315 Squadron claims, 18 August 1944

[keith A]

On 18 August 1944 the Mustangs of 315 Squadron attacked Fw190s taking off from the Beauvois airfields.

Horbaczewski of 315 squadron was I assume leading the attack and therefore his three kills (claimed by his wingman) were probably among those Fw190s taking off (obviously he was not killed after a dogfight). This appears to indicate that he attacked 7./JG26 which scrambled from Beauvois-Tille and lost two pilots. Their sister squadron 8./JG26 managed to scramble and claim victories (and lose aircraft) after the initial raid.

This is all conjecture on my part but based on the remarkable accuracy of the Polish claims and the LW losses. This is not meant to denigrate the Horbaczewski (who has been over twenty years something of a Star among the aces) but to establish a bit more about his last dogfight.

K

[Franek Grabowski]

I have researched the dog fight in great depth, and I can assure you, it is not possible to make any sense out of it. Aircraft mingled over a small area in a total mess, and possibly at some point JG joined, but without such crucial details like German crash location, witness accounts, German reports, etc., no matches are possible, wild guesses at best.