76 AIR CLASSICS/August 2022
to get that tail
down. I wanted the tail to
hit the water first to kill speed before
she flopped in, because it would just
dive in if you hit the water with the
scoop. The next thing I remember,
I came to in a landing craft. On
impact, I think I hit my head on the
gunsight. They say a young Army guy
dove into the water and got me out of
the Mustang. I would give anything
to have known who he was.”It had been a hectic day for the
pilots and Mustangs of No. 414
Squadron. Between 0445 and 1130,
they flew 18 low-level sorties and
although they found no enemy activity
or troop movements on the roads,
they did encounter intense flak while
having several brushes with Luftwaffe
fighters.the empty fuselage and force the nose
to point down toward the bottom of
the sea. Strangely, and for completely
unknown reasons, this is not what
happened to Clarke. The pilot’s last
memory was of the Mustang being
about ten-feet above the surface of the
water with the airspeed winding down
through 90-knots and then waking
up in the rolling bottom of a landing
craft. He recalled:“I limped out to the water. Just as
I crossed the shoreline that propeller
seized solid. Here I was downwind,
across the trough... everything’s
against you. Using trim to keep the
tail down, the last thing I remember
is about 90-knots on the dial, tryingwould
never have
made it had it not been for the timely
return of Hills to the scene of my
distress. The Fw 190 was tailing me,
and he was probably hoping for the
capture of an intact Mustang. Holly
saw him begin to slide in behind me
for the kill, which would have stopped
me short of the Channel.”
Hills attempted to enter combat
with the German, proving that the
Allison Mustang could at least outturn
the Fw 190. Clarke pressed on with
his dying Allison in an attempt to
reach the Channel. Clarke was fully
aware that the pilot’s manual stated in
very specific terms not to attempt to
ditch the Mustang. The scoop on the
belly would literally pull water into
F/O John Hartley Watlington’s Mustang
AG641/V of No. 400 (RCAF) Squadron on 22
June 1943.QUANTITY TITLE NAME PRICE EACH TOTAL DUE
B-17 G FLYING FORTRESS IN ISRAELI AIR FORCE SERVICE $35
AVIA S-199 IN ISRAELI AIR FORCE SERVICE $35
ORDER BOTH AND GET A $5 DISCOUNT $65
MERCHANDISE TOTAL
CA Residents add 9% Sales Tax
TOTAL DUE (U.S. Funds Only)
Domestic postage is included in the price. — foreign orders please call 818-700-6868 or email
[email protected] for additional postage fee. Orders are shipped Media MailCHALLENGE AVIATION BOOK CLUB Name _______________________________________________________________________________
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9800-D Topanga Canyon Blvd., #368,
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(^) or CALL: (818) 700-6868
For the fledgling nation of Israel to survive,
a force of warplanes was desperately
needed. There was a problem: Most of the
countries of the Free World had an embargo
on selling such aircraft to the Israelis. In
order to get these vital aircraft, a complex
smuggling program was put into place to
obtain warplanes with which to fight the
Arabs. Oddly, some of these aircraft would
be carrying American civil registrations.
B-17G FLYING FORTRESS IN ISRAELI AIR
FORCE SERVICE 1948-1957 by Alex Yofe is
a high-quality softbound book of 96 pages
packed with rare illustrations and really good color profiles that tells the story of
the few civilian Forts that escaped authorities for the long flight to Israel. The book
describes how the aircraft were armed, bomb bays refitted, and then sent out on
daring raids against the Arabs. This essential book on B-17 history is just $35.
CLANDESTINE WINGS CLANDESTINE WINGS IN COMBATIN COMBAT
Like many great fighter planes,
the Messerschmitt Bf 109 was
built in a mind-boggling number
of variations but perhaps the
strangest was the Avia S-199.
In one of the greatest aviation
smuggling adventures, Israeli
agents managed to procure Avia
S-199s from the Czechoslovaki-
an government, load them into
transports, and fly the aircraft
to Israel where they were
quickly reassembled and put
into action against Arab air forces. Packed with rare photographs
and over 30 color profiles of S-199s and other aircraft related to this
little-known story, the book is a high-quality softbound volume of
98 pages and costs $35.