gassed budgie - I figure the guys who flew the thing and wrote the after action combat reports had some idea of what they were saying
Correct BA, hence my comment. I remember having a series of conversations a few years ago now with a chap who I presumed was quite knowledgable about this sort of thing. One of the things I remember him mentioning was the particular scenario mentioned by yourself.
I can still vividly remember reverentially opening his log book and being suprised at the relatively low total time that he had accumulated in his aviation career. I can still remember that total time. It was 823 hours. Of those 823 hours, 744 hrs (I counted them) were spent piloting the Bf 109.