Help me find an appropriate air battle

[Elchanan]

Hello everyone - I'm all new here, and I don't really know very much about Ww2 aircraft and their history. I'm trying to write a crime novel and in this novel there is a person who is really into this topic. He's got an air battle hanging from his ceiling, and this is where I need your help.

I'm thinking that in the center of his exhibition of models - is a Lancaster. It's being attacked by two German aircraft (Me 109s?), and three Spitfires are making a turn to come to the rescue. The Spitfire is, however, the only type of aircraft that is essential to the story. In other words - the bomber could be a B-17 or any other allied bomber. The German fighters could also be of a different make. Heck - it could be the other way around even - the Spits attacking a German bomber in the Battle of Britain for instance...

Can you provide me with an authentic air battle with a story/context so compelling that it made my ww2 aircraft enthusiast to recreate the scene somewhat like this? I'd like specifications of aircraft if possible - the exact types and even names of pilots (or one of the pilots), call signals - whatever info you have. If you don't have these details, but know of an actual battle like this - please give it to me still! Oh - and if it's a battle with something unique to it - super! Like the first time Germany was bombed (don't know if the Spitfires had the range to participate in that) - a decisive mission of some sort - maybe the bomber hit some essential or strange target? Maybe some prominent German was killed? Maybe something weird happened? I don't know. Does anyone know if a battle like this - involving Spits - ever occurd over Norwegian soil?

Thank you in advance!

Elchanan

[syscom3]

The epic Schweinfurt missions in 1943 were full of drama. 60 B17's were shot down on each mission.

There was a B24 broup that was wiped out on a misison in Sept 1944.... something like 24 B24's all went down in one swoop....

[Erich]

try 30 B-24's from the 445th bg. on 27 September 44. A book is due out this next winter 07/08 and I am adding two cents to it .......

[timshatz]

Think he is more interested in the Spits than the bombers. The Bombers don't really matter. Could make it anyone of the birds that flew.

I know of one famous bomber attack involving a Spitfire. It might be a bit too famous. It involved a Pilot name Peter Pease. He was one of the upper class Brits who fought (and died) in the Battle of Britian. He was killed in an head on attack on a He-111 during the 15th of September. According to what I have read and heard, he dove into a solo attack on a formation of German Bombers near London with a Me-109 on his tail. Either the 109 or the front gunner in the He-111 got him 'cause the attack led to his death. Richard Hillary wrote about his intereactions with Pease (the two were very close) in his book, "The Last Enemy". I believe they were both in 603 Squadron. The following is a quote from the book where Hillary and Pease had a conversation about why the war is being fought. The scene is a train compartment in Scotland. It is considered a very good passage from the book.

" 'Well, Richard,' he said, 'you've got me at last, haven't you?'
'I don't know if I can answer you to your satisfaction, but I'll try. I would say that I was fighting the war to rid the world of fear - of the fear of fear is perhaps what I mean. If the Germans win this war, nobody except little Hitlers will dare do anything... All courage will die out of the world - the courage to love, to create, to take risks, whether physical or intellectual or moral. Men will hesitate to carry out the promptings of their heart or brain because, having acted, they will live in fear that their action may be discovered and themselves cruelly punished. Thus all love, all spontaneity, will die out of the world. Emotion will have atrophied. Thought will have petrified. The oxygen breathed by the soul, so to speak, will vanish, and mankind will wither.' "

Hope it helps.

[Elchanan]

I could use this, timshatz - but would very much like more input/other stories. The bomber could be the center of attention - no problem. It's just that there has to be Spitfires involved in some way. I guess there were no Spits involved when those B-24s all went down?

Elchanan

[timshatz]

There probably were. And those guys who posted it would know better than I, especially Erich. If he says it happened, it is very reliable. Syscom is also on the ball. Both are very good sources.

There were Spits escorting B-24s and B17s but I can not say offhand where and when it happened. That is very detailed work.

Those guys will know.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

Operation Big Ben, not a great deal of airial combat but vital in stopping V2 attacks, purely spitfires, you must watch these two videos in full they're amazing...........

YouTube - Operation Big Ben PART 1

YouTube - Operation Big Ben PART 2