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Dog Fight with Another Spitfire!

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Dog Fight with Another Spitfire!

This is what the Germans did. The toughest dog fight ... the only real dog fight I had was with another Spitfire. I was very lucky. Here again whether it’s... lets say because of experience or whatever ... we had got into this mix up in Nijmegen. My number 2 had lost me and I’m heading back to (inaudible) where we were based in Belgium and luckily I look behind and here’s this Spitfire coming in. I think it’s my number 2 so I wiggle my wings and straighten out and luckily look back again and he’s firing at me! So I go up ... plain view you can’t mistake the look of a Spitfire like this ... and I do a complete roll and straighten out again. “Hey, I’m a Spitfire, leave me alone!” He circled around and he’s coming in firing at me again. And we had a real go around. He was an unmarked Spitfire and we had to go around for about five minutes and I’d been checking my fuel. I was getting down low on fuel. And we ended up neither one of us got the advantage. I’m calling on the RT; “Anybody in the area? This guy’s trying to shoot me down ... another Spitfire!” What happened was we ended up coming head on and I’m heading south and so I ducked underneath him and made it back to (inaudible). But that’s what happened and this was the, as I said, that was the only real dog-fight; around and round and round from all the experience I had up above the clouds at Dunnville and so on in tail-chases. That was the toughest one that I had. I was sweating. I was pulling out all the stops. I did everything I could and I couldn’t get the advantage on him. And we ended up coming head to head – and sure again – I ducked underneath because I was running low on fuel and I didn’t dare stay around much later.

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