Unit was codenamed Voodoo for the mission and was lead by me to conduct a defensive flight patrol over the city of Venray where the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division was stationed. Flight was composed of me, P/O 'Bemmo' Bayles as my wingman, F/O 'Zach' Z. Lamothe as section leader, and his brother P/O 'Al' A. Lamothe as his wingman. During take-off, P/O 'Bemmo' Bayles experienced engine problems and was forced to Emergency land immediately after lifting. Upon reaching target area at the designated Angels, the rest of the flight encountered a Me-110 performing what looked to be a Recon flight. F/O 'Zach' Z. Lamothe and P/O 'Al' A. Lamothe engaged the bandit and severely wounded his engines, forcing him to dive away on the deck. During the attack, F/O 'Zach' Z. Lamothe sustained some damage to his engine and I decided to RTB the whole flight back for repairs. During egress, we spotted another enemy plane, this time a Ju88 which we also damaged before American P-51 Mustangs jumped in the action to shoot it down. Landing for this first sortie was uneventful.
After repairs, rearming and refueling, our unit was once again called into action as enemies had been spotted near Venray once again. P/O 'Bemmo' Bayles once again had issues with take-off when his landing gear abruptly collapse but luckily was not injured. Immediately after reaching the area, we were surprised by the huge dogfight that was taking place over the area. Fw-190s as well as Me-109s fighting off a large formation of Spitfire and Tempests. We dove in the action and I was able to shoot down 2 Fw-190s as well as 1 Me-109 while F/O 'Zach' Z. Lamothe registered 1 Me-109 and damaged another Fw-190 with his brother P/O 'Al' A. Lamothe . P/O 'Al' A. Lamothe was forced to crash land 3 km away from the American controlled airfield of Venlo (Y.55) after his engine abruptly seized and began spitting oil everywhere. The rest of the flight RTBed with no other issues back at B.78. F/Lt 'Riksen' Richards |
