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Old 3rd November 2018, 13:07
Martin Gleeson Martin Gleeson is offline
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Location: Limerick, Ireland.
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Re: 2/Lt. Frederick O Trafton

Nick,

It was not a loss at all, probably the confusion arises from the wording used.
The 308th FS flew as escort to RAF Baltimores bombing Pantelleria on 6 June 1943. They were attacked by "eight ME 109s" which managed to single Trafton out and made numerous attacks on him. When some of his squadron came to help him he managed to dive away and flew straight back to their base in Tunisia, "arriving well ahead of the rest of the flight". Hence the use of 'returned' I think.

My source for the above is 'IN A NOW FORGOTTEN SKY' (The 31st Fighter Group in WW2) by Dennis C. Kucera, page 92.

Regards,

Martin Gleeson.
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