WWII Pilot Combat Report - JOHN WILSON

JOHN WILSON

355th Fighter Group 01/29/1944

HEADQUARTERS 355TH FIGHTER GROUP A . P . O . 637, U.S. ARMY Pilot's P ersonal E ncounter R eport A . Combat

B . 29 January , 194 4 C . 3 5 7 t h F i gh t e r Sq uadron D . 1 1:07 E . West of Frankfurt F . Complete overcast up to 3,000 feet over the Continent. Horizontal visibility excellent, vertical good. Overcast breaking up to the south. G . FW-190 H . 1 FW-190 destroyed I . ACCOUNT OF COMBAT: I was flying Blowball Blue one at 26,000 feet when my Blue three called in two bogies at three o'clock. I did not see them for about two minutes and then was not able to identify them when I saw them at one o'clock. They appeared to be having a dogfight of their own so I started down after them . When I got close enough, I saw they were two FW-190's. I chased them to about 5,000 feet, where I opened fire on the number two man at about 600-700 yards. I was directly astern and no deflection was used. I continued firing for about five seconds and not seeing any strikes, stopped firing. The enemy aircraft took no evasive action and I opened fire again, closing to 250 yards and saw a great many strikes all along the cockpit and on the left wing. At this time, the E/A was at about 3500 feet. A few seconds later, there were two large explosions in the left wing and the plane fell off on the right wing and dropped into the overcast, out of control. When I ceased firing, I was at 3000 feet and as I turned toward the first plane, he went into the overcast. We then climbed back to 20,000 feet and came home.

JOHN H. WILSON , Captain , A ir C orps .

Official US Army Air Forces Combat Report by JOHN WILSON of the 355th Fighter Group. This material is a transcription of official reports-testimonials of JOHN WILSON's combat experience.

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