spin and I saw it crash in the woods below. Shortly after I spotted an unidentified A/C approaching behind F/O 'Mac' Steele and it broke off towards me. Before I could identify it as enemy, the bogie started firing at me head on and so I broke downwards in a dive but caught accurate enemy fire on the way - causing significant damage and I lost control. Wanting to bail out and needing to reduce my speed, I fought with my aircraft and managed to recover just over the treeline below and was able to jump out just in time over friendly lines. F/O 'Zach' Z. Lamothe |
