December 25, 1941, the battle between the AVG P-40B’s and
Japanese fighters and bombers.
“On my last pass at the bombers, one of my wing guns was
hit and fired all its ammo. Then I saw him - an Oscar coming
straight at me head-on. We opened fire at about 400 yards. I
could see the winking flashes from the muzzles of his guns. At
our closing rate at about 600 mph, we only had a few seconds.
I held my gunsight pipper directly on his prop hub and blasted
away with all five guns. He took no evasive action and for a
terrifying moment, I thought we were sure to collide. Then miraculously
he passed below me, our prop tips missing by bare inches. Immediately
felt the turbulent wake of his prop wash and whipped into as
tight a turn as I could with out blacking out, certain he’d
be on my tail. But, I was lucky. Off in the distance, he was
rolling lazily into a shallow dive, going down like a flaming
Roman candle.” Flying Tiger pilot R.T. Smith.
Robert T. Smith scored two bombers on December 23, 1941. On the
25th, he scored two bombers and one fighter, making him a Christmas
Day Ace. |