Air Art Northwest

U.S.A./CANADA
1-800-522-6111
INTERNATIONAL.
1-503-359-0424
FAX LINE
1-503-357-4647
EMAIL
airart@aracnet.com


HOME PAGE

American Fighter Aces
Series 1

High noon, 14 November,1944. Eleven P-38s of the 80th Fighter Squadron "Headhunters" weaved back and forth above two groups of B-24 bombers droning north at 16,000 feet toward the Japanese-held Alicante Airdrome, located on Negros Island in the Phillipines. Major Jay T. Robbins, leading blue flight, sighted one Zeke and three Oscars 8,000 feet below at ten o'clock and dove to attack.

Suddenly aware of the three Lightnings screaming down on them, the four Japanese fighters split into two elements of two, one element breaking right, the other, left. Then, in Robbins's own words, "I followed the two that broke to the right...I made a shallow dive and went underneath and to the outside of the enemy leader's gradual right turn. Giving my plane the throttle, I drove up within 150 feet before opening fire...my first burst knocked pieces out of his rudder and left wing and my second burst hit the canopy which blew off, barely missing my plane. Black smoke and bursts of flame came from the left side of the plane..both the pilot and the plane fell to the ground several miles northeast of Alicante drome."

This victory, Major Robbins's 22nd, proved to be his final victory of the war. Completing his combat tour two weeks later, he returned to the United States.