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I
was flying Turmoil Red Four position and was
strafing an enemy airfield, 10
miles
NE of Chartres. Turmoil leader called in two
ME-109's which he had seen on
the
deck. Our own altitude at that time was
about 300 feet. Still in trail we
started
after the ME-109's and jettisoned the one
500 pound bomb each of us was
carrying.
Although I used water injection, I had an
old airplane and could not
keep
up with Red Three and lost the remainder of
Red Flight in the thick haze
just
after passing over Chartres. Just west of
town and while still on the deck,
I
encountered three ME-109's flying in string
at 1,500 feet and headed south. I
called
these in to Red Flight and turned away from
them to get some altitude and
one
of the ME's broke away and down to chase me,
while the other two disappeared
somewhere.
The ME-109 coming after me made a diving
turn to cut me off, and I
turned
into him. We made two or three figure 8's
while I shook off his advantage,
and I made
my first attack in a head-on pass. I
received one hit in the leading
edge
of my left wing which later proved to have
knocked out my hydraulic system.
I
must have hit the 109 for on our next turn I
noticed a light trail of blue
smoke
behind him. I chopped my throttle a couple
of times and shortened my turns
and
shortly caught the 109 at the top of one of
his turns. I gave him a short
burst
at about 80 degrees deflection and he began
to smoke badly. He dived under
me
and as I turned to follow him he jettisoned
his canopy and the plane slowly
rolled
over and went straight in from 1,500 feet. I
did not see the pilot bail
out.
The ME-109 crashed and exploded, about 10
miles Southeast of Chartres.
I claim one ME-109 destroyed.
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