At: 18:31 GMT
BURDETT: "Off the Tunisian Coast yesterday, American P-38 Lightning fighters shot eleven enemy planes clear out of the sky. All of our fighters came home. The P-38s have been ringing up all sorts of records out there, and tonight two of the men who fly them are back heret Headquarters (12th. AF), right in this studio, in fact, to tell you how they do it.... they are Jack M. Ilfrey of Houston, Texas and Thomas A. White of Kelso, Washington."
BURDETT:"Jack, I hear you've bagged quite a few enemy planes since last November."
ILFREY:"Well, I've shot down six, and Tom here has got six also. As a matter of fact, they tell me that's the top score for this front"
BURDETT: "Yes, that's so. How do you like flying the P-38?"
ILFREY:"It's the best fighter we have around here..."
BURDETT: "Why do you think that?"
ILFREY:" Lots of fire power....and speed. and I like the idea of having two engines with me out there....I'm much surer to get home. I had to fly back from Gabes once with many holes in my plane and one engine gone...."
BURDETT:"Tom, how do you find the P-38 stands up to the Messerscmitt 109 or the new Focke Wulf the Germans are flying?"
WHITE: "We can run circles around them...Up to a certain height anyway...and I know we're alot faster because once three Focke-Wulfs chased me half way home from Bizerte but they could never really get near me...The only time a Messerscmitt can beat us on speed is when its coming down in a dive. The Jerries always hang around on top...and always try to jump the last man, and that's when you've got to be careful.
BURDETT:"What do you do then?"
WHITE:"There is only one thing to do. You whip around to meet them with all your guns wide open...Most of our work now is escorting bombers, so we don't go around looking for trouble. We wait until the Jerries attack and then we pile up on them."
BURDETT:"Jack, as one of the top scorers on the Tunisian front, what do you think of the German pilots?"
ILFREY:"Sometimes I think that they're inexperienced or that they've got alot of guts...They're definitely good. And my impression is that the general run of the mill pilots has been getting better since we got here....But the point is this, we've been learning alot too, about how to shoot them down. Our score is several times better today than what it was when we started...The Germans have put their best men and their best stuff against us, but right now it's our side setting the pace."
BURDETT:"Thanks alot Jack....and Tom. This is Winston Burdett in North Africa, returning you to CBS, in New York."
"When attacking an inferior force we use only the strength necessary and always maintain a flight or an element as top cover." --Lt.Col Gerald R. Johnston, USAAF
Unless otherwise noted, all content © copyright The Art of Syd Edwards 1998-1999. All rights reserved and reproduction is prohibited.
