John Godfrey

Narrative: I was flying White 3 in Becky section. As we let down from 25,000 to 15,000 feet I reported bags of fighter forming up below us. They were in a gaggle flying in three's, so we orbited and took the bounce. For a while we lost them but finally caught sight of them in a Luftberry. I split up from my NO , and orbited the outskirts of the circle. I could not get inside the circle without getting a couple on my tail. One broke off and tried to break away. I closed to about 350 years and gave about a 15 degree deflection shot. I got a lucky hit and he straightened up for me. I clobbered him really good and noticed strikes in the cockpit and engine. He pulled up and rolled over with flame and smoke pouring from him. This 109 went straight in. On my second 109 I caught another one trying to sneak away. I fired at about 300 yards at this one with 10 degrees deflection. I did quite a bit of shooting and noticed striked in the cockpit and engine. The kite began to smoke and I overshot to starboard and pulled up preparing to make another attack. The jerry was smoking and losing altitud e, I guess he figured he didn't stand a chance for he bailed out at approximately 1,500 feet. Those 2 a/e were confirmed by my wingman Lt. LaJe unesse , who stuck behind me during the flight. He did a very good job On my third I saw a 109 turning on the deck. I gave flap and dove down in a stoop turn. I get very close to this one and started firing allowing quite a hit of deflection. He got lower and lower, above the trees. I had quite a job keeping on his tail as I would get in his slipstream and nearly flicked into the deck. Two of my guns jammed but I still kept firing. I saw a good strike in his cockpit and he lost speed. I overshot him slidding up to port He seemed to flick and went straight into a bunch of trees. I wanted to get a picture of him burning so I made aport turn. I looked back and found out that I had a 109 on my tail instead of my wingman. My wingman called up that he had lost me but I did not hear him. I dropped flap and made a tight turn. The 109 could not get deflection on me so I kept up the turn. Fortunately another Mustang came in and shot him off my tail. I was too shaken to get a picture of my last Jerry so I hot footed it for altitude. I claim 3 Me109's Destroyed