ROSCOE RUSSELL

A . Combat B . March 2 , 194 4 C . 3 5 8 t h F i gh t e r Sq uadron D . 142 0 H ou rs E . S .E. of Charleroi F . 3/10th Cum. G . FW 190 H . 1 FW 190 destroyed , shared with F / O Dudley . I . We had just left R/V and had been vectored inland when we spotted 2 FW 190's headed N.E. These e/a were diving from app. 18,000'. Trooptrain Leader dispatched Green Flight, with Blue Flight to cover, to bounce them. Lt Gresham was leading and I was Green #3. We peeled off after the e/a which were flying in app. line abreast formation. Evidently they saw us coming so they split, one going to the right and the other to the left. Lt Gresham took the one that turned left and I took the other. The pilot of the e/a didn't seem to know what kind of evasive action to take. He tried short sharp turns to right and left and what seemed to be skidding turns down. There was no violent evasive action at all. I had my throttle fire walled and was indicating about 500 mph and wasn't closing too fast so I started firing at about 500 yards. I cut this down to about 300 yards and observed hits on the left wing. I increased my lead and closed in at the same time and at about 100 yards observed that I was getting hits on the fuselage and cockpit. At this time I saw the cockpit fly off and the e/a seemed to slow down. When I broke off , the e/a was in a right turn going down. This gave my wing man, F.O. Dudley, Green #4, an excellent shot and he followed him down to about 13,000'. My wing man gave me wonderful cover and Blue Flight was doing a darn good job in covering Green Flight. We rejoined our flight immediately after the attack. In view of the heavy damage inflicted upon the e/a by my wing man and myself, I claim one FW 190 destroyed shared with F.O. Dudley .