Fred Christensen

a . C ombat b . 4 Feb., 1944 c . 62nd Fighter Squadron d . Approx. 1300 hours e . Vicinity Charleroi f . 9 /10 cloud, tops 20,000'. g . Fw 190 h . One Fw 190 claimed d estroyed . i . " I was flying Ground Hog Blue Three when Ashland called in, saying that he was bouncing a few Fw 190's that were milling around on top of the overcast. As we were his cover, we went into a shallow dive on top of him at about 20,000'. An Fw 190, with about five P-47's, came up and under me. I increased my dive to head him off but did not fire for fear of hitting the attacking Thunderbolts. As he turned underneath my nose, I pulled up and did an orbit over the scrap. On the outskirts of the fight, I saw a P-47 with an Fw on his tail, both of them in about a 50 o climb. My wing man had broken when we had gone head on into the first e/a, so I attacked the climbing Fw alone. Diving from out of the sun, I pulled in behind him and held my fire until I could clearly see the square tips and crosses on his brown wings. The cowling and under side of the a/c were slate-gray. Opening fire at 250 yds., dead astern, I saw several strikes on his wing roots. Then, as he commenced a gentle right turn, I gave him a little lead and saw more hits all over the engine cowling, fuselage and wing fillets. He then slipped off on his right wing, in sort of a half roll, and went down in a straight dive. Still firing, I followed him down to 15,000' before breaking off. An ever-increasing trail of black smoke from his engine came back as he plummeted earthward and, just before he hit the clouds, the e/a exploded. From my position, I could see underneath the cloud layer and nothing came through the underside. I made three or four more bounces on my way back up but the Fw 190's didn't appear too eager to engage. Just as I would get within range they would split-S and circle toward the ground, attempting to suck me down. There were approximately fifty plus Fw's milling around just under the clouds. I was bounced a couple of times as I continued my climb up. As soon as I would break into their attacks, however, they would break for the deck, so I disregarded them because of gasoline. Over the melee I saw three more P-47's so we joined up and made a flight. Soon after I heard a clattering noise behind me and, breaking right sharply, I saw two Fw 190's, with belly tanks, firing at me from about 50 yds. away. They mushed around the outside of my turn and, as I reefed it in and got on their tails, they immediately headed for the deck in tight spirals. I then joined up with the flight again and we headed home. On the whole , the Jerry seemed very aggressive and determined in his attacks. I claim one Fw 190 destroyed. "