I had just crossed enemy lines heading toward one of our mission targets when in the distance I saw 2 dots that were moving in such a way that they appeared to be determined to kill each other. Putting the nose down to gain speed I carefully advanced the throttle of my G4 to military as I know at WEP it would over temp and damage the engine if I ran it for more then a minute wide open.
As I quickly closed the distance I see tracers flying and wondered if my countryman was shooting or being shot at. I was unable to determine who was who by the silhouettes so I decided I'd saddle up on the one that was shooting just in case. I was coming in hot and as I closed they went into a rolling scissors which did not help my closure rate. I pulled into a high yo-yo and saw the big red star on the plane that was shooting. LA5! It wasn't looking good for my countryman so I got to work on trying to save his life. I had to dump my speed to saddle up on this LA5 so I chopped throttle, kicked the rudder and loaded up some g. My speed dropped quickly and I was able to get in position to start shooting at this commie.
I sprayed ammo all around trying to get this guy to break off my buddy but he couldn't be convinced so I started working on actually hitting him. Squirt. Miss! another squirt another miss. I see a stream of tracer reaching out for my buddy. I got to get this done now! Ping, ting, plink. Tracers flying past me! Oh hell looks like he has a buddy too. I gotta kill this LA5 now or this fight is going to quickly be 2 vs me! Hope he only has one buddy. I pulled lead at close range and held the trigger down. The LA is firing as he flys through the stream of lead that I'm spraying. He takes hits! He's going in! I look back to my buddy and he’s going down with a wing off. Too low to bail out. Guess I was a little too late.
Now for those tracers that are flying past me again. Hit the brakes, he fly right by right?! Bah. I'm barely above stall speed already, so that means he's already slow cause he didn't fly past me right? Crap. Next best idea that comes to mind. Ram the throttle to WEP, drop the flaps and hang it on the prop. As I do this and look back I get a glimpse of my adversary. Oh no! That P-39 is popping off that big cannon. this could be over fast! My air speed falls to nothing. I push the stick forward just enough to keep control kicking my rudder to compensate for the p-factor. His nose is coming up. I see his cannon blinking. This is it. I have nothing left I can do at this point.
Phew. His nose is dropping! He wasn't able to get it up! Gotta be careful now. We're very low and one snap-roll and I'm a goner. Slowly I push the nose down expecting him to appear under my nose as I know he had to push the nose down for speed and wouldn’t try to turn and risk a snap roll this close to the deck right? Where is he? Oh crap he’s off my right wing! He musta turned right after he dropped his nose. He’s turning toward me. Crap! He’s gonna get a deflection shot! It worked last time maybe it will work again. Back into the vertical I go. Flying more like a helicopter then an airplane. I’m watching him closely this time. He continues his left turn nose down. He’s trying to gain some speed with the little bit of alt that we have. This time I’ll be more careful. I drop my nose and start a slight left turn in lag pursuit tying to get enough speed to be able to pull lead for a shot. My speed is coming up, he’s out and front now. As I pull the nose to lead he suddenly rolls right and pulls the other way. I kick my rudder carefully and fire trying to get the nose in front of his flight patch for a shot without spinning. I’m not sure if I hit anything. Crap, looks like we’re back in the scissors. I’m surprised the P39 will fly that slow. He must have 2 gallons of fuel in that thing. I’d try to pull the nose vertical but I’m so slow after that rudder kick that I’m barely flying. This is going to be rough. I roll and start pulling to the right. His left wing drops and he’s coming back at me. Snap shot as he passes in front. Maybe I hit him? No visible damage. I’m turning left now I see his right wing drop and he begins to turn back to me. Opps! He starts to spin. Looks like he’s lost it! Too low to recover. BOOOM! Fireball!
I pull my flaps up and drop the nose below the tree tops. I glance at my gauges. Yep. The engine is about to cook. I pull back to continuous power and scan the sky. Phew. Nothing visible. I look at my wings. Dang. Those holes don’t look good. I’ve had structural failure from less damage then I see now. Going to have to be careful. I gotta get out of here. I look at my compass and quickly turn to a sw heading and head for home. With any luck I’ll make it.
