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BOXART STORY
British fighter pilot “Johnnie” Johnson is one
of the most significant figures in the history of
air warfare. With 41 victories (34 solo and 7 in
cooperation), he became the most successful
Allied airman fighting the Luftwaffe in Western
Europe. However, his journey to the cockpit of
the Spitfire was by no means straightforward.
He faced a number of rejections along the
way and had to overcome the side effects of
a pre-war rugby injury. From the end of 1940,
he became fully involved in the combat
activities of No. 616 Squadron RAF, and within
its ranks in 1941, he scored 6.5 individual aerial
victories and received a DFC .
In July 1942 he was appointed commander
of No. 610 Squadron RAF and led it into combat
over the Allied landings at Dieppe in August
1942. During this operation he was credited
with shooting down an Fw 190, as well as 1/3 of
a Bf 109 and shared damaging another Fw 190.
In March 1943, he became commander of the
Canadian Wing at Kenley (later redesignated
No. 127 Wing RCAF). While in command of the
Wing, he scored 14 solo victories and five more
in cooperation by the autumn of that year.
He took the helm of the No. 144 Wing RCAF in
March 1944 as Allied forces prepared for the
Normandy landings. By that time, the Allies
had already conducted a number of successful
landing operations in the Pacific, Africa, Sicily,
and Italy.
The Western Allied forces, backed by
American industry, which had become the
proverbial “Arsenal of democracy”, were able
to execute the Normandy landings in June 1944,
as well as the Saipan landings, accompanied by
a naval and air battle in the Philippine Sea.
On the Eastern Front, the Soviets launched
Operation Bagration in late June 1944, during
which they inflicted the greatest defeat in
German military history on Nazi forces in
the territory of Belarus. This success would
not have been possible without the massive
material assistance of the Western Allies.
Johnson was the most successful fighter
pilot in the UK on active service in the spring of
1944. At the time of the Normandy landings, his
No. 144 Wing was one of the finest units of the
2nd Tactical Air Force, and Johnson's squadrons
were the first units to operate from liberated
territory in France. This gave them an advantage
over their colleagues who were still based in
England, allowing the experienced Canadians
to engage the enemy far more frequently. They
duly took advantage of these opportunities.
Thus, Johnson supported a second landing in
France, but this time without retreat.
During that period, Johnson added nine more
individual victories to his account. He scored
the first kill of the streak on June 16 after
9 p.m. northwest of Villers-Bocage. However,
this encounter was proof that the German
adversaries were far from defeated. Although
their fighter units had been weakened by
the systematic Allied campaign directed at
them in the first half of 1944, there were still
experienced leaders and wingmen in their
ranks. It was only in the following months of
fighting over Normandy that exceptionally
heavy losses were inflicted on these units.
A typical mission of the fightings in June
1944 was assigned to a formation of eight
Fw 190 A-8s from I./JG 1 in the evening of that
day. The pilots were tasked with flying to the
area near Valognes, where their objective was
the free pursuit and attack of enemy ground
columns. Upon their return, they encountered
Johnson's formation in the Vire-Falaise area
and successfully shot down four Spitfires of
No. 443 Squadron RCAF. Only one of the airmen
survived, and among the deceased were
Squadron Leader J. D. Hall and Mexican pilot F/O
Luis Perez-Gomez. The German airmen claimed
six victories, with Lt. Anton Piffer claiming his
34th and 35th victories, while their 6th victories
were claimed by Uffz. Dobrat and Uffz. Rathofer.
Piffer was killed in action the following day.
Johnson, in one of his books, recalls this
fight with respect for his opponents. Johnson
struck his adversary low above the ground,
recording it with gun camera, causing him to
crash without a chance to bail out. The pilot,
Fw. Alois Wenke of 2./JG 1, remained missing
along with his Fw 190 A-8 “Black 2”. The other
German pilot, Uffz. Fritz Hofmann of 3./JG 1, was
wounded but saved by parachuting from his
“Yellow 6”. However, it is not clear whether his
aircraft may have been hit by one of the downed
pilots of No 443 Squadron RCAF or by S/L H. W.
McLeod, who scored a Bf 109 in that area that
evening.
Text: Jan Bobek
Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz
The second landing
INFO Eduard
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May 2024