H. Two (2) FW 190s destroyed, two (2) FW 190s damaged
I. Lt Col Scruggs
I was Group leader (Armstrong) on an escort mission to Leipzig, escorting the lead box of B-17's, and was about five minutes from the target at 26,000 feet when several flights of FW 190’s and ME 109's made a head-on attack.
One flight of FW 190’s came in slightly below and to the left of my flight so I dropped tanks and and split-Sed down behind them. They immediately went into a diving turn to tbe left toward some broken clouds which were around 10,000 feet. We followed, closing rapidly, and went into a Luftberry to the left at 15,000 feet.
I closed in on their number 4 man and started to fire when I looked back and saw another FW 190 on my tail; I didn’t break because my wingman, Lt. Knott, fired on the E/A and he broke away.
By this time I was very close to #4 so I gave him one ring deflection and fired a long burst, getting strikes all over his plane. I went under him and noticed one side of his landing gear fallen down; he was smoking badly, he did did a slow half-roll and went down, crashing in a wooded area. I CLAIM THIS FW 190 DESTROYED.
At this time I saw two FW 190s dead ahead going 90 degrees to my line of flight; I attacked the #2 and gave him a long burst from about 300 yards and 30 degrees, observed several strikes along his fuselage. He went into a steep dive and I followed because I didn’t think I’d finished him; I followed him through clouds at 10,000 feet and as I broke out saw him still going down. I began to pull out as he crashed in an open field and burst into flames. I CLAIM THIS FW 190 DESTROYED.
I looked over to the left and saw a column of smoke coming from the wooded area where the first plane crashed, it wasn’t more than a mile away. I also saw a parachute coming down near there.
I climbed back through the clouds, which were only about 500 feet thick, and just as I broke out I saw a lone FW 190. I attacked and he dived through the clouds, I followed and as he broke out below I fired a short burst; got a few strikes but he pulled back up in the clouds and I lost him. I CLAIM THIS FW 190 damaged.
I climbed back to 12,000 feet, saw another FW 190, and attacked. This one didn’t dive away and we went into a dog fight that lasted for about ten minutes. Everytime I got on his tail he would dive into a cloud; another trick he pulled was to dive below the cloud, pull up into it, chop his throttle, and as I went past under the cloud he would drop down behind me. At one time I was directly behind him at 50 yards range; I fired and got strikes on both sides of his fuselage but he didn’t go down. He broke as I over-ran him and we came at each other head-on, both firing. My gas was getting very low so I pulled up into the cloud and headed for home. I CLAIM THIS FW 190 DAMAGED.
Total claims: TWO (2) FW 190's DESTROYED, TWO (2) FW 190’s DAMAGED.
PILOT A/C No. A/C Ltr Ammo Exp.
Lt Col Scruggs 44-13527 B 1140