| This day at 19:36 the French fighter ace Pierre Closteman took of from Rheine-Hopsten with another two Tempests, flown by MacIntyre and Gordon. An hour later they spotted a formation of Fw 190s that was attacking Allied forces below. In the ensuring battle Closterman manage to down two Dora-9s. The first one crashed in a ball onf fire and the second one, "White 1" belly landed near the Dummer-lake in a water logged field where the "plane threw up a broom of mud" according to Clostermann. Therafter Clostermann saw the German pilot limp away from his damaged plane, trailing on his parachute. It was later reported that this German pilot succumb to his wounds a few hours in an ambulance, perhaps one of the five pilots that IV./JG 51 lost during the final battles. Finally Clostermann manage to land his badly damaged Tempest and was glad to find that his pilot friend Gordon was still alive. After beeing hit Gordon also somehow had manage to limp back to base with his shot up crate. The three RAF pilots could thereby celebrate two Fw 190 shot down and one probably (Gordon) for two seriously damaged, but reparable Tempests. |
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