[Ludovico Slongo]

Hello to all,

regarding the air combats of the morning of August the 14th 1942 I've had a quick look into my books (all secondary sources) and this is what I've found.

Starting with "Fighters over the desert" :
A combined action against the Axis airstrips of Fuka and Daba started at around 06.20 with the take off of a formation of twelve Baltimores escorted by twenty-two South African Kittyhawks coming from 2 SAAF and 4 SAAF aimed at LG 18. Ten minutes later (i.e. at 6.30) Twelve P40s of 260 Squadron and six P40s of 57 FG took off to cover twelve Boston attacking Fuka.

BTW from previous studies of a friend of mine on the air war in the sector it seems that there was sistematically an hour of difference in the reports of Axis and Allied during summer 1942, this means that the take off hours of those bombers and fighters were 5.20 and 5.30 in Axis time.

"Eagles Strike" a book on SAAF operations written in 1974 by James Ambrose Brown (a book that made extensive use of the pieces of info contained in FOTD) reported a slightly different version:
On 14 August Colonel Martin ordered No. 24 Squadron to make a dawn take off. The target was dispersed aircraft at LG 19. Escorts were provided by three South African fighter Squadrons Nos, 2,4 and 5. After take off from LG 99 the eleven Bostons and twelve Baltimores formed up in the familiar formidable squadron vic so well-known to the armies below, eleven Kittyhawks of 2 Squadron swarmed around the Baltimores in close escort while eleven of No 4 Squadron took position as top cover; twelve Tomahawks of No 5 Squadron gave close and medium cover to the Bostons which were briefed to attack Fuka station and the dispersed aircraft near it.(...) The formation of 57 aircraft claimed five direct hit at LG 19 and started fires at Fuka station.

"Desert Warriors" by Russel Brown (another book that used FOTD as reference) reported that (...) on 14 August, twelve aircraft of 260 Squadron with another six from the 57 FG escorted Bostons to bomb Fuka station.

"P40 Warhawk aces of the MTO" by Carl Molesworth says: On the morning of 14 August 1942, six pilots of the 57 FG were assigned to fly with No 260 Sqd RAF while providing top cover for 12 South African Boston bombers attacking Fuka station.

So it seems that there were around 23 bombers escorted by 52 P40s of 2 SAAF,4 SAAF,5 SAAF, 260 and 57FG that attacked in the early morning Fuka and Daba

And now let's see the air combats:

Fighters over the Desert: (...) 4 SAAF, flying top cover reported being attacked by seven plus Bf 109s and MC 202s. Lt Wilson and Lt. Hancock failing to return and Lt. Woodliffe belly-landed his aircraft at base with badly damaged tail unit. (...).
Shores&Ring then described the actions and concluded suggesting that four pilots of the 260/57 formation failed to return but were all reported safe later, that makes for seven P40s shot down.
One of the pilots shot down was 1st Lt William O'Neil Junior of the 65 FS 57 FG, "P40 Warhawk aces of the MTO" reads: flying on the wing of Australian ace Ron Cundy, he spotted a Bf 109 below him to the right and broke off to attack it . He soon found himself overwhelmed by five Messerschmitt fighters and after a brief but fierce dogfight was shot down and bailed out over the Mediterranean sea (...).
The other three losses of the 260/57 formation are confirmed by Russel Brown in "Desert Warriors": The formation was consistently harried by Bf 109s of II/JG 27 and III/JG 53, losing two aircraft from top cover. Ron Cundy (ET 1016 HS-D) claimed one probable Bf109 and the CO Sqd. Ldr. Devenish, force-landed.
The South Africa losses are confirmed by "Eagles Strike" :
While on the way back home over LG 104 a storm of flak holed eleven of the twelve Baltimores and nine "enemy planes attacked" the escort without penetrating to the bombers and N°4 SAAF lost Lt. W.H. Hancock, Lt. D. Woodliffe belly landed as did a pilot of the USAAF tagging along for experience (...) fighters brought down one enemy aircraft but lost four in the attacks by Maccis and Messerschmitts, nine of which tackled 34 South African fighters.
Michael Lavigne and 260 veteran James Edwards in "Kittyhawks over the sands" gave a detailed reconstruction of the confused combats and concluded that two planes of the 260 were lost to enemy action: Sqd. Ldr. Devenish and W.O. Bowerman and one, P.O. Grant Aitchinson (HS-B AK 670) was heavily damaged by axis action but finished off by an Hurricane in error, force landing close to base.
Italian sources states that in the early morning Tenente Antonio Canfora of 97 Squadriglia 9° Gruppo 4° Stormo, scrambled with six C 202s of his Squadriglia and near Daba attacked a formation of twelve Maryland escorted by 18 P40. He claimed a P40 while a bomber and another fighters were claimed as probable, shared by the whole Italian formation. In the meantime at 6.15 due groups of bombers escorted by many fighters bombed Fuka destroying on ground a C 202 and damaging nine others.

Thus, considering that -as already noted in a previous post- the fourteen Luftwaffe fighters of JG 27 and 53 claimed during this action three P40 and a P46 (perhaps the Warhawk of O'Neil) as confirmed plus one P40 unconfirmed and two Curtiss hit (quoted by Shores&Ring) while the Italians claimed at least one P40 confirmed (perhaps a SAAF machine) and one probable, we can see as most likely all the confirmed claims (five of them) could find corroboration (seven losses), but also some of the unconfirmed ones, and it seems that this time the claims of Swallisch were not unfounded.
Hope this was of some interest.

Ludovico