JAMES DICKSON

A . Combat B . February 20 , 194 4 C . 3 5 8 t h F i gh t e r Sq uadron D . 1420 hrs. E . Vicinity of Marienberg, Germany F . Solid Cum. Layer at 9 000' with slight haze . Visibility was good. G . Me 109 H . One Me 109 destroyed . I . We were just making R/V with the bombers from up sun on the left, rear side. I was flying Number 3 position in Trooptrain Red Flight, when I saw 7 Me 109's line astern and making many attacks on the rear box of bombers. I called them in to Sunshade (who was also my flight leader). He answered that he didn't see them. He made a left bank in the direction that I had indicated but still couldn't locate the e/a. I therefore broke down from the formation on the tail of 2 of the 7 e/a, from 27,000' to 15,000' which was a little below bomber level. They had just completed a pass on the bombers on the left side and had just knocked one B-24 down. This B-24 exploded and no chutes were seen. The two I was bouncing had become separated from the other five. I started firing on the rear one of these two from approximately 1,000 yards expecting the e/a to Split-S any minute and I didn't want to miss my chance. I closed very fast, so I stopped firing at 500 yards on their level, closing my throttle back. I closed to 200 yards and commenced firing again with a half ring deflection from directly astern. Pieces started flying off the e/a and he started smoking badly but still no evasive action on his part. I imagine I closed to about 25 yards before I ran out of ammunition and still the e/a did not explode. The e/a in front of him Split-S'd out and down, so I came up along side the tail and Charlie I was shooting at and saw that he was dead, slumped over to the left side of the cockpit. The e/a then started a slight dive to the left so I pulled up and joined a flight of P-47's at 15,000'. I last saw the e/a going over to the left and down. I left him at 12,000' and it was obvious that the plane was out of control, the pilot was dead and the a/c was going straight down. I claim one Me 109 destroyed .