Excerpt from MY STORY: FLYING ACE
by Jim Eldridge
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The Germans had decided on a “half and half” strategy. Three of their planes had already begun their turns to chase after Alan and me, but our sudden turns had caught them on the hop. Alan came up fast, guns firing, and I zoomed down towards the nearest German fighter, my hand tight on the trigger, my gun blazing. I was lucky, I had caught my target plane halfway through his turn so he hadn’t had time to get me in his gunsight. If it had been a two-seater, it would have nailed me with a burst from its swing-gun, but as a solo fighter on its own, this plane didn’t have that luxury.
The constant stream of bullets from my gun raked along the fuselage of the German plane, tearing into it from front to rear. Then the plane began to head down in a spin, spiralling out of control. I leveled out from my dive, eyes darting left and right to see where the other German planes were, and where Alan was.
Alan had also caught his target napping with the swiftness of his turn, because I saw a second German plane spinning down to the ground below, this one enveloped in a cloud of black smoke. I saw flames licking at the side of the plane through the smoke, and then it vanished from my sight.
Alan was now higher than me and he brought his plane down towards me waggling his wings slightly as he did so in a victory wiggle. He passed beneath me, and we gave each other a thumbs up. Our first victories!
But the third German plane that had set out to attack us had turned again, and was now joining the rest of his squadron coming after Monty, Banger and our observer plane. Remembering our orders, that the observer plane had to protected at all costs, Alan and I gave chase. I made the engine give all it had, determined to catch the Germans.
From My Story: Flying Ace. Copyright © by Jim Eldridge, 2002. All rights reserved.
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