Late afternoon on the 29th of October, The commander of III./JG 3 Hauptmann Wilhelm Balthasar led his unit on a Free Hunt mission over England.

The formation was flying at 26,000 ft and was preparing to attack a squadron of Spitfires below when they suddenly came under attack from "Sailor" Malan´s 74 "Tiger" Squadron.

Oberleutnant Egon Troha, the Staffelkapitän of the 9th staffeln was flying in "Yellow 5" thought that he was protected from his rear by his Rottenflieger. However a Spitfire manage to got on his tail and his aircraft was sprayed with 303 bullets, striking the radiator, the wings and the oil radiator, Egon Troha had no other option than to belly-land his stricken machine at West Court Farm at 1715 hrs.

Troha an accomplished pilot with five abschuss he would spend four years as a POW util being exchanged in 1944.

The victorious Spitfire Pilot was Flying Officer John Colin Mungo-Park, and by shooting down Troha he had claimed his eight kill.

Eight months later Mungo-Park would be shoot down and killed over Dunkirk by Wilhelm Balthasar, the pilot he had had met in the air during his encounter with Troha. Mungo-Park unable to leave his machine was later to be found dead, strapped in his Spitfire. In all he had claimed 11 aircraft destroyed (and 2 shared), 5 probables, and 4 damaged enemy aircraft.

Wilhelm Balthasar died in an air crash less than a week later and was buried in a Flanders cemetery alongside his father who had been killed in the First World War.

An interesting note, "Yellow 5" the machine that Troha flew this day was the personal machine of his friend Leutnant Franz Achleitner, a five kill ace who had been shoot down over the Channel on 24 August and taken prisoner.

Please note that there is no photos of Mungo-Park's Spitifire, this profile is therefor based on other Spitfires from his unit during this period.