Hubert Zemke

61 st Fighter Squadron, 56 th Fighter Group Approximately 1635 hours In the vicinity of Groningen, Holland 10/10 cloud at 6,000 feet. Visibility unlimited Focke-Wulf 190 One FW 190 destroyed 1. While flying at 27,000 feet to the rear of the second box of bombers, a lone FW 190 was seen directly below some several thousand feet and in back of the bomber formation at least a mile. This enemy aircraft lazily circled perhaps twice and set a course south into occupied territory. I endeavored twice to start a dive from above, but was unable to because of the difference in altitude and the distance between us. At any rate, this aircraft flew in a direct line and again I was able to pick him up. At a point somewhere over Groningen, Holland, I rolled over in a dive to come out approximately on his level and some several hundred yards to the rear. My convergence speed on him was fairly rapid, and at a point four to five hundred yards away, I saw that he was beginning to turn to the right. Two other pilots in P-47's had followed me down, covering the positions on both my flanks. When the enemy aircraft began to turn right, I decided that it would not take him very long to break, so I put three-fourths of a ring deflection on him and let a burst or perhaps fifteen to twenty rounds go. Immediately strikes were registered over the entire aircraft and the plane waivered for a moment, to fly straight away. The next burst was fired directly from the rear at approximately 400 yards, and there were perhaps another fifteen rounds fired from each gun. Strikes were again registered and the aircraft begin burning from the bottom as well as trail a long cloud of smoke. At about 350 yards another burst of perhaps fifteen or twenty rounds was fired as the aircraft went down in a shallow dive. The deflection this time was again approximately three-fourths of a ring. When the shots registered, the left undercarriage of the aircraft came down and more smoke was expelled from the aircraft as it went into a vertical dive. 2. I immediately recovered by pulling up from the left and after gaining altitude to 23,000 feet, began to turn, but the enemy had by then gone through the overcast below and was not seen. Both Major Stewart and Lt. Sheehan will confirm my statements on this claim. 3. An average of fifty-five rounds from each gun was fired at this aircraft. A couple of points of interest, was that this aircraft was identified as having large perturbances under each wing. Also the pilot must have been young and inexperienced, for he flew in a straight line for a long time and did not seem to take any evasive action. This fact allowed me to converge on him with not too great an effort. It is also believed that he was killed outright when the first burst of machine gun fire struck his aircraft, for he leveled out and took no great deal of evasive action until the airplane fell off.