WORLD WAR 2 P-61 BLACK WIDOW
immediately started violent evasive
action which made it necessary to
close to 400ft.
“I fired a few rounds of 20mm which
set both wings at the root on fire. I
imagine both fuel tanks were hit, and
the ship went into a tight spiral turn
and exploded when it hit the ground.
There were no parachutes observed.
It totally amazed me what our 20mm
could do to any aircraft!”STARLESS NIGHT
Lt Robert Elmore and his R/O, Lt
Leonard Mapes, got airborne on
December 16. “We were patrolling
the First Army front area about
01:00 hours and it was a black night,
overcast, and not a star to be seen,”
Elmore recalled. “We were at 5,000ft,
under control of GCI ‘Marmite’.
“I first noticed activity on the
ground from the brilliant searchlights
that began to appear all horizontal
to the ground, shining west. At that
time, Marmite started reporting
many targets in our area. Suddenly an
aircraft passed directly overhead going
in the opposite direction. Our radarcontroller vectored us onto a target
and Lt Mapes immediately found it
on his scope, and he directed me until
I got a visual contact.
“We closed in directly below and
identified it as a Ju 88. We dropped
back and got directly behind and fired
a short burst of 20mm cannon fire.
The Ju 88 went into a diving turn as
we saw two parachutes open.
“We were at the end of our operating
limits and had to return to base.”MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS
Between December 22 and 27,
the aircrew of the 422nd scored
11 kills – prior to which 1st Lt
John Anderson and R/O 2nd Lt
James Mogan had two victories and
one V-1 shoot down. They had a
memorable Christmas, scoring on
the 24th and 25th. Anderson said:
“Taking off in P-61A 5543 to patrol
the breakthrough area between the
Meuse and the German border,
after 30 minutes of patrolling, GCI
vectored our aircraft onto a bogie.
“I noticed navigation lights in the
distance and a few minutes laterside and went down through the
overcast.
“This was a dangerous situation for
us, because the overcast was at about
3,000ft. I was not familiar with the
terrain in the area, so it would have
been foolish to follow to pursue the
suspected kill. Fortunately, we did
get a confirmation from ground
troops that were in the area. They
claimed that the Me 110 came
through the overcast in a fiery ballwhich it made it easy for them to
spot.”
Ernst remembered another kill on
the night of December 17. “Our
assignment was to patrol the area
between VII Corps front lines and the
Rhine. As of this time, we had one
V-1 and the Me 110 to our credit.
“Soon after arriving in our area,
GCI told us they had a bogie at
12 miles distance and it didn’t
take long to narrow the gap to one
mile. We dropped down lower and
found out it was a Junkers Ju 87. It“‘I noticed navigation lights in the
distance and a few minutes later our
contact was secured at three miles, and
from that point on my radar observer
took over the interception.’”
Right
Lt Col Oris Johnson in the
cockpit of his P-61A, ‘No
Love! No Nothing!’. JOHN
ANDERSONAbove
Caught in a blizzard, 1st
Lt Paul Smith’s ‘Lady Gen’
showing an impressive
mission tally. PAUL SMITHBelow
Heavy snow in December
1944 at the 422nd’s base
near Florennes. RAYMOND
ANDERSON