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Old 1st Feb 2016, 14:01
  #8161 (permalink)  
Chugalug2
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: West Sussex
Age: 82
Posts: 4,763
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Danny, an amazing story and an interesting site that your link takes us to. I see that it features the Fokker C.X of Finnish (squadron?) LLv 10's A? and B? Flights, which carried out 122 dive-bombing sorties out of a total of 135 in the Winter War '39-'40 against the Soviet Union. It lost 3 out of 8 aircraft with 6 fatalities. Yet another example of David versus Goliath!

http://juhansotahistoriasivut.weebly...visodassa.html

As to Anson N9732's exploits of 1 June 1940, I am inclined to believe the British account rather than the German one. If this sluggish old lady did indeed dispatch 2 of its 109's and survived, the humiliation of I/JG 20 would know no bounds. So for a start she becomes a more impressive Blenheim and the one lost 109 admitted had crash landed near Dunkirk so was unable to deny. The second one claimed by the Annie crew presumably went into the sea unseen, to be "lost" in a more acceptable combat later? I see that the 500 Squadron's Ansons were subject to a local mod carried out free of charge by a local engineering company to provide mounts for the side mounted .303 MGs. Was that which caught out the 109s (rather like the Defiants quadruple gun turret)? So a good trick but not one that you could reliably play twice.

http://juhansotahistoriasivut.weebly...vro-anson.html

Very glad that the LAC WOP got a DFM (together with his Sgt Nav). We had an ex LAC gunner on Battles on the 30 Sqn Assn. His complaint to his dying day was that the two officers up front got gongs, but all he got was told not to fire his gun so much that the barrel overheated when returning fire to attacking 109's!
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