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give me. Without a radiator I knew
that it was only a matter of time
before the engine seized. Although
we pilots had been offered an inland
racetrack as a potential crash-
landing site, I had no intention of
risking capture, and preferred instead
to take my chances in the Channel. ISo, I jettisoned the hood hoping that
it had not been jammed by the shots,
and it wasn’t. And I thought, ‘they’re
right, it’s nice in here — it’s not
windy at all.’ Instinctively I turned.
I twisted the Mustang into a hard
climbing right hand turn. I got it to
about 800-feet and that’s all she’dwhen a crashing Spitfire forced me
into a sharp left turn to avoid a
collision. That gave the 190 pilot
time to get into firing position and he
hit Freddy’s Mustang with his first
burst. Glycol was streaming from the
Mustang’s radiator, but there was
no fire. I was able to get a long shot
at the leader, but had to break hard
right as his number two man was
having a go at me. He missed and
made a big mistake sliding by on my
left side. It was an easy deflection
shot and I hit him hard — I knew
that he was a goner.”
Freddy Clarke picks up the story
of the mission from his viewpoint:
“I was totally oblivious to the
action that was unfolding above my
head until the first cannon shells
slammed into the oil cooler of my
Allison engine. The next thing I knew
was there was all hell and corruption
going by. I’d been hit. The radiator
was shot-up, my instruments on
either side of me were gone. The
armor plating, however, saved my life.
Mustang Mk. I AM148/RM*G of No. 26 Squadron breaks away from the camera aircraft near
its home base at Duxford. This view shows the wing planform to advantage as well as the
ejector chutes for the spent shells.ONE
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