Background: "It was mid-morning on November 28, 1942, and as I sat in the briefing and listened to the plan for the mission, a little voice in my head said, "Ethell, this is about as close to a suicide mission as you'll ever go on. It'll be a miracle if any of us survive." I didn't know how prophetic that voice would be.
"We were to fly eight P-38s out of the little Algerian cow pasture known as Youk les Bains (the USAAF flattered it by calling it an airfield) and cross a sizable piece of North Africa to fly to Tunisia. Once there, we were to sneak up on the German aerodrome at Bizerte (Sidi Ahmed), count the fighters based there and report back about enemy activity. "
"What made it decidedly not simple for us was that Bizerte was the Luftwaffe's most important fighter staging area. The Germans wouldn't take kindly to our peeking over the fence and counting noses.
"A short time after takeoff, two of the 49th FS airplanes had to turn back because they couldn't get their drop tanks to feed; that left six of us. We knew the Germans at Bizerte would be looking for a serious strike against the airfield, but we figured they wouldn't expect us to come ripping across the field right on the deck. We only had to cross the field one time, and then boogie home at full throttle and tell command how many airplanes we had seen parked there. I don't know how they expected us to count airplanes as we flew at 400mph at treetop level, but we just did as we were told. We knew Lake Bizerte was just on the other side of a low rise, and the aerodrome was a little past that. What we didn't know was that there was a helluva surprise waiting for us over that hill.
"Flying low at 400mph, the landscape streaks by, so as we roared over the hill, the lake popped almost instantly into view. We then saw something scattered over the water, and for a second or two, we couldn't figure out what it was. Then my brain said, "Junkers!" A long string of 20 to 30 Junkers Ju-52s droned across the lake no more than 30 feet above it. They were sitting ducks and were directly between us and the airfield. The logical thing to do in that situation was to center one in a gunsight and let him have it.
"The Junkers formation was doing barely 100mph, and when they saw us, they scattered like quail. Where there had been an orderly in-trail formation were now dozens of three-engine turtles all over the lake at low altitude. I sawed through two more in quick succession, turned, got a fourth and was working on a fifth when I glanced around looking for more. As I looked up to clear my tail, a gaggle of Messerschmitts and Fw 190s fell out of the sky; only by pure chance had I seen them. To this day, I'm still amazed that no one in our formation said anything about them on the radio."
The P-38s scrambled in a series of frantic dogfights. Ethell was the only survivor of some 30-40 minutes of air combat.
Map: Land west of row 20, water east of row 21.
| Aircraft: | USAAF | = | 2x P-38F-15 Lightning |
| Luftwaffe | = | 4x Focke-Wulf FW-190A-3 6x Messerschmitt Bf109G-2 6x Ju52 |
Game Length: 20 turns
| Luftwaffe | Fighters: Good (Roll on chart) Ju52s: Reg (with no special characteristics) |
| USAAF | Reg + roll D10 for 2nd a/c (1-7 Reg, 8-10 Green) |
The other 5 P-38s were shot down over Bizerte. Ethell displaced out to sea, and was left alone by the German fighters. In a panic, he had no real idea how where to go. His Mayday was answered by a British RDF unit, which gave him a course to take to Bone, then in British hands.
He arrived to see Spitfires burning on the field and German fighters strafing. It had been going on all day. He landed during a lull, flattened his nose gear, and was promptly ordered off the field immediately, without fuel or repairs - but at least he had directions.
Ethell was preparing to belly-land in the midst of the desert when he spotted Youk les Bains. On landing, he found that he was so over due, his squadronmates had divided out his stuff. It took a week to get everything back.
Flight Journal Magazine web site. Mission Bizerte: A Very Long Day at the Office, Col Ervin Ethell, USAF, (Ret)
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