"Going in with the bombers we encountered heavy flak then several fighters. The bombers made their run and we were on our way out when someone called a new batch of bogies, estimating 70+ high. I looked up to see them drop belly tanks and dive into the middle of us. A real melee ensued in which our flights were broken up and much of our squadron integrity disappeared. There were P-38s and Me-109s everywhere. I saw several P-38s on fire and one bellying into the water offshore.

� � "We had expended most of our reserve gas in the first encounter so the squadron leader that day (Lt. Dibble) gave the order to work toward the Bay of Naples and reform as best we could. About the same time a P-38 from the 27th. went by me toward the Bay with an Me-109 closing in on his tail. I was alone and broke into the 109. I got hits on him and he broke off immediately, but my maneuver had taken me back into a beehive of enemy fighters. The squadron by then was loosely formed up and headed out to sea.

� � "It was obvious the 109 pilots were choosing lots to see who was going to get the honor and that there was no way I could best their numbers or altitude advantage. I took the only real choice available, which was firewall it and head for the deck out over the Bay. Almost immediately tracers went by; they were actually converging in front of me and I looked back into a spiral painted spinner not more than a hundred yards behind me. As I leveled off, at what seemed a few inches off the water, he started hitting me. It sounded like hail on a tin roof with occassional explosions as his cannon shells struck. I kicked left rudder to skid and noticed his tracers going over the end of my left wing. As he worked back I tried a skid the other way. It reduced his effectiveness but he still got quite a few hits as he worked back through each time. I was so low on the deck that he no doubt had a problem avoiding the water plus my prop wash. At times his bullets raised plumes of water ahead of me indicating he was trying to shoot from an elevated position and would over-lead me.

� � "I was sure I was either going to lose an engine or catch fire and was considering how to handle that when I noticed I was rapidly overtaking another 109 directly ahead and above me. He was chaing the Lightnings up ahead. If I went under him then there would be two of them to contend with. If I pulled up and elimintated the skid to fire at him the guy behind me would have a sitting duck. I pulled up, got a good bead on him and fired all four 50s and the 20mm cannon. He started to smoke and went into a gentle turn to the right. Almost simultaneously there was a crash as the guy behind me gave me a large burst. One of the bullets creased the canopy bar beside my head which knocked out the whole rear of the canopy. Plexiglas flew all over the cockpit - even into my mouth.

� � "I dove for the deck again and for some reason experienced no more shots from my pursuer. I then found that my right engine oil temperature was rising rapidly and the pressure was dropping almost to zero. I feathered the right engine and watched the left with no little anxiety but despite gaping cannon holes in both wings and numerous machine gun holes in the engine nacells and wings, the left engine continued to function fine. According to the gauges there was no rapid fuel loss. I then made contact with the squadron by radio and they did a turn while I caught up. Three of the 94th. pilots, Dibble, Pettus and Anderson stayed with me while the rest proceeeded back to home base at Mateur. We headed for Sicily, the nearest friendly landfall. After what seemed like an endless time we arrived over Sicily and proceeded to the nearest airfield. It was under construction but there was enough of the PSP (Pierced Steel Planking) runway to land on so I set up an approach. Just as I reached the end of the runway an Italian truck being used for construction drove directly across in front of me. I managed to add enough power to get over him but decided against a go-around not knowing what the condiditon of the hydraulic system was. The landing went OK and I had enough speed left to taxi over to some tents being used by the Army Combat Engineers. As I shut the engine down it caught fire which was quickly extinguished by an awaiting fireman.

� � "The palne looked like a sieve. There were sixty to eighty .30 caliber holes plus four or five cannon hits that in one case flared up a large piece of wing skin. Even the props had bullet holes in them. Dibble, Pettus and Anderson after seeing me down safely, buzzed th field and continued on to home base. I stayed at the field that night then made my way back to Mateur the next day. (The P-38 did not.)

� � "I'm sure I got the 109 that I fired on ahead of me out over the water and theorize that the reason the 109 behind me stopped firing was that he either ran out of ammo and/or went to the aid of his comrade."

� � � --Quoted from "An Escort of P-38s" by John Mullins.

At the end of his tour, Vrilakas had two confirmed victories in the air, two damaged, and two destroyed on the ground. He retired asa full Colonel from the USAF in 1973 and currently resides in Oregon. Smokey is a frequent contributor to this website.