After Action Report
December '44
Skies over the Ardennes
My lead and I were trying to sneak through the Allied umbrella of fighters to slow down the flow of supplies streaming toward the Yanks at Bastogne
A pair of Mustangs spotted us and swooped down upon our element. On their first attack pass the enemy leader overshot my Hauptman.
As my partner lined up a shot, he looked over his shoulder and judged me to be in a position to totally destroy the enemy wingman behind his aircraft or, at the very least, drive him away.
Unfortunately, I was so close to the enemy wingman I could not pull my trigger while avoiding a collision.
The enemy wingman's burst caught my lead's aircraft perfectly. Not only did the fifty calibers smoke the engine, it also jammed the canopy shut. My Hauptman went down, trapped in the Dora's smoke filled cockpit.
I remained in the battle. Flying alone, I was at a disadvantage. Several of my shots went awry because I was looking fore and aft against the two P-51s.
The three of us went around several times. I was taking the measure of my opponents. I started to get a feel for what was required to settle in behind my enemies.
I dispatched the enemy wingman with two separate shots. The first one lightly wounded the pilot and damaged his aircraft. The second burst added a moderate wound to the earlier injury and added more holes to the previously damaged elevator. The pilot struggled but failed to free himself from the uncontrollable aircraft.
That victory evened the odds and left me alone with one adversary. Back and forth we went. He never had a chance to fire his guns while I missed one shot and was running low on ammunition. As I mentioned earlier, my flying "touch" was improving and I was able to bring my guns to bear on this target. My second to last shot pierced the enemy's canopy to seriously wound him and then another shell snuck between his pilot armor to kill him.
I wasn't able to interdict any supply columns but I did have the satisfaction of downing two enemy aircraft.
