Personal combat report
Title
Personal combat report
Description
Combat reports from Flight Lieutenant Thiele flying a Tempest and claiming one Me 109 shot down.
This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
Creator
Date
1944-12-24
Temporal Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
One page typewritten document
Conforms To
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
SWeirG19660703v050005-0002
Transcription
F/Lt. K.F. Thiele D.S.O.,
3 Squadron.
[underlined] PERSONAL COMBAT REPORT [/underlined]
Date: 24.12.44
Squadron: 3
Type & Mark of a/c: Tempest V.
Time up & down: 1154 – 1305.
Place of attack: 4 miles N.E. Malmedy.
Time of attack: 1230 hrs
Height of e/a on first sighting: 25,000 ft.
Height of own a/c on first sighting: 14,000 ft.
Our casualties: Nil
Enemy casualties: 1 Me.109 destroyed (F/L Thiele D.S.O. D.F.C.)
Personal Reports:
F/Lt. Thiele reports:
“I was flying Red 1 and leading the squadron on a patrol of Julich – Malmedy. Control reported bandits at 25000 ft. in the St. Vith area. The sqdn. had previously been split up by a bounce by Thunderbolts, and I only had Red 3 and 4 with me. Red 3 could not jettison his tanks, and I climbed with Red 4 towards about ten vapour trails moving South. When I had climbed to 20,000 ft the a/c above had turned N. towards me. I continued to close and when about 2000 ft below identified the a/c as 10 Me 109’s. They saw me at the sme [sic] time, and broke away in all directions. I selected two which had broken toward me, and still climbing, turned behind them. When I had closed to about 250 yds the No 2 stopped turning and climbed again. I fired a short burst from about 50 yds dead astern. I saw pieces fly off the starboard wing, the outer half of which crumpled. The e/a turned over to starboard and spun slowly down, pouring white smoke from the engine. I was unable to follow as the first hun was getting on my tail. The e/a I attacked was soon to crash by 274 sqdn, and I claim one Me109 destroyed.”
[signature] F/Lt.
S/Ldr Mackie reports: “At approximately 1230 while patrolling at 11,000 ft, I saw two vapour trails intercept several other vapour trails about 15 or 20 miles South of Aachen at a great height. Some of the vapour trails turned to starboard, followed by the two interceptors, and then I saw an a/c detach itself from the gaggle and spin into the ground, apparently on fire [missing word] it left a clearly defined smoke trail all the way down. I was not close enough to identify this as an e/a, but I saw it crash and blow up in a dark mushroom of [missing word] in the hills about 15 – 20 miles south of Aachen.”
[signature] S/Ldr
[signature] F/Lt.
Senior Intelligence Officer.
(cine camera used by all 3 pilots)
3 Squadron.
[underlined] PERSONAL COMBAT REPORT [/underlined]
Date: 24.12.44
Squadron: 3
Type & Mark of a/c: Tempest V.
Time up & down: 1154 – 1305.
Place of attack: 4 miles N.E. Malmedy.
Time of attack: 1230 hrs
Height of e/a on first sighting: 25,000 ft.
Height of own a/c on first sighting: 14,000 ft.
Our casualties: Nil
Enemy casualties: 1 Me.109 destroyed (F/L Thiele D.S.O. D.F.C.)
Personal Reports:
F/Lt. Thiele reports:
“I was flying Red 1 and leading the squadron on a patrol of Julich – Malmedy. Control reported bandits at 25000 ft. in the St. Vith area. The sqdn. had previously been split up by a bounce by Thunderbolts, and I only had Red 3 and 4 with me. Red 3 could not jettison his tanks, and I climbed with Red 4 towards about ten vapour trails moving South. When I had climbed to 20,000 ft the a/c above had turned N. towards me. I continued to close and when about 2000 ft below identified the a/c as 10 Me 109’s. They saw me at the sme [sic] time, and broke away in all directions. I selected two which had broken toward me, and still climbing, turned behind them. When I had closed to about 250 yds the No 2 stopped turning and climbed again. I fired a short burst from about 50 yds dead astern. I saw pieces fly off the starboard wing, the outer half of which crumpled. The e/a turned over to starboard and spun slowly down, pouring white smoke from the engine. I was unable to follow as the first hun was getting on my tail. The e/a I attacked was soon to crash by 274 sqdn, and I claim one Me109 destroyed.”
[signature] F/Lt.
S/Ldr Mackie reports: “At approximately 1230 while patrolling at 11,000 ft, I saw two vapour trails intercept several other vapour trails about 15 or 20 miles South of Aachen at a great height. Some of the vapour trails turned to starboard, followed by the two interceptors, and then I saw an a/c detach itself from the gaggle and spin into the ground, apparently on fire [missing word] it left a clearly defined smoke trail all the way down. I was not close enough to identify this as an e/a, but I saw it crash and blow up in a dark mushroom of [missing word] in the hills about 15 – 20 miles south of Aachen.”
[signature] S/Ldr
[signature] F/Lt.
Senior Intelligence Officer.
(cine camera used by all 3 pilots)
Collection
Citation
K F Theile, “Personal combat report,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 25, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/34476.
Item Relations
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