M.K. WOLLER

A. Type of Action Combat

B. Date 19 May 1944

C. Unit 82nd Fighter Squadron

D. Time of Attack 1240 hours

E. Place of Attack Dummer Lake Area

F. Weather 7/10 middle cloud

G. Type of Target Me-109s

H. Enemy Casualties 2 Me-109's destroyed.

I. Account of Combat: I was leading Surtax Yellow flight, escorting bombers east to Brunswick. My flight had positioned itself at 11 o'clock on the bombers, same level, along with Blue flight. Blue flight called out a gaggle of Bogies approaching head-on, and when this gaggle of about 30-40 came parallel to us, I identified them as Bandits. We started to break into them, when another gaggle of about 20-30 e/a approached directly behind the first bunch. When this second gaggle came 90 degrees from us, I broke into them. About ½ of this second gaggle of Bandits split-essed for the deck and the rest scattered. We dropped our tanks and went after them. I closed to about 500 yards on two Me-109s. I fired my first burst as I closed on one of the e/a as we reached the deck. My burst was low. On my second burst, I saw numerous hits and pieces flew off and one wheel came down. I followed him around in a turn firing several more short bursts and he nosed down and hit the ground and blew up; I took pictures of this. I looked around for the other of the two I had caught up with and saw three P-47s chasing it in and out of the clouds. The e/a came out of one of the clouds and headed for another. The P-47s were out of position to shoot at it, and I had a very good opportunity to get in a good burst. I fired two short bursts from about 300 yards, and saw strikes in the cockpit on the second burst. Pieces flew off and he went into the clouds in an uncontrolled spin. I circled the cloud and saw him spin out of it and crash, bursting into flames. I took a picture of the fire on the ground. My flight got together and we went home. I claim two Me-109's destroyed.