…... reconnaissance pilot who had, at best, one “weaver” as tail cover.
On 8th June Flying Officer R. Leith MacGregor was intercepted by a small formation of Messerschmitts which he evaded only to receive an explosive antiaircraft shell in his port wing root. He returned uninjured however and landed at base. Three days later the same pilot, flying a Tomahawk Mk I was again intercepted on a tactical reconnaissance mission and attacked by four Me 109Fs. The following is the pilot’s combat report for the sortie.
“At approximately 1640 hours while carrying out a sortie in the Bir Hacheim area, I was investigating movement on the ground when I was attacked by 4 Me 109Fs. They caught me unawares coming out of the sun while I was looking at the ground. Fire from the first aircraft hit my port wing but did no appreciable damage and I took evasive action by going into a very tight left hand turn. I saw the next aircraft fire but they were following No. 1 too closely to be able to turn effectively - No. 4 turned and came in to do a head on attack, I pulled my nose up and gave him a ring and a half deflection with a 3 second burst, I did not see him fire; as he broke off the attack with black smoke coming from his engine, he appeared to level out but I was unable to watch him any longer as the next aircraft was again attacking me from astern, but as he did not rejoin the other three I think it probable that he had to make a forced landing in his own lines. I made a very steep turn to the right but my starboard wing dropped and I went into a spin pulling out at about 3000 feet; as I pulled out another aircraft attacked and again I went into a steep right hand turn, and again the aircraft spun, I pulled out at about 2000 feet and then went right down to zero feet. I found that my starboard wing had been badly hit by cannon fire which may have caused the wing to drop together with ‘ham’ turns. The enemy aircraft continued to make attacks in line astern but by turning towards them I managed to evade most attacks while continuing when possible to make off in a northeast direction. On one occasion however, bullets smashed all the instruments on the panel and also hit the armour plated glass from inside. At about 1655 hours I saw El Adem and passed over the El Adem Box where enemy aircraft came under heavy anti-aircraft fire, however they continued to press home their attacks. As the aircraft was now burning I decided to make a forced landing. The engine cut but with the initial speed I was able to do a steep turn to the left and shake off
