The second attack by an FW190 northeast of Essen left our ball turret and tail gunner dead. Our AI wingman staggered off to the west with a damaged rudder. We turned south and headed alone for the target- Frankfurt.

As we headed south we knew we were defensless to the rear and below. At this point we saw a most BEAUTIFUL sight! =RUFF= in a P51B! "Sparks" had been on the radio and vectored =ruff= into us. JUST IN TIME as a second FW190 attack took out our right aileron. =ruff= dove in and beat off the attacker.

We proceeded to target and dropped our 1Ks square on the aircraft factory to the north of the Frankfurt. We turned west and firewalled the remaining 3 engines. At this point an Me110 attacked and again =ruff= came to our rescue, forcing the 110 low. The 110's tail gunner took out =ruff='s right guns and aileron.

=Ruff= formed up on our right wingtip and in formation we headed 270 for home. The remaining flight was uneventful until midway over the channel. As we started our descent another Me110 looking for stragglers returning to base showed up. Again, despite the damage to his aircraft, =ruff= forced him low, clearing our 6 and allowing us to land safely to F1.

We estimate that =ruff= saved our bacon at least 3 different times. Any one of these attacks, if they had been uncontested, would have meant the certain death of our 10 man crew. He was also assisted by pakrat in his P-38.

Fortunately =ruff= returned safely as well as our beaten up B17G. Our crew kissed the ground as we deplaned at F1.

This 2.5 hour mission was the most exciting I've expereinced since the glory days of the 2.77 ETO. But the "happy ending" would not have been possible without the courage and skill of one man WTG =RUFF=! His single-handed efforts to save a squaddie (even in a B17) exemplifies the courage, tenacity and loyalty that are the BEST of the best fighter squad in WarBirds...the 31st! <SALUTE>