19/02/45
Maj. Ken Shear
Mission: Attack Enemy Artillery position.
Result: Artillery position wiped out.
The squadron spotted and engaged a pair of s/e e/a just as we crossed the lines; however on setting up to bounce this formation a second group of 3x E/A were spotted closing on White Flight. White Flight ordered to continue pressing the attack on the first formation and Red flight instructed to reverse heading and attack the new formation. Red Leader was jumped by a 6th unseen a/c and took damage to his empennage but a/c was still controllable and fightable. Red Leader ordered all bombs jettissoned and a general melee ensued. All s/e e/a were eventually destroyed, with note being made of the heroic actions of White 1, Lt Barry Cuda; he destroyed 2 e/a before tragically colliding with a 3rd.
Red 3 & 4 pursued a bandit to the SE and downed it, but on attempting to rejoin were engaged by a single twin-engined type identified as an ME-410. This was swiftly dispatched, however not before damaging Red 3s port motor and forcing him to abort the mission with Red 4 covering.
Reds 1 & 2 and White 2 pressed on to target and strafed successfully. White 2 was hit by machine gun fire whilst attacking and was leaking coolant form the port radiator; despite this he pressed home the attack on 3 more occasions. With target destoyed and two of the 3 aircraft damaged the remainder of the formation set out for home.
Red 4's adventures continued when he engaged a group of e/a alone over the airfields NW of Volkel, damaging an Ar 234 before suffering heavy damage at the hands of their escort. He however force landed safely on a single engine at Volkel - though his one good engine expired as he crossed the threshold!
2 friendly aircraft force landed damaged Volkel, 2 friendly aircraft force landed damaged Venlo, 1 friendly aircraft landed undamaged Venlo ; 1 friendly aircraft destroyed.
Personal tally:
Air:
1x Bf 109G
Ground:
1x Heavy Flak
5x Artillery
1x Truck