49
Wing were destroyed and there were 25 casualties of whom six died. The enemy
were so elated that they then gave a rather feeble aerobatic display over
Brussels
,
for which they suffered a severe penalty when they attempted to get back to
Germany.
In January, two pilots in unarmed
Spitfires
each claimed to have destroyed
an enemy aircraft in the air.
Barry Barker
was attacked at 25,000 feet by two
ME 163
's and, after trying various manoeuvres, put his aircraft into a vertical
dive from which he, with difficulty, succeeded in pulling out: but one of the
'Jets', which had attempted to follow him, was unable to pull out and went
straight on into the ground. Then, on January 9th,
Leagh-Murray
broke cloud in
the Hamburg area and found himself flying in formation with a
JU 88
on which he
made a dummy attack. The 88 attempted to turn inside the
Spitfire
and was last
seen entering cloud at 3,000 feet in an uncontrolled spin.
Operations in daylight continued to be of a routine nature though many a
good sortie was flown at night for which the weather was more suitable, and some
of the best night photographs were taken while the ground was covered with snow
in January and February. A new type of task was undertaken by 69 during the
Ardennes offensive; they were given certain specified points in the 12th U.S.
Army Group area, which the American Artillery had registered, and, if any sign of
enemy activity was seen,they transmitted their observations over the R/T and
these messages were received by the batteries concerned who had been provided
with a special wireless set for this purpose. Unfortunately, owing to lack of
enemy movement, no satisfactory shoots were carried out though the communications
were tested and proved adequate. 69 continued to attract attention from flak
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+
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