Robert Johnson

Captain Robert S. Johnson Keyworth Blue One a . Combat b . 1 5 March 1944 c . 6 1st Fighter Squadron , 56 th Fighter Group d . 1 0 30 to 1 0 4 0 hours e . Ten miles N.E. of Dummer Lake f . Low 8 /10 c l o u d s - h azy g . Two FW-190 's and one ME-109 h . Two FW-190's and one ME-109 destroyed i . I was flying Keyworth Blue Leader. We were at 9 o'clock to the lead box of bombers at 23000 ft. going east with them. Red and White flights were on my right, slightly behind. I called in several bogies at 9 o'clock and above us some 5 or 6 miles away. I started climbing and called for help as I identified them as E/A at about 23000 ft. I then saw a large box of about 40 to 50 E/A at about 23000 ft. and at 1 o'clock to us. We had climbed to about 27000 ft. The top box was about 33 or 34000 ft. We started down into the lower box to break them up so that they could not hit the bombers as a force. I attacked the last 8 FW-190's from astern and they all rolled over and went to the deck. Then the ME-109's from the top cover with white painted bellies and under wings crossed by diagonal black stripes, hit us. By this time, as we pulled up, I had plenty of help. P-38's and P-47's were there in force and scattered the E/A about 5 miles north of the bombers. I then came head on with a FW-190 about 16000 ft. , turned and got on his tail. I pulled inside of him and gave a very short burst. He rolled over and bailed out. I pulled up sharply and got on another FW-190's tail. I fired 2 or 3 short bursts, seeing most of his canopy blown away. He then tumbled and twisted straight down and hit the ground in a good open spot. I was then by myself and looking for more targets. I covered 5 or 6 red-nosed P-47's climb, until they got to about 10 or 11000 ft. when I spotted an ME-109 right on top of the clouds. I called these P-47's and said I was going down. I throttled back completely, check my needle and ball and leveled out behind him. I was pretty disappointed when I got about 400 yds. behind him and he went into a cloud at 3000 ft. I started to follow him when he came out again. I gave him a short burst and he went to pieces, burned and split S'ed into the clouds. We were doing about 300 or 3 2 5 mph. then. I then looked around for some more but could only find little friends, so headed home. I claim 2 FW-190 's d estroyed and 1 ME-109 destroyed .