TWO THAT GOT AWAY This event is so bizarre I cannot believe it happened to me---but it did! In retrospect, it is so embarrising I hesitate to write about the details. On the other hand, their may have been a reason. While the Allied Armies were struggling to break-out of the beach head and before organized reinforcements by the enemy had occured, we were given the freedom to roam freely behind the German beach fortifications. We would be sent on Armed Reconnaisance missions , in flights of four aircraft. (Definition--Armed Reconnaisance: Shoot or bomb anything that moved). In the area we would split up and look for targets all alone, reforming into a flight at a designated time and place. This procedure demonstrated our total disdain of the German Airforce. Had their been an Me-109 or Fw-190 lurking in the area we would have been extremely vulnerable as we cruised along at near tree top level. In fact, during my seventy-seven combat missions, I saw only one airborne enemy airplane, an event to be described later. On this day I sighted a motorcycle, all alone, headed away from the beach. It was a beautiful clear day with no apparent opposition from ground fire. It seemd a very unequal duel ,for me with eight .50 Cal. machine guns to engage a lone defenseless motor bike--but this was war! My strategy was influenced, no doubt, by my days on the farm plinking at jack-rabbits with my .22 rifle: The nearer the target the more likely to hit the rabbit. I approached the cycle from the rear, low, slow and near level flight. Just before pressing the trigger on my control stick--he slid to a stop, laid the bike on it's side in the middle of the road and dived into the roadside ditch. I fired, tearing up huge chunks of the road confident that if the rider had escaped he would walk to his destination. In a climbing turn I looked back to view the wreckage and to my utter surprise---he was speeding on down the road apparently untouched by my attack. _Two_ more times ,before running out of ammo,I repeated my attack with the same results. Each time he left his bike in the middle of the road,dived into the ditch, mounted again speeding toward his destination. How could this happen you ask? This is what I have concluded. 1. The four machine-guns mounted in the right wing of the airplane are separated twelve feet from the four guns in the left wing. They are sighted-in on the ground to converge several hundred yards ahead. I was so close to the motorcycle that, though I had my gunsight directly on the target, my bullets were striking on either side of the bike. 2. Why did the courier, which I am now convinced he was, remount after each attack? Had he stayed immobile after the first attack I would have assumed he was out of commission and left him alone. Instead, he invited two more attacks by proceeding. He had no way to know I would make the same stupid mistake three times in a row! 3. Land-line communications were mostly destroyed. Wireless communication was subject to interception and decoding. It is my belief that this courier had an urgent message with orders to hand carry to Field Marshall Rommel , the Commander that Hitler had charged to repel the invasion. In retrospect, I am now pleased that he got away. Whether he was brave or stupid ,I do not know, but if he survived the war, no doubt he has had great enjoyment telling his children and grand children how he out-witted a dumb Yank in a Thunderbolt. Number two, on another day, “escaped” due to my choice. A Tiger tank was rumbling down the Autobahn. I was at 8000 feet and eased into a 45 degree dive with him in my gunsight. Half way down I noticed he had rotated his turret and I was flying directly into the barrel of his Ju.88 cannon. I made a quick decision. The possibility of my stopping him with machine-gun fire was virtually zero: the possibility of he blowing me out of the sky was considerable. I broke off the attack to fly another day. Of course, had I been carrying bombs , I would have pressed on with the attack. ©whcameron2000