At 1115hrs on January 7, 1949 the four Spitfire FR18s of 208 Sqn, flown by Fg Off Geoff Cooper, the formation leader, (See Note 1) with his No 2 Pilot/II Frank Close (See Note 2), together with Fg Off Tim McElhaw and his No 2 Pilot/II Ron Sayers, got airborne from Fayid and headed for the Al-Auja-Rafah area in northeast Sinai. Despite some later reports to the contrary, the aircraft were fully armed and capable of returning fire. The formation had been clearly briefed not to cross the frontier into Israel, however, it had also been made clear that any information they obtained if they ‘accidentally’ strayed over the border somewhere along the featureless desert, would be most welcome. It should also be remembered that, as Israeli ground forces were now positioned inside the Egyptian border, any route along the Egyptian side of the actual border would, at some stage, involve over-flying territory now occupied by Israeli ground forces. As the formation approached Abu Awiegila, the aircraft split into two sections, Cooper and Close descended to 500ft, with McElhaw and Sayers acting as top cover at 1500ft.
The planned route, along the expanse of desert that constituted the Egypt / Israel border, comprised a number of turning points and it would have been very easy for the formation to have inadvertently penetrated the border. It is now clear that the formation did briefly penetrate Israeli territory, along the Al Auja-Rafah road, as it searched for the REAF Spitfire last sighted being towed towards Israel. Eventually the RAF Spitfires headed back towards the area of Rafah, inside Egyptian territory. However, the RAF formation was unaware that some15 minutes earlier 5 REAF Spitfire LF9s of 2 Sqn had attacked an Israeli armoured column in that area, setting three trucks on fire. A lack of communication between the REAF and the RAF, a result of the incident on May 22, 1948, had ensured that the RAF formation was completely unaware that REAF Spitfires would even be in the area. Attracted by the smoking vehicles and curious to discover what had happened, the four RAF Spitfires turned towards the scene of the attack. As they approached the vehicles, Cooper and Close dropped down below 500ft to take photographs of the incident, whilst McElhaw and Sayers continued to provide top cover at 1500ft.
The sound of the approaching RAF Spitfires alerted the Israeli soldiers who, fearing another attack by the REAF Spitfires, were understandably quick to open fire on the aircraft with machine guns, hitting both Cooper and Close. The Spitfire flown by Cooper sustained only slight damage and he rapidly pulled up to gain height, but Close's aircraft, which had flown very low to get good close-up photos of the burning vehicles, was badly damaged; he also pulled up to gain height but, with his aircraft on fire, he had no option but to bail out. During the descent, Close's feet got caught in the rigging lines of the parachute and he landed on his head, breaking his jaw. Cooper looking back saw Close bail out from his stricken aircraft and watched as he eventually landed some 10 miles inside Egyptian territory. Meanwhile, McElhaw and Sayers decided to drop down from providing top cover to see for themselves what had happened. Whilst the three surviving RAF Spitfires were concentrating on seeing what had happened to Close, two IAF 101 Sqn Spitfire LF9s, also alerted by the columns of black smoke from the burning vehicles, arrived on the scene.
Leading the two IAF Spitfire LF9s was a dour, highly experienced Canadian volunteer pilot, John Fredrick McElroy. McElroy's military career had begun in the Canadian infantry before he subsequently enlisted in the RCAF in 1940, initally serving with 54 Sqn. In the Spring of 1942 he joined 249 Sqn RAF in Malta, together with George 'Screwball' Beurling and during the defence of Malta he shot down five German aircraft and was awarded the DFC. He later claimed two more German aircraft over Normandy in June 1944 and one more a month later, receiving a bar to his DFC; he eventually ended the war with a total of 13 enemy aircraft destroyed. At a loose end after the war, McElroy was recruited specifically to fly the IAF Spitfires because of his considerable experience on the aircraft.
Flying alongside McElroy was an American volunteer pilot, Chalmers 'Slick' Goodlin. Goodlin had learned to fly before WW2 and in 1941 had travelled to Canada to enlist with the RCAF and join the war against the Germans. During military flying training in Canada, he so impressed his colleagues with his flying ability that they gave him the nickname 'Slick'. During WW2 Goodlin was a flight instructor in Canada, then completed a combat tour in England flying Spitfires alongside RAF squadrons, before transferring to the US Navy. Released from active duty, Goodlin joined Bell as a test pilot in 1944. Following the death in a crash of the initial Bell X-1 test pilot Jack Woolams, Goodlin accepted a lucrative verbal agreement from Bell and became, at just 23 years of age, the prime pilot for the experimental X-1. Goodlin went on to make no less than 33 flights in the X-1 between Sep 46 and Jun 47. However, in Jun 47, when the initial subsonic testing of the X-1 was complete and responsibility for further test flights of the X-1 was taken over by the US Army Air Force (AAF), they were unwilling to continue the expensive verbal contract for test flights that Bell had previously agreed with Goodlin. Aggrieved by what he considered to be a breach of faith, Goodlin quickly tendered his resignation. Following his departure, an unknown AAF captain, Chuck Yeager, immediately took over as the test pilot for the X-1, later becoming the first man to break the sound barrier in the X-1, before going on to become the most famous test pilot in history and the man recognised as possessing 'The Right Stuff'. After leaving Bell, Goodlin found himself looking for work and was eventually recruited by Joseph Berg, a Hollywood producer, to fly as a volunteer for the IAF.
Describing the encounter a number of years later McElroy stated that on the fateful day "It was pretty uneventful for the first 20 to 25 minutes of the flight. And then, all of a sudden, I said to Slick - he was on my left wing - I said, "Look at that smoke over here to the left, on the ground." It seemed to be about eight to ten miles away. We were a good 40 to 50 miles south of Faluja. It was right on the front line and there were three columns of smoke - pretty heavy black smoke - going up about 1,000ft. So I said "Come on, we'll turn and have a look at this." And as we got closer, I said "My God", we could see trucks burning, we could see a couple of light armoured vehicles and a number of jeeps. We saw no airplanes at the time. And then I saw four Spitfires going in, they were strafing. They had three vehicles on fire."
The Spitfire's flown by McElroy and Goodlin were still fitted with a fairly standard RAF radio and they heard the excited chatter of the RAF formation as they discussed the loss of Close, but failed to connect this situation with the incident they had stumbled across. Not expecting to come under attack, and preoccupied by watching Close descend in his parachute, the three RAF pilots probably mis-identified the two IAF Spitfires turning behind them as being part of their own formation. The IAF Spitfires pounced on the formation, assuming they were actually REAF Spitfires and responsible for the attack on the Israeli column. According to McElroy, "There were no markings on the Spitfires. Two of them were heading in an easterly direction and there were two that had gotten out of sight in a dive. They were diving and we lost them, so I warned Slick to watch out and we got over the convoy."
McElroy latched onto the Spitfire flown by Sayers and immediately opened fire, again according to McElroy "Slick was right beside my wing, he'd crossed over on the starboard side and I pulled another turn and turned south to see if we could pick up the other airplanes. Slick moved over to my left and just as he did I yelled, "There's an enemy aircraft at 12 o'clock, right in front of us!" They were about 3,000ft lower than us, so we stuck our noses down and Slick moved off to the left and started firing. We were right on top of them. They pulled up right in front of us and I blasted one, I guess from about 200yds and saw many explosions all around the engine and cockpit - I knocked a few pieces off his wings. They'd just pulled out of this dive, they didn't see us at all, they didn't know we were even in the area. I broke off, looked at Slick, he had disappeared from view, but I saw an airplane going down off my left, it was on fire and smoking, in a fairly steep dive around to the left."
Sayers was probably killed at the controls, as his aircraft quickly went into a power dive and hit the ground about three miles West of where Close's machine had crashed. McElroy then switched his attention to the aircraft flown by McElhaw, dropped in behind him and opened fire. According to McElroy "I took a quick look around, behind and above, nothing behind me at all and I looked over and saw another airplane off about 2 o'clock to me - just off my right and slightly below. I took one look and saw it wasn't one of ours by the markings, ours had the tails painted with big red and white stripes. I looked for the red and white tail markings of our airplanes, they were all marked the same and they showed up many miles away. It wasn't one of ours, so I dropped my sights on him, it was about 400yds and I let fly. I got strikes all over him, right down the fuselage and the engine, and I didn't wait around, I just broke off. I got a good burst in, probably about three to four seconds, which is a fairly long burst and well clobbered with cannon and the .50 calibre. I broke off, looked around, but couldn't see Slick." The first thing that McElhaw knew was a call on the R/T from Cooper saying that he had an aircraft on his tail, then suddenly his aircraft was struck by bullets along the fuselage and engine. It was quickly obvious to McElhaw that he needed to part company with his aircraft and he bailed out, landing about five-six miles west of Close's aircraft.
Whilst McElroy was shooting down Sayers and McElhaw, Goodlin engaged the final aircraft flown by Cooper. Goodlin recalled "There was a fiery explosion from John's target and my quarry poured on the coal with me in pursuit. We broke out of a sandy mist at 10,000ft, but I could not gain close proximity to the Spit 18 due to lesser power in my Spit 9. At about 16,000ft the Spit 18 rolled over and dived back towards me at an impossible deflection angle, with machine guns blazing and exhaust smoke rolling out under both wings. I immediately engaged my opponent in an old-fashioned dogfight scissors. The Spit 9 proved to have better manoeuvrability and I was able to get into an ideal firing position. I saw strikes on my opponent's engine cowl just before he rolled over and bailed out about ten miles south of Al Arish. I only recognised the RAF roundel after the Spit 18 had fired on me, when we were in the scissors engagement and I had no alternative but to fight back to save my own bacon."
Sayers remains were later recovered by Egyptian troops and buried in the desert, close to the remains of his aircraft. Cooper landed safely after suffering some wounds to his leg during the engagement and, after walking for a while, he was picked up by some Bedouins who took him to a border post manned by some Arab troops. Then after being transported by camel to Al Arish, he was handed over to the Egyptian Army, who treated his wounds before putting him on a hospital train back to Ismailia and the RAF. McElhaw and Close were captured by Israeli troops and were eventually taken to Tel Aviv for interrogation.
McElroy and Goodlin returned to Hatzor, executed a victory roll over the airfield, and landed. After they had landed, Goodlin told McElroy that the aircraft they had shot down had been British Spitfires. McElroy remembered he replied "Oh no, you're crazy. The British wouldn't be down there, that's behind our line. Now where this convoy was on fire ... where the strafing around was going, was behind the Israeli lines ... I would say, roughly three to four miles behind the Israeli front lines. And that's the first thing I knew they were even down that way. I never noticed any markings on them. I knew they weren't ours and that's all I needed." Although their colleagues were initially sceptical of their claim to have shot down three RAF Spitfire FR18s, this was soon confirmed when news of the capture of McElhaw and Close was received by telephone.
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Ребята, как поменять сложность в компании за британцев в сингл плеере? А то я там неуязвим(c)mamali
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