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Description
With the Americans pushing from the West and the British from the South, pressure was building on the Germans in Tunisia, but the lack of experience of some pilots made things difficult for the Allies.
Transcription
We were very interested in what the First Army was doing and we could see that they were having great difficulties in the air. They had Spitfires hit, but they were inexperienced, you see. And now, they’re running into those desert pilots, 109's types, and they’re doing things to them that they would never do to us, see. They wouldn’t come over to our air fields. They’re attacking and when they’re escorting and shooting them down. And in another case, the Americans also had those, they were there with them and they had the Air Cobras, Bell Air Cobras, and they were having difficulty with these Air Cobras and I remember their wing leader came into our base, one day and asked us, my RCO, how we operated on bombing and strafing missions, you see. Cause they were just getting all shot down. And we found out that they were going out at, you know two or three thousand feet over Hun lines and expecting to surprise them. Anyway, it wasn’t working. They were doing everything wrong, and so we had to instill in them that you had to know the country, you had to know where the troops were, and you had to do it by surprise. And you very seldom went back for a second trip unless it was very important, cause they were going to shoot you down.