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Allied and Soviet Air Forces Please use this forum to discuss the Air Forces of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. |
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72 Squadron on 11th April 1943 mission - N.Afrika
Hello,
I am trying to obtain more information about the two claims submitted by Daniel Walter Stephen and Robert Wardlow Oxspring on 11th April 1943. Could someone inform me the number of Spitfires involved on this patrol? What was the mission? What time they shot down the Bf 109 claimed? I do have a particular interest to discover the times and check with the loss of Ofw. Wilhelm Baumgartner from JG 77 ( I already posted a thread on this subject earlier ). Thanks in advance Adriano |
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Re: 72 Squadron on 11th April 1943 mission - N.Afrika
Hi,
This is information I have extracted from the operations records from 11 Apr 43. Hope it is of some use. " The next day brought celebration to the squadron when P/O Malan (EN301) bought down the squadron’s 150th enemy aircraft whilst escorting Hurribombers of 241 Sqn. On the return leg the squadron was vectored to the north west of Medjez el Bab and 10 Bf109s. The Germans were caught by surprise and, as well as Malan’s victory, S/Ldr Oxspring (EN303), Sgt Shaw (EN309) and WO Alan Gear (EN135) all damaged Bf109s in a fight which stretched from 20,000ft to ground level. 72 Sqn lost one pilot, Sgt Sollitt (EN292), who was last seen with two Bf109s on his tail, whilst 241 Sqn lost three aircraft to flak during the ground attack. During the second sweep of the day the pilots searched for Sollitt but had no success. As the Germans were pushed into a smaller area and desperately attempted to maintain their supply routes the anti-aircraft guns around Tunis were reinforced as the squadron noted on the third sortie of the day, an escort to B-17s bombing the docks. The fourth sortie of the day was another Hurribomber escort and on returning from this the pilots were heartened to hear that Sgt Sollitt had survived his encounter with the Luftwaffe and was in hospital, though not badly injured." Yours Tom |
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Re: 72 Squadron on 11th April 1943 mission - N.Afrika
Tom,
Do have no words to say thank you. It is just what I was looking for: the name and serial numbers of A/C involved...Thanks a lot! It helped considerably on my research! Yours Adriano |
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