Monday, November 18th: Charleroi Patrol
Urgent message has been delivered to me from HQ of Maubeuge airfield. Within few minutes, standing in front of map of Charleroi - Sambreville area, CO reports heavy attack of Axis forces down the river. Thanks good work of our secret service, latest German Bomberkommand plan is revealed to me. Situation is critical. We were able to intercept part of information about Operation Tigerclaw, but although we are not late now, by all information, main formation of He111s is already in the air. They are about to hit main strategic target - Charleroi. Whole group took off from Koln AF at around 11:20 AM and latest calculation shows, that they must be somewhere around Aachen-Verviers area now. Total amount of planes is unknown, as well as information about possible escort. All we know is target - Charleroi and operational altitude - 3.000 meters.

Time is critical and my Hawk is already on runway. During taking off, all thoughts are going to civilians of Charleroi. Will I be able to reach target area in time? All Allied forces at Maubeuge are also alerted and priority mission one to Charleroi is posted with information to intercept all He111 at 3k from Sambreville - Charleroi approach. When I reached airspace over target, it's visible, that previous raid already damaged city, but most of buildings is still in good conditions.

Keeping my hawk between 3.000 - 4.000 meters and patrolling between Charleroi and Sambreville is uneasy task. Mainly because approaching waypoints for bombing run are unknown and I am not sure, if German Bomberkommand will not send all bombers from unexpected direction. More than 20 min on station, patrolling and thinking if they already didn't sneak by and are on the way back. Suddenly contact is made in SE direction of Sambreville, at 2,5k altitude. Squeezing hawk to dive, and seeing only one contact, I presume, that it's probably first recon patrol plane in front of main bomber group. Soon target is recognized as a single JU87, which is starting to make a move towards my Hawk. Using better speed and altitude, I am soon able to get on Stuka's six and clever German pilot is quickly diving down below 2k. I left him go, coming back to main task - patrol over Sambreville - Charleroi at 4k. Again I am not sure, if all is not screwed up for now. JU87 could alert all bombers. But finally I believe, that it was just a separate single plane, that knows nothing about Operation Tigerclaw.

Few more minutes passed away. My nerves are stressed by expectation of fight. I made another turn over Charleroi and started to head E when I spotted unbelievable "picture". ESE of my position huge formation of He111s sorted by 3 planes in at least 4 groups is slowly moving towards target. Call is made on origin radio frequency to Maubeuge for more fighters. This is not going to be easy. I immediately went into second group of bombers and was able to hit one He111, but no visible damage is made to him, 2 more unsuccessful passes are made by my hawk, visible nervous by so many targets, I am not able to calm down as I would like to do. I decided to go for first leading He111, who is probably leading raid and also will give signal for bombs drop. All planes are ready for me and firing pretty good. I am taking few hits. Group is still able to keep in formation. Also wingmen are able to keep their mates in tight position by 3 planes in every group. I made another pass on first leading group, trying to hit leading He111 from starboard side. But they repeat fire and I am hit pretty bad. Still no losses on He111s side. Hawk is out of action for sure. So I decide to go for emergency landing, that could give me chance to be back at least when they will be turning for home heading. Taking off from Maubeuge again, I am finally able to give location to another allied pilot - Mikeeo ! He is over Charleroi, but unable to make visual contact. I am reporting latest known position of He111s to him again and soon he is catching first prey - single He111 SE of Sambreville at 2k. He111 is going down and I am at max speed going towards Sambreville. I can smell those He111 and although they could go to Bertrix for landing, I believe, that proud Axis pilots will be heading back to Koln. Following river I finally got visual on He111s again! 3 planes in formation heading E, NE of Sambreville at 3k. As soon as they spotted me, one of them is diving down. I am sending information about him to Mikeeo, still chasing 2 He111 at 3k. This time I am not going to loose them and I am climbing higher above them and almost coming to their 3 o'clock. They are starting to fire, but I am still waiting for best position to attack. W of Verviers, I am ready to go. Firing to both planes during first pass. Both are taking serious damage. After second pass one Heinkel is going down in huge flames and second is badly damaged at his left wing, loosing altitude, he is going for landing at field W of Verviers. Third pass on him is finishing him off....At the same time, Mikeeo is reporting 3rd He111 from that group in flames too. I am still on the way to Koln. Looking for rest, while Mikeeo is also heading to Verviers. Soon he is again reporting He111 trying to land there, but he is able to kill him in time. I wonder how that one was able to sneak by me. Till this time we were able to kill 5 He111s and damaged at least 2 more. Good result, by my opinion. We killed almost half of the group.

I reached Koln just in time. 2 He111s were taking off. As soon as they were both in air SW of AF, I dove and killed them both at first dive. Single 109 is taking off after that and I am climbing to 4k. He is able to see me so I dove on him and damaged him so bad, that he went for emergency landing at AF, but he is not successful.... Than all is covered to silence for few more minutes. I checked Dusseldorf, than Koln again, but no cons. So I am heading back home. Over Namur I decided to check area, because I still had enough ammo to fight and 109 is soon in trouble loosing oil. He is than running NE and I let him go. E of Sambreville I was spotted by 110 and he is keeping me busy for more than 5 minutes, than he goes down in flames. W00t! With feeling of all good work, I am not more interested in patrolling this area and leaving for Maubeuge. Just E of Charleroi I am checking my six again and....109 on me is closing fast. So it's not over yet. We are starting series of loops and I am able to score hit, than I am trying to drag him over Charleroi city. But for some reason he is not chasing me anymore and goes S. I thought that he probably wants to go patrol SE of Maubeuge for possible allied planes, so I decided not to let him do it. Soon I am on his six, but pretty far behind him. For some reason I can catch him and not before long I see the reason. I damaged him so bad, that his engine gave up and he is going for landing S of Walcourt. As he touches land, I am hitting him again. He is going to be captured by allied soon....Within few minutes, my good old hawk is landing home with 6 kills (4 He111, 1 110 and 1 109) and 2 more damages of 109s.

Col. Trimcz
Proud member of 56th FG, 63rd FS