Pony Scramble
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A Navy patrol plane spotted several Japanese fighters in-bound to strike our airfield, so we scrambled 6 P-51s to intercept. Climbing out, we saw them right away, and engaged them in a nasty, close fight over our airfield.
I achieved 2 confirmed, and one shared victory.
First one to go spotted me as i turned onto his six. He unloaded, then tried a vertical climb, which my P-51 matched easily.

Leveling off, I noticed a single fighter below me. He was hugging the terrain, low and fast, as he came about to approach the airfield. It looked as though he would strafe the P-38s parked there, but a heavy AA fire discouraged him and he banked away at the last minute. I assume he was thus distracted because he never saw me coming.

After climbing back up to around 5000 ft, a P-51 dove past me about 200 meters off my port wing, an Oscar tight on his tail. Kicking over the rudder, I entered a screaming dive trying to close the gap and save my squadron mate. As i approached i was joined by two more P-51s with the same goal in mind. The Oscar pilot must have seen us, because he disengaged and clawed heavenward like the Devil was after him. His luck didn't hold. Two of us scored hits as we passed.
The stricken plane spun, and the pilot jumped. I came about and passed him close by while he hung in the silk. He now resides in a holding cell.

The AA had downed one Japanese fighter, and the remaining few turned away and fled. Most of our squadron pursued, but no more enemy fighters were downed. We returned to base, and i was the first in the landing pattern.

After taxiing to my assigned zone, I waited and counted our returning planes.

One by one they landed... Thats 2.... 3.... 4.... ....There's 5.... ....
Somewhere, somehow, a P-51 is missing. No one saw him hit, no one heard anything on the radio. Number 6 is MIA. A search will launched immediately, but without knowing where he went down, hope is slim.