|
24 July 1941. S/Ldr Juliusz Frey’s relation:
Right before taking our designated place
over the escorted bombers I ordered a
change of formation, and for an instant
I could see our planes against the sun.
I had an impression that somehow they
multiplied themselves. I thought them to
be British squadron’s Spitfires, which
was flying top cover. Later, it came
apparent that some of our other pilots
thought the same thing. Then, while the
squadron’s sections were repositioning
themselves, I noticed a strange looking
Spitfire, which appeared suddenly some
60 meters from me. At that moment, we
all realized that these “Spitfires”
are German Messerschmidts. It
looked like Jerries made the same error,
mistaking our Hurricanes for their
Bf109s. A wild mêlée erupted and
Jerries tried to escape while all our
guys tried to shoot at them. Obviously,
many got in the others way and one
German took advantage of the confusion
and disappeared. The two others
weren’t so lucky. I stuck to one and
from a distance of 150 meters gave him
two short bursts. It was enough to make
him explode into flames. The other one
was trounced by Olek (F/Lt Gabszewicz).
His Jerry went for a deck smoking
heavily but managed to get away.

Pembrey. March 1941. From left: P/O Rychlicki, P/O
Nartowicz and F/O Sawicz.
1
|