Fly Past

May 2018 FLYPAST 97

213 SQUADRON 100 YEARS OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE

Left

Strafi ng a train near

Maribor.

Below

Peter Vaughan-

Fowler in his Mustang

low over the coast

near Campomarino.

213 SQUADRON RECORDS

“We fl ew mainly armed recces over Yugoslavia and as we “We fl ew mainly armed recces over Yugoslavia and as we

arrived the Mk. IV with the bubble hood canopy arrived the Mk. IV with the bubble hood canopy

“We fl ew mainly armed recces over Yugoslavia and as we

arrived the Mk. IV with the bubble hood canopy

“We fl ew mainly armed recces over Yugoslavia and as we “We fl ew mainly armed recces over Yugoslavia and as we

arrived the Mk. IV with the bubble hood canopy

“We fl ew mainly armed recces over Yugoslavia and as we

was arriving – lovely Mustangs!”

arrived the Mk. IV with the bubble hood canopy

was arriving – lovely Mustangs!”

arrived the Mk. IV with the bubble hood canopy

went in really low to strafe. I was
concentrating on them when there
was a loud thump and the aircraft
lurched - I almost lost control.
I managed to climb a little, and
one of the others closed up. I could
see the problem myself: much of
my outer wing was missing. It later
transpired that I had hit a tree –
certainly there were bits of branch in
what was left and the wing outside
the aileron had just about gone.
My immediate problem, though,
was keeping control as I had little

aileron left and the flaps too had

been damaged. I did some low-speed

checks as I was shepherded back to

see if I would be able to land and

found that at about 180mph the

aircraft was barely controllable.

I had to keep it at about 200 –

and that’s what I did and managed

to ‘wheel’ it onto the pierced

steel runway. Whew! My little

‘experience’ actually featured in a

BBC news broadcast the next day.

Much to my embarrassment they

praised my efforts (anonymously, of

course)

in getting the

aircraft back!

We were at that time extremely

short of aircraft, so I was not too

popular, as you might imagine.

JOINT ATTACK

By this stage there was very little

sign of any enemy aircraft as the

Germans were in full retreat out

of Yugoslavia. I remember towards

the end of March reports had been

received of the airfield near