Walter Frederick

A. Combat.

b. 4 July 1944.

c. 63rd Fighter Squadron, 56th Fighter Group.

d. 1830

e. N. of Chateaundun – Conches – Evreux

f. Good vis . 8/10 cloud coverage.

g. Me- 109, FW 190, trucks.

h. One Me- 109 destroyed. Shared with Lieutenant Curtis, One FW 190 damaged, 6 trucks destroyed. i . I was flying in daily squadron leading Red Flight c onsisting of myself, Lieutenants Albright, Dale and F la g

g. As 10/10 cloud coverage prevented us from dive bombing our brief ed target, Daily White and Red Flights dive bombed as small. M/Y at Nogent , scoring several direct hits. I broke off to the left and called in three trucks. Moving on the road heading east to Chateaundun . Colonel Zemke made about four passes with his flight on these three trucks, So I went cruising down the highway to Chateaudum at 2000 feet. Red Two didn't release his bombs on our bomb run. So he went off by himself and Red three and four followed him. I saw six trucks leading to the Chateaundun and went down on them, setting fire or exploding all six of them. I climbed up to 15,000 feet, rejoined Colonel Zemke and picked up my flight. Daily Blue and Yellow Flights went down and dive bomb La N euve , So I sent Red Two down to follow them and we stayed above to give cover. Red 2 finally rejoined us, as Platform was calling in many bandits. I saw a P-47 in a left hand Luftberry Me 109 at about 5000 feet. The 47 was firing at the e/ a and after firing at the e/a overshot. I dove on the M e 109 and came up on his tail at 100 yard s I d obbered the 109, the pilot bailed out, the plane caught fire and then crashed into the ground with a big explosion. I hit a tree top in pulling out but climbed back to 12,000 feet. The other P-47 who I saw firing at the e/a w as Lieutenant Curtis. I had plenty of gas so I started an orbit when I saw an FW 190 headed South on the deck over Louv i ers and I went down on him. I opened fire at 100 yards and saw strikes on his left wing. As I overshot, I pulled up and saw him start to do a wing over, but he recovered and kept flying. Red Two didn't fire, so I came down again and close d to 100 yards with water injection. I chased him right o n the deck down to Evr e ux and fired short burst from 50 to 100 yards, observing strikes on his right wing, tail section and fuselage, But he wouldn't go down. We both hit the trees on the deck, and once I saw his prop dig up dirt from a field. As my trace rs appeared, I knew my ammunition was low, but still fired, t he last of my ammunition going into his right wing. I damaged his pl ane severely. I claim 1 Me 109 destroyed, ( sharing same with Lieutenant Curtis ) ; One FW 190 severely damaged; 6 trucks destroyed. WALTER R. FREDERICK, 1 st Lt. Air Corps