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Re: Fighter or Flak
From”Wespennest Leeuwarden, part 3”by A.A. Jansen, ISBN: 90 6045 142 2, page 206-213
Major Jabs had been on an inspection of the III gruppe at St. Trond. During this daylight flight his other crewman were; bordfunker Lt.Erich Weisseflog and bordschutze Ofw. Johann Poppelmeyer. While over Nijmegen he saw several German fighters circling Fl.Pl. Deelen. Suddenly he identified 8 of them as Spitfires and they were attacking him. He was barely able to evade a stream of cannon fire. When the spitfires regrouped he decided that an attack was the best defence. He pointed his nose at the nearest Spitfire an fired. It caused F/O John Caulton to crash-land his Spitfire FF-G, MK639 in a nearby field. Jabs’s manoeuvre has frustrated the attack and the spitfires regrouped again. Jabs used the opportunity to head at full throttle toward the fliegerhors for a fast landing. The Spit’s were however to fast an again Jabs had to turn an fight. Again this manoeuvre surprised the Spit’s. He fired at a turning Spit which went down as well. P/O Pullin tried to crash-land but failed and died near Beekbergen. His own machine was now riddled with bullets, had one smoking engine and had several large holes in the wings.
Again he tried to land. As soon as the wheels touched the runway he shouted to his men to get out. While they were runnin towards a trench the Spitfires shot up the Me110.
F/O Caulton (RNZAF)was only lightly wounded. And spend some time at Deelen. He received a note with instructions to treat him well.
In 1970 Jabs received a letter from Caulton, who had heard that he was still alive. In 1972 they met in Lüdenscheid.
No details on Jabs's Me110 and a Flak responce.
Dennis
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