G.M. TURLEY

78th Fighter Group 02/11/1944

---

A. Type of Action Combat B. Date 11 February 1944 C. Unit 82nd Fighter Squadron D. Time of Attack 1310 hours E. Place of Attack Verdun Area F. Weather CAVU - Ground Haze G. Type of Target ME-109 & FW-190 H. Enemy Casualties One ME-109 & one FW-190 destroyed. I. Account of Combat: I was flying Churchtime Blue 3, at 20,000 ft., on an escort mission into northern France. At 1310 hrs., just after R/V with bombers, a goggle of Bandits were at 6 o'clock low on the bombers. Lt. Hockery, my flight leader, started down, closely followed by myself. It looked as if there were 109's all over the sky. I saw at least ten as we were going down. When we got down to 9,000 ft., just above a broken cloud layer, I tagged onto a 109, who had just entered a cloud and acted as if he were positioning himself to bounce Lt. Hockery. When I came out of the cloud, at 7,000 ft., I had closed to about 600 yds. and the E/A was in a slight diving turn to the right. Closing to 300 yds., I shot a burst but believe with not enough deflection. At 250 yds., I fired a three second burst, seeing a mass of strikes and flame all over the cockpit and wing roots and then saw it explode. The E/A started down out of the control trailing blue gray smoke. As there were numerous E/A below the clouds and I was by myself, I had to climb into the cloud before the plane had time to crash. The last time I saw him, he was still going down trailing thick blue gray smoke. After I had pulled up through the cloud, I saw an E/A positioning himself to bounce an unidentified P-47. I broke into him, getting a couple of 90 degrees deflection shots at close range. I observed no strikes. This E/A killed most of his speed and was out turning me. There were two other E/A in the immediate vicinity and no P-47 s. We were at about 5,000 ft. so I hit the deck; they didn't even attempt to follow me- -once I was at tree top height. I out-distanced them easily in the dive. Of course, I hadn't allowed my air speed to get as low as the Hun next to me. After flying 310 degrees for ten minutes at 325 MPH on the deck, I pulled up and observed an air field. On approaching, I noted 6-8 E/A parked on the right side of the field- -mostly FW-190's- -and one 190 taking off towards me. I was on the left of the field myself, so decided to take the E/A taking off, as I was in no position to strafe the planes on the drome. They were about 50 yds apart, practically in a straight line, parked on level ground. I did a 180 degree turn at ground level right over the runway and opened fire at 250 yds. on the plane taking off- -just as his wheels retracted. I saw strikes at both wing roots, and as I closed they spread on out on the wings themselves. The flak started bursting all around and tracers were going under my left wing as I broke to the left and started weaving. At the time I broke off my attack, the E/A was approx. 100-150 ft. off the ground and off the field. After turning, to the left and then to the right, I could see the E/A burning in a little meadow, possibly 600 yds. from the end of the runway. I kept weaving for about a mile and tracers were getting close, but my aircraft received no damage. G.M. TURLEY 2nd Lt., Air Corps

---

Official US Army Air Forces Combat Report by G.M. TURLEY of the 78th Fighter Group. This material is a transcription of official reports-testimonials of G.M. TURLEY's combat experience.

---

  78th Fighter Group