Chuck Yeager, later to become the first man to break the sound barrier, was leading the 357th Fighter Group on an escort mission to Magdeburg when they encountered a large formation of enemy fighters at high altitude. A hundred-plane dogfight developed as Yeager led his P-51s to the attack. Swooping into the fight, he picked out an isolated Focke-Wulf and shot its tail off for his first kill. Zooming back up, he repositioned, then dove on another sending it down in flames. He did this twice more before the fight broke up. With four kills this was his second-best mission. In October he was given credit for downing five Bf 109s in a single battle.
