Malta December 1940. A strange encounter.

**Flying Officer Kyte** · 12-25-2014 01:38

December Sortie.

This will be the last sortie of 1940 before the Germans take a hand in things. It will get a lot sticker from now on chaps.

This brief was inspired by an account of an encounter near Naples by Adrian Warburton the pilot who flew Maryland reconnaissance flights over Taranto prior to the Swordfish raid thereon.

Warburton continued his sorties in the Maryland after Taranto, towards the end of 1940.

He writes:-

I was entering the bay of Naples from the Southwest at 1,500 feet when I saw an SM79 with brown mottled camouflage heading across my track. The clouds were at 2,000 feet in a solid bank, so if fighters appeared I could retire. I, therefore, made a stern attack; some pieces of the tail flew off and my rounds started going into the fuselage. I closed the range and concentrated on the starboard engine which started to smoke and eventually stopped. My rear gunner wanted to try the new turret, so I broke away and drew parallel to the SM79, slightly above and about 100 yards to his starboard. My rear gunner put in a burst of about 20 rounds which ignited the petrol and the SM79 burst into a mass of flames and dived into the sea from 1,000 feet, disappearing immediately. I then carried on with my recce of Naples and returned to Luqa.
This description of two aircraft which one would not readily associate with a dog fight got me thinking.
The mission is simple. Use two aircraft of the type mentioned or,similar, over the sea, with the British aircraft positioned at long range ruler length behind the Italian, whichever side you are flying. Cloud is at 2,000 feet and you are at 1,500. That is all you need to know.

Good luck gentlemen.
Kyte.