[andy bird]

Bergen,

Page 66 - A Separate Little War (This is the unedited version)

At Peterhead seven Mustangs picked up with 2 Lib's. at 15.00 hrs the formation turned on a southerly coarse after a monotonous flight nearing the Norwegian coast at a height of 1,000 ft a Mustang on the edge of the protective umbrella, piloted by Antoni Ciundziewski flying FB391 on its port side spotted some thing grey on the surface with a slight wake behind. Peeling away to investigate and levelling off at 70 feet, he found a tug towing a barge at 8 knots. He attacked with m/g going from port to starboard across the tug. With the sea swell, rising quite heigh he gained another 30ft for safety. Suddenly, he was up against well concealed camouflaged gun positions on the shore, shortly afterwards light 37mm flak from Marstein Light joined. With his section leader bellowing voice in his headphones, to regroup on the other six Mustangs, against his expressed orders Ciundziewski began a strafing run on the shore emplacements seconds later he reported being hit, with his Merlin struggling and oil splattering the perspex his leader shouted 'Bail Out' (this was picked up by a RAF W/T Station) With a second hit the Mustang caught alit and lost height immediately. The gunners had great satisfaction of seeing the single-engine fighter ploughing into the sea at 15.49 hrs (German Time) the machine was seen to topple over in the seas swell. Antoni Ciundziewski was not seen to surface from the stricken craft and no parachute or dinghy is sighted or reported by his colleagues or the Liberator crews upon their return to Scottish shores.

KInd Regards

Andy Bird