Spitfire Voices by Sarkar Dilip

Author:Sarkar, Dilip
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Published: 2013-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

95. Unteroffizier Walter Meyer of 6/JG 26, who claimed a Spitfire destroyed on 9 August 1941 (Don Caldwell).

When repatriated in 1945, Wing Commander Bader reported that after his subsequent attack, during which he set a 109 alight rear of the cockpit: ‘In turning away right-handed from this, I collided with an Me 109 which took my tail off. It appeared as far up as the radio mast but was actually only the empennage.’ However, in a letter dated 5 August 1981, Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader wrote: ‘My impression was that I turned across a 109 and that it collided with the back of my Spitfire, removing the tail. On the other hand, if the pilot of the Me 109 had fired his guns at that moment he could have blown my tail off. The result would have been the same.’ The crucial question that must therefore be asked is did Wing Commander Bader collide with an Me 109 or was he actually shot down? None of Galland’s pilots had been involved in a collision, however, so the only candidate for such an occurrence was JG 26’s single fatality Unteroffizier Albert Schlager whose aircraft crashed near Aire-sur-la-Lys. The evidence, however, suggests that Unteroffizier Schlager was not involved in a collision, but actually shot down by Pilot Officer ‘Nip’ Hepple, whose combat report states:

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