Nightfighter Claims off Corsica 13 Jun 44

[Chris Goss]

I am in touch with a German pilot who says he was intercepted by a Beaufighter on the above night which opened fire, missed but the German then hit the sea and was forced to ditch. Does anyone have a claim for this?

[Frank Olynyk]

RAF: between 0230 and 0510, 160 m SE of Grottaglie, 255 Sqn, F/Sgt T W Burnett + F/O R B Booth, Beaufighter VIf (serial not in ORB). Claimed a Ju-88. No CR available.

The only other RAF claim on this date is for a Me-410 by two Spitfires.

All USAAF claims in the MTO this date are during the day.

Frank.

[Chris Goss]

Thanks Frank-knew you would have the answer

[Chris Goss]

The German has just said his watch stopped at 2308 when they hit the sea so it cannot be this one.

[Frank Olynyk]

Chris,
I don't have any other possibilites for this. What time zone would the British have been using? What time zone the Germans? Further, with regard to the stopped watch, how does he know that it stopped at the time of the crash? I would tend to suspect that it stopped sometime later, after water caused the gears to rust and lock up. That is what happened to me with a "water-proof" watch (long after the watch had been opened and the water-proof status voided), when on a *very* hot, *very* humid day, I was in and out of a building with heavy duty air conditioning; the watch started running slow, and a day or two later stopped.

Just guesses, since I don't see any other options. Suggestions?

Enjoy!

Frank.

[Nick Beale]

At this point the British were on Double Summer Time and Germans on Central European Summer Time, both of which = GMT + 2 hours so there shouldn't be a discrepancy in reported times.

[CJE]

Astrology can be your friend.
There are many sites offering your birth chart. They all know these GMT +... depending on where and when you were born.
And maybe, they'll give you the key to fortune on top of it :-)

[Nick Beale]

I just found my notes from the 255 Squadron ORB and I wrote down the time of the action as after 03.15 hours. This was either the last legible entry, or there wasn't a time written against the point where they opened fire.

I also noted that the Ju 88 returned fire.