[phasselgren]

Sinisa,

Thanks for the reply. It seems that most or probably all of the bombers claims were exaggerated but I am sure they were made in good faith. I have read that gunners normally flying night operations believed that normal smoke from the Bf 109-engine was instead caused by fire with claims like “M.E. 109 down in flames” as result. On another daylight operation following claims were made: “observed to dive steeply away with the engine emitting black smoke” and “following a well-aimed burst by him, one of the enemy aircraft turned over and dived vertically.”

However the pilot was seen to bale out from one of the Bf109s. If no German pilot baled out from his aircraft maybe it was a British pilot they saw. One 79 Sqn Hurricane was lost (pilot Sgt. G.H.N. Davey: KIA) but I have so far not found any details of this loss.

Peter