Re: Air combat over Bulgaria on 11th June 1944
Hello Burdokva,
regarding your second question, according to MTO of Frank Olynyk, on August 11, 1944, American pilots of the 15th Air Force claimed no planes.
Based on the detailed book "Spitfires and Yellow Tail Mustangs" by Tom Ivie, Ivan Bonev was shot down on June 11, 1944 by fighters of the 52nd FG.
In the same book there is a description of the fight that took place that day and a small photo of the P-51 of Joseph F Riley.
Here is a portion of the combat report of Lt James Empey, who shot down two Me-109 that day:
"I located a lone Me-109 and got on his tail. He made a straight dive at the ground, I followed, giving him short bursts at about 250 yards. I saw the pilot bail out and the E/A crash into the ground."
"About eight P-51s were at 15000 feet forming to return home when a pilot ahead of me called out E/A below at 3 o'clock. We started down to attack 3 Me-109s stacked to the right. Another P-51 took the middle one and I took the one on the right. I fired several bursts, observing hits on the wings and fuselage. The canopy came off and the pilot bailed out."
I will provide more combat reports in case I will find them.
Regards
Marco
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