[Six Nifty .50s]

Originally Posted by Brian

Many thanks Six Nifty .50s - great stuff. Another name for the Acknowledgements List!! I am sincerely grateful

You're welcome, but George R. Sesler and Terry A. Fairfield deserve the credit because they consulted the original documents. I summarized their findings from An Accounting of the 25th Bomb Group (RCN, SP) and The 479th Fighter Group in World War II. The former is out of print but the latter, a rather hefty volume, is available from Schiffer Books.

Originally Posted by Brian

A couple of queries re USAAF Mosquitos that you mention. In Merle Olmsted's excellent 'The Yoxford Boys' (357thFG) history, he confirms (on page 359) that the 357thFG shot down two Mosquitos, one on 12 August 1944 as indicated, but the other is not dated, and neither is mentioned in the narrative. Any ideas? Perhaps the second one was a RAF machine?

Is that Olmsted's latest unit history from Eagle Editions?

Originally Posted by Brian

regarding the shooting down of NS792 on 9 April 1945. I could be wrong, but I don't think any Free French unit was flying the P-51 at that date, and I haven't a FF Spitfire claim for a twin on that date. Maybe the culprit was a RAF Mustang or a US P-51.

Or a clipped wing RAF Spitfire with a teardrop canopy? Unfortunately Lt. Moore did not describe the paint job on the circling fighters, other than the roundels.

I have a few queries too (CBI theatre) perhaps you could fill in some of the blanks? In February 1945, an RAF trainer from No. 152 Squadron was misidentified as a Ki-43 Oscar and shot down by an RAF Spitfire, evidently piloted by Flying Officer D. W. Rathwell of No. 17 Squadron. The Harvard was carrying a war correspondent named Harry Ashley, who intended to take pictures of a battle developing near the Irrawaddy River. The Harvard pilot made a wheels up forced landing and although injured he posed for a photo by Ashley in front of the crashed aircraft. Would you know the serial numbers and the full name/rank of the Harvard pilot?

According to reminisces in Chaz Bowyer's Beaufighter At War there were several friendly fire incidents in the CBI. One account states that two Beaufighters were shot down into the Akyab swamps by USAAF planes, and another states that an RAF Beaufighter shot down a USAAF B-17 returning to Chittagong from a bombing mission. I don't know the dates, crew names or serials. Do you have other information?