James Byers

Pilot: Lieut. James

F. Byers Date (a) July 1 1943 Unit (b) 84th Fighter Squadron Type & Mark of Our Aircraft (c) F-47 D Number of Enemy Aircraft (d) Approximately 12 Type of Enemy AIrcraft (e) FW 190's Time of Attack (f) 1620 hours Place of Attack (g) Over Brielle, Holland Weather (h) Clear-visibility unlimited-some low cloud Height of Enemy Aircraft (i) 27,000' Enemy Casulaties (j) One FW 190 destroyed Statement of Claim: I was flying Yellow Three in Captain Irvin's flight. As we approached the Dutch Coast at 30,000', indicating 230 MPH, we noticed contrails out to our right, and a little ahead. We made a right hand turn of 90 degs. just after crossing the Coast; at that time the contrails were directly ahead of us and below. We were traveling S/W about ten miles inland. Colonel Peterson said: "They are Huns", and started down to a head-on attack. Captain Irvin went into a gentle dive, I was flying on his left, about fifty yards out from his left wing. I could see the e/a below about 5,000'. There seemed to be about eight e/a within my range of vision, flying in loose pairs and pairs scattered with no semblance of a formation. I picked out a pair, flying line astern, and peeled off to the right in a diving turn. As I did so I could see shell bursts from their cannon in combat below. It was a red flash and puffs of black smoke; it seemed to be at about 5,000 below. I dived straight down after my target. In the dive I felt a buffeting effect over the whole plane. I realized my dive was too steep and fast to pull out in position on my target, so I went on below them, pulling out at about 20,000' to regain my altitude, and make another pass. As always pulling back up I noticed too FW 190s at about seven o'clock , and turned 2,000' above (or at 22,000') . I pulled back up above and turned to the left and down behind the new targets, which were FW190s with red noses. They made a very slight turn to the left, flying inland and a southeast direction. I took a 30 deg. deflection shot on the leader, it was flying to the left of the second plane. My target leveled out and so did

I. This gave me a direct stern shot at about 300 yards. When I got my second burst in from line astern , I saw flashes all over the target from tail plane to wing roots. I closed in to about 100 yd, firing steadily with flashes on the target all the time. I broke off slightly to the left with idea of getting to the second plane that had begun to break the left. Also. I lined the second plane up as he made a banking turn and drew my nose through his line of flight, and gave him a 3 second burst. I leveled out and as I did so, this second plane turned over to the right on his back and split S'd down with lots of black smoke trailing, which could have been from too much gas to his engine. I did not see any strikes on the second plane. After the second plane split S'd , I lost him. This action took place about 22,000', S/E of Brielle. We started to look for other targets, making it almost complete orbit to the left. The other e/a appeared in line astern flying N/E about 2,000 yards to the right, slightly below. I made a right hand turn to attack, and as I did so I saw another e/a coming toward us from the right, going in the opposite direction, and heading right for our tails. Looking off to my left at about coming toward us from the right, going in the opposite direction, and heading right for our tails. Looking off to my left at about seven o'clock position and about 3,000' above, I saw three more e/a heading for us. We then split S'd and dove for the deck. We started this diet from about 18,000' , and ended up about 10 miles off the Coast, indicating over 600 MPH. Set course and came back on the deck until we saw a mine-sweeper with two Marauders circling. I pulled up, waggled my wings for recognition, and pulled up to 3,000' through the cloud, and then on home. Lieut. Pearson it's not my first target blow up. The FW190s I attacked were a dark blue color with red noses. I make claim for one FW 190 destroyed.