by Brooke -11-, GL, I/JG3
I/JG3 shot down 3 B-17's, 1 P-51, 1 P-47, and 1 Spit at the cost of 3 FW 190A-8's.
I/JG3 consisted of me, Whip (FL), Chek, Vono, Red5, Stick, Kool, and YES. We took off in FW 190A-8's and had about 3 dumps in our group early on before we got on station. Eventually, we ended up between Evraux and LeHavre and then, as counters started to show up, we drifted NE toward Amiens.
The first wave of counters was ID'ed as a large high-altitude fighter group, so we stayed clear of it. Another group showed up on radar a few sectors behind that group, and from its size and position, we figured that this was the bomber group.
I maneuvered I/JG3 eventually up near Tramecourt as the bomber group crossed onto land and then turned south to parallel it until the 109's reported that they had cleared out high escort.
At this point, several unfortunate things happened.
First of all, I turned south a little too conservatively, putting us about a sector behind the bomber stream as we paralleled its course S.
Second, the German forces were not able to get in on the formation en masse. Everyone had sidestepped the initial fighter wave, but it looked like German fighter groups weren't similar distances from the stream and ended up going in on the formation one at a time.
In the meanwhile, as we flew south, I kept I/JG3 up at 37k. I did this because I wasn't hearing anything about escort being cleared or bomber locations, and I could see that inital fighter sweep heading back N toward our location as we headed S. I didn't want to get swarmed by high US escort. But that meant that we were heading south at 37k, and the B-17 stream seemed actually to be pulling away from us.
I could see that we weren't catching them, but I still wasn't hearing anything about escorts or bomber sighting, so I figured that 109's weren't in on them yet in force. I could also see from radar counters that a lot of our forces were being left behind those fast 25k B-27's. If we FW's weren't catching them flying level at 37k, I guess the 109's were being even more quickly left behind, and I could see the buildup of our forces trailing the formation.
To add to the trouble, I could see bogies ahead of me up at about 40k and couldn't tell whether they'd be friendlies or escorts.
So, on we flew a while until the bogies mostly cleared out, and then I had I/JG3 dive to 35k to do some catching up.
By the time we were catching up, we were nearing the outskirts of Paris, and there still didn't seem to be such a large concentration of friendly counters. I had I/JG3 follow me as we got closer to Paris and went into a dive down to about 33k in search of the bombers, banking left and right, looking under me as I flew.
Now, just NW of Paris, I picked up many bogies at about 25-30k. Lots of P-51's, P-38's, and P-47's. I saw one bomber in the mix, but with so many other planes around, I couldn't pick it out -- but at least I knew I was getting close.
I turned E to overfly them (we had built up good speed in our gradual descent from 37k) and search for a formation I could see. Fortunately, all the fighters I saw were at least a couple of k below us and so they couldn't chase us off as we overflew the formation from the rear.
Finally, just W of Paris, I saw a formation of about a dozen B-17's at 25k, heading E. I called out a good radio report and told I/JG3 to follow me -- that we would attack the trailing most bomber.
I flew up along the right side of the stream until I was about 5k higher and at the 3 o'clock of the trailing 2 bombers. I could see the escort trailing the formation and could tell that they'd love to get up at us, but we were just a couple k too high for them. But I bet they were just waiting for the chance to get on us after our passes.
I called out that we'd hit the trailing bomber and egress to the NE after the run, then rolled in and called "in" on the radio.
I rolled left and dove toward the side of the trailing bomber. I lined up and fired, but I think my shots were off. I corrected and was able to fire on the second to last bomber (which was ahead and to the left of the trailing bomber) and got some hits on him -- but as I passed the trailing-most bomber (my original target that I had missed), I could see that he was already smoking. Damn. I perhaps could have put him down. I seem often to blow my first pass of a mission. I should work on that.
Once past the trailing bombers, I rolled and jinked to throw off gunners and didn't take any hits. In fact, I didn't see any tracers. The bombers seemed perhaps ungunned, but there was plenty of escort around to make up for that. Once out of gunnery range of any possible gunners, I pulled up and checked for fighters on me. I was OK. They were trying, but none had the energy to follow me up into the climb.
I zoomed up, banked right, and saw the lead bombers, which obviously had just dropped bombs, turning left to the N. I turned hard right and dropped in from a high, almost veritical, angle onto the tail of one of the lead bombers. I dove in on him, gathering a good head of steam. It was a steep angle and a little off to his right. I pulled enough lead and poured on the shots. I could see debris streaming away from the bomber as I closed and as I passed.
I checked my tail, seemed clear. So I pulled up into a steep climb, banked hard right at the top of the zoom to come around for another pass. At that point, all the planes disappeared from my screen. I looked all around -- "Where the hell did everyone go?!" I spun once as I looked around in the middle of that turn, then went into a dive to pick up some speed and went evasive. I didn't know if anyone could see me while I could see no one. After a while, I went into a climb and kept looking around to see if they would reappear. Wanted to have some altitude if ever I appeared again.
About 5-10 seconds after that point, everyone appeared again on my screen simultaneous with a ping on my aircraft. Someone had hit me during all of that. I went into an immediated evasive roll and jink while looking back and saw a P-47 closing on me along with about 4 other enemy fighters.
I dove out, staying fast, rolling and jinking. The P-47 stayed on me, closed to within firing range, and eventually closed to right on my tail and then had to veer off a bit to avoid overshooting me. Then he came back on my tail and a P-51 joined him. I kept rolling and jinking, in a medium dive -- enough to keep about 300-350 knots, and when I had the chance, turning to fly mostly E. I occasionally passed other enemy fighters too far off to the side to engage. The P-47 broke off -- perhaps I had run him out of ammo, but the P-51 stayed on me. I just kept rolling and jinking.
On the film afterwards, I could see him firing at me again and again, but he just didn't have the roll rate to get good shots. He, too, eventually gave up and veered off. I was about 1-1.5 sectors E of Paris at that point, and I hadn't taken a hit from either the P-47 or the P-51.
I turned N and began to climb -- I was now down near the deck. I didn't know how many hits I actually had on my FW. I heard only 1 ping, but it could have been the sum of several, but at least my plane handled OK and wasn't smoking. Also, a replane at this point would be pointless as the bombers had meanwhile all turned N and were 2 sectors N of me. I doubted that I'd get back up to altitude and be able to catch them, but I tried anyway. I kept climbing and heading N.
As the bomber cluster neared the coast, I knew that I wouldn't be able to catch them. About that time, Gibs called that a P-51 was running down low S of Amiens. I was over Amiens at about 25k, so I turned back and started to look. I found them over the river, with Gibs in pursuit and the P-51 running on the deck. I chased him down and got him turing, and Gibs and BigH killed him.
I climbed NW to see if there were any other fights I could get into. Again, someone called out a P-51 running down low, and (after about a 1 sector chase), I caught him and got him to evade. This one was cagey, though, and kept his speed -- he didn't continue turning after I passed and continued on up the river. I dove back down and gave chase again. I was chasing him down when KOOL entered the chase from a higher altitude and passed me by. I closed to about 1000 yards, and KOOL put a burst into him killing him.
I zoomed back up but didn't see much of anything else to attack, so I went back and landed at Bologne.
During my flight from the P-47, someone had put the finishing touches into that last B-17 I had raked over, and I got the kill for it. So, for me, it was 1 B-17 and living through another allied meatgrinder.
-- Brooke -11-, GL, I/JG3