Walter Beckham

A. Combat

B. 2 October, 1943

C. 351st Fighter Squadron

D. 1610 hours

E. Vicinity of Eden

F. Solid overcast at 11,000 feet

G. FW 190 ME 109

H. One FW 190 destroyed One ME 109 probable

I. I was leading Roughman Blue Flight. Joined the bombers just before they made a left turn. They were heading south, and turned to Eastward. Took up our position on the left hand side (northern) of them. Major Duncan, the group leader reported an E/A attacking the middle box of bombers from 12 O clock. I saw this E/A from a long ways off and made a right turn to attack him. He completed his head-on attack (all by himself so far as I could see) on the bombers and I felt that I had very little chance of catching him, thinking that he would half-roll and go down to the cloud layer. However he made a left turn, apparently to make another attack, or to position himself for one. Then, probably when he saw us coming, from about head-on, above him and still quite a long ways off, he turned to the left, away from us in a diving turn. I followed closing rapidly. He made a steep climbing turn to the right. During this steep turn I fired a short burst with some deflection seeing no strikes, then a burst from dead astern and close range that seemed to strike mainly on the fuselage and right wing root, starting white and then black smoke that poured from the right hand side of the fuselage. He rolled on over on his back and I was closing so fast that I went by as he started down. We all saw him enter the clouds (at about 11,000 feet) going straight down with a large steam of black smoke pouring out. Action was at 15,000 to 16,000 feet. At this point, Lt Kenny, my #3 saw another E/A that I did not see, and made an unsuccessful attack on it. Immediately after this a ME 109 passed just below me and almost head-on. Could not identify him soon enough to fire. I made a steep as possible climbing turn to the left keeping the ME 109 in sight. He made a left turn also, so that I had to turn about 270 degrees to follow him. I was, of course, a long ways off by this time, but had a small altitude advantage and pushed everything to the fire wall again. Began to close fairly soon and am sure the 109 pilot saw me for he went into a sharp left turn, diving slightly. If he was doing his maximum rate of turn, which he certainly should have been under the circumstances, it is safe to say that the 47 will outturn the 109, because I had very little difficulty in definitely turning inside of him. Fired all along during this turn, guess at 20 to 35 degrees of deflection, and was very disappointed to observe no strikes. Increased my lead until I could barely see the 109 over the engine cowling, still being unrewarded. He decided to enter the clouds (solid, the top being at 11,000 to 11,500 feet.). But made the bad mistake of rolling out of his turn a second or two before entering them, letting me get a point blank shot fronded astern. Immediately saw strikes and smoke from about the same location as the first #/A (right hand side of fuselage or right wing root). He then disappeared into the clouds and I was a little too bashful to follow. Rejoined bombers in about 5 minutes. Saw no E/A except these two during the entire flight. I had fired 1135 rounds (API), the major part at the second one with deflection and no strikes. I claim the first on as destroyed, and the second as probable.