RAF 2nd TAF's version of the encounter:
"Wing Commander Brooker and and three of the units pilots (486 squadron)were again after some rail targets , but were split up. At 19.30 Wt Off W.J.Shaw, who was in flying with Brooker, saw a lone fighter, apparently a Fw 190 again, and shot this down in flames after a brief combat. Meanwhile the other pair had been caught by three more fighters whilst concentrating of strafing, and Wt Off O.J.Mitchell, a new pilot with the unit, was shot down and killed. It was reported that his opponent may have been a Bf 109 E - an obsolete type. Flg Off S.J short fought with one of the others, which was also identified as a Messerschmitt, claimed to have inflicted some damage on this. Their opponents were certainly not flying Bf 109 E, but fighters of a much more 'exotic' nature. The New Zealanders had been engaged by three members of Stab/JG301, a unit which had recently been equipped with the initial examples of the Fw Ta 152, the ultimate development of the Fw 190 line to see operational service. In one of these, Ofw Willi Reschke had shot down Mitchells Tempest over Ludwigslust at 1920, for his 25th victory, but in another of these fighters, Ofw Sepp Sattler had been shot down and killed - almost certainly by Shaw."
These were the initial version of the Ta 152 (likely H-0) and may not have been equipped with the GM-1 system and other equipment standardized on the H-1, which would have saved some weight. Even so the Tempest is clearly the better performer at low alts, but its advantage is not so great that it could not be overcome by tactical advantages and skill. In truth Reschke and his wingmen would have been better off in Dora 9s than 152s at that alt.
