Wayne O'Connor

1st Lt. Wayne J. O'Connor a . Combat b . 27 September 1943 c . 6 3rd Fighter Squadron , 56 th Fighter Group d . 1 0 35 h ou rs e . Near Borkum Island f . 8 /10 cloud, with some haze g . Me 109 h . 1 Me 109 d estroyed i . Near Borkum Island I was flying Postgate White 3 at 26,000 feet about 3,000 feet over the bombers who were passing under us 90 degrees to our path. I saw about 25 FW 190's and Me 109's at 3 o'clock to me, making level tail attacks on the bombers. I called them in to my Squadron leader, Capt. Burke, and peeled down. I was in position to fire at one FW 190, but did not as I mistook him for a P-47 because of a rocket gun or tank under his fuselage. I pulled up in a chandelle to the right and saw a Me 109 starting a tail attack on the bombers. I peeled down on him and gave him a short burst at 30 degrees deflection from 500 yards. I observed no hits and since he was in a bank to the right, I held my fire until I was directly astern at 300 yards and started firing again. This time I saw strikes on his tail and wing roots. His prop wash was tossing me violently around. I kept closing to around 50 yards, where I ran out of ammunition. As I pulled up to miss him, his canopy flew by beneath my left wing. I slid over him, missing him about 75/100 feet. I could see the pilot slumped over to his right. His helmet was gone and I could see blood covering the left side of his neck and shoulders. Evidently his engine had stopped because the prop was windmilling very slowly. As I watched, he slowly rolled over and went into a spin. I pulled up and rejoined my wing man, Lt. Wisniewski, who was about 1,000 feet above me to my left. Almost immediately, Lt. Windmayer (Postgate Blue 4) joined us. We returned to the base together. I claim 1 Me 109 destroyed. WAYNE J. O'CONNOR , 1st Lt. , Air Corps .