VERNON BURROUGHS

Combat B . 29 March, 194 4 C . 3 5 7 t h F i gh t e r Sq uadron D . 1 340 E . Area northeast of Brunswick F . Clouds from 7,000 feet down to 4,000 feet; 8/10's coverage G . FW 190 's and locomotive with 20 cars H . 2 FW 190 's destroyed ; 2 FW 190's damaged; 1 locomotive with 20 cars (freight train) destroyed (shared with Lt. McN e ff and Lt. Mendenhall ). I . ACCOUNT OF COMBAT: I was flying Blowball Red 2 . We attacked a formation of 50 FW 190's and Red 1 was concentra ting on one of the FW 190's when their tail-end-Charlie started after Red 1. I gave him a burst from about 800 yards, seeing a few strikes, and driving him off the tail of Red 1. We then went through the bomber formation and I lost my flight. I climbed up and spotted 5 FW 190's in a string formation, and I attacked the last one, firing from about 400 yards with a 45 degree deflection. I did not see the effect of my fire but as I swung up to take evasive action from an E/A which was attacking me, I saw the right wing of the FW 190 I had fired on, crumble and about five feet of it fall off. The E/A peeled right straight down. He was going at least 450 to 475 miles per hour when this happened. I ducked into a large cloud, losing the E/A which had been firing on me. As I came out of the cloud, I joined with OS-X, Lt. McNeff and attacked two long-nosed FW 190's. I chased these two through the cloud and fired at the No. 2, opening fire at 200 yards with a 30 degree deflection, observing hits on his elevator and fuselage. He immediately began to smoke badly, peeled up and went into a violent spin. I was so sure I had finished him off that I didn't bother to follow him any further. This action took place at about 6,000 feet. There were engagements all over the sky and it wasn't healthy to be stooging around following a plane very long. We were all being chased by FW 190's all the time. I climbed to 15,000 feet, picked up Lt. McNeff and WR-X, Lt. Mendenhall, and we started to attack a freight train in the Steinhuder Lake area. I hit the locomotive all over, and pulled up, spotting an FW 190 at about 3,500 feet. I attacked him, fired one long burst from dead astern, another from 30 degrees and a third, head-on, observing some hits in all phases of the attack. I broke off this attack due to intense ground fire, and came home. I claim the FW 190 whose wing crumbled, as destroyed and the FW 190 which caught fire as destroyed, and the other two FW 190's as damaged. I also claim the freight train with 20 cars destroyed, the train shared with Lt. McNeff and Lt. Mendenhall.