JAMES WILKINSON

78th Fighter Group 12/01/1943

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A . Type of Action C ombat B . Date 1 December 1943 C . Unit 82nd Fighter Sqdn . D . Time of Attack 1 1 2 5 hrs . E . Place of Attack Eupen A rea F . Weather 9-10 /10 cloud G . Type of Target ME 109G H . Enemy Casualties One ME 109G d estroyed . I . Account of Combat: Yellow Flight, of which I was #4, was attacked by four 109G's at 28,000 ft. Yellow leader waited until the attack developed and broke sharp left, the 109's following. Three of the E/A singled me out for their attack but two of the three broke off as I continued my left turn. The third E/A continued to press the attack down to about 20,000 ft. where he was either driven off or chose to break off the attack. Seeing my tail cleared, I started to climb back to rejoin my flight when I was again attacked by the same Hun. On being attacked, I broke down and to the right and continued to turn right down to about 8,500 ft. at which point I was beginning to turn inside the Hun , so he tried to break off the attack by diving away to the right. I followed this maneuver and, thinking that I would not be able to close on him, I took a deflection shot at extreme range. The Hun apparently though t I could not or would not close with him- -as he allowed me to get dead astern, from which position I took about three short shots at him, until it became apparant that I was closing on him quite rapidly(before he could reach cloud cover below)so I held my fire until well within range- -where I opened fire and continued to fire until the range closed to about 100-150 yards. At this point, he appeared to explode in a large burst of white smoke. I observed numerous strikes on the E/A from the range of about 450 yds. until he finally exploded. During the first phase of his attack on me, I don't believe he fired, but during the second phase(20,000 down to 8,500)he fired several times, but did not succeed in getting any strikes on me. This combat took place at approx. 1125 hrs. and lasted eleven or twelve minutes. I claim one ME 109G destroyed. JAMES W. WILKINSON 1st Lt. , Air Corps .

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

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  78th Fighter Group