Joe Powers
56th Fighter Group 02/24/1944
H. Powers Jr. Keyworth White Three a . Combat b . 24 February, 1944 c . 6 1st Fighter Squadron , 56th Fighter Group d . 1 3 0 5 hours approx. e . Minden f . CAVU g . FW-190 h . One FW-190 destroyed i . I was fly ing Keyworth White 3 . As we made r/v with the bombers, I called in a 109 at 20,000 which was heading into the bombers from 11 o'clock. White One started down but the 109 had too much speed. We continued on the track and again went down on some 190's which were attacking the bombers. At this time I observed two 47's with 2 190's on their tail. I called to them to break and headed into the 190's. Then I noticed that the s e 47's being chased were not from our group since they had White noses. I tried to get on the tail of the lead 190. However due to my sp eed I mushed past him and lined up on the No. 2 man. This No. 2 man saw us and started violent evasive action. He snaprolled, split essed, rolled and dived. I was firing in short bursts every so often and finally found myself about 500 yds behind him at 4,000 ft. At this time my engine began to detonate and I could get no closer. I observed intermittent strikes. I finally broke off at 500 feet and watched the 190 go into the deck on the outskirts of Minden, scattering himself quite beautiful ly across the landscape. I didn't realize what was wrong with my engine and started up nursing it along climbing very slowly and taking quite a bit of flak evasion since the gunners in the vicinity didn't seem to like us particularl y. We came home without further incident. I claim one FW-190 d estroyed . j. 6 4 0 rds .50 cal A.P.I.
Official US Army Air Forces Combat Report by Joe Powers of the 56th Fighter Group. This material is a transcription of official reports-testimonials of Joe Powers's combat experience.
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