B Flight tasked with a defensive sweep mission around Cherbourg - We took off from Tangmere with F/Lt 'Riksen' Richards as 'BUMPER-Leader', myself as 'BUMPER-2' and P/O 'Al' A. Lamothe as 'BUMPER-3'. Riksen eventually spotted a large A/C and sent his wingmen after it. I was last in line for our high-speed pass and saw both Riksen and Al land excellent hits into the cockpit and engines of the enemy. When it was my turn I had calculated that I had too much energy and over-confidently decided to zoom over the enemy A/C from it's 6 to 12 o'clock, even though it had an active tail-gunner. As I passed right over it at about 400 MPH I heard/felt direct hits on the bottom of my fuselage in rapid fire and absorbed a full 3-4 second burst! Injured and disoriented, I reported my status over the R/T and our flight lead ordered us to RTB. They managed to cover me until we landed back at base; and the last I heard (but couldn't see) is the enemy was going down and P/O 'Al' A. Lamothe was credited with the kill! F/O 'Zach' Z. Lamothe |
