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“Boxing Day”
The Mustang IV of Squadron Leader Murray Nash. (Artwork © Drew Harrison)
The last 3 Squadron aeroplane ever to be shot down by an enemy fighter fell on the 26th of December 1944.
This loss occurred while a formation of eight Mustangs, lead by Squadron Leader
Murray Nash, were undertaking a dive-bombing mission over northern Italy. In a swift attack by Messerschmitts from one of the few remaining squadrons of the
Italian fascist Aviazonne Nazionale Repubblicana, Warrant Officer Jack Quinn was
shot down before anyone was aware of the danger. By way of retribution, one of the attacking Me109s was subsequently stalked and downed by 3 Squadron during a
thrilling low-level pursuit. Despite the aircraft losses, both the Australian and Italian victims were able to escape alive (although no doubt rather shaken!)
in this final round of “boxing” between 3 Squadron and their long-standing Italian opponents.
During their first month of combat operations following their conversion from Kittyhawks to Mustangs in November 1944, 3 Squadron had smoothly adapted to the
new aircraft type, although the vicious winter weather often frustrated their mission plans. The longer range of the Mustang had permitted sorties to be
mounted as far as northern Yugoslavia to harass the German forces retreating before the partisan armies there. Christmas Day 1944 had seen a particularly
successful “train-busting” sweep over Yugoslavia, with 11 Mustangs expending all
their bombs and ammunition on a number of trains, before the team returned to their base at Fano for a hearty Christmas lunch.
Although German flak still posed a potent danger to the dive-bombers, 3 Squadron had not been engaged by enemy fighters for many months. Indeed, the skies were often filled with Allied aircraft going methodically about their work of creating a “traffic desert” behind the German front line in Italy.
On Boxing Day 1944, two missions were flown. The morning mission, mounted by eight Mustangs, targeted a bridge in Yugoslavia. Unfortunately it was something of a fizzer. One Mustang was written off in a takeoff accident and the weather over Yugoslavia was found to be completely closed-in. Their bombs had to be jettisoned over the Adriatic.
The afternoon mission, flown by another eight Mustangs each carrying a pair of
500lb bombs, was led off by Murray Nash at 1435. They were heading for the clearer weather of northern Italy, with the objective of cutting the important
railway line which runs through the town of Pordenone. Their track took them past Venice to within view of the breathtaking snowbound Dolomite Alps.
Nash led his Mustangs inland up the course of the Piave River. They spotted their target railway line stretching across the Veneto plain and swung to follow
it north-east at an altitude of about 9000 feet, searching for any traffic to strike. However, a complete lack of suitable targets left them flying straight
and level for a long period of time with the winter sun setting low over their shoulders.
These were ideal conditions for a seasoned enemy fighter-leader to
exploit. Unfortunately just such a man was indeed speeding towards them at that very moment…
On that afternoon at 1500 hours, Capitano Ugo Drago, Commanding Officer of 1a Squadriglia of the 2o Gruppo Caccia of the ANR, had led off ten Bf109Gs in a
scramble from their Aviano base, located just 15km to the north of 3 Squadron’s
intended target. The RAAF Mustangs had been spotted by German air defence radars and the decision had been made to chance some of the scant Axis fighter
resources in northern Italy at an interception. Drago was a much-admired fighter tactician who by December 1944 had four years of combat experience and
over a dozen air combat victory claims. His personal aircraft always carried the lucky number “7”. Despite overwhelming Allied air power in Italy, Drago
continued to mount successful interception missions while, quite remarkably, limiting his squadron losses to only two combat fatalities over eleven months of
operations up to March 1945.
Drago positioned his squadron in the sun above and behind the swiftly-moving formation of Nash’s Mustangs. At this moment one of the Mustangs was lagging behind and Drago directed the Italian Tenente Keller to dive on it.
The first that any of the Australians knew of the attack was when Pilot Officer Ken Caldecott saw the speeding grey Messerschmitt firing on Jack Quinn’s green/grey camouflaged Mustang III, CV-J. Keller scored hits on Quinn’s engine and sent him spinning into a dive trailing white smoke.
Caldecott yelled a warning as Keller’s Bf109G continued forwards, opening fire
on Flying Officer Max Thomas’s Mustang in the main formation. Nash ordered the
formation to jettison their bombs and make a defensive turn to port. As they turned Nash saw Quinn bale out after CV-J had spiralled down about a thousand
feet. Quinn’s parachute eventually opened and he was seen to land on a
riverbank. His Mustang, with bombs still attached, exploded into a ball of flame in the fields
nearby.
Tenente Keller zoomed back into the sun to elude interception. He was closely followed by Capitano Drago, who fired on Caldecott from his “Black 7” and then also made his own fast getaway. Caldecott was not hit, but he may have been very lucky – the Italian ace was sufficiently confident in his attack to file a “kill” claim!
Drago then decided that they had achieved enough success and he instructed his
men to disengage.
Everything had happened so quickly that it took some moments for the Australians
to piece together that they had been attacked by enemy aircraft and to identify the fallen Mustang as Quinn’s. (Several Allied aircraft had been seen earlier
in the flight and mistaken “friendly fire” attacks were a common risk …) Nash
then decided to patrol his formation at low altitude to the south of the Aviano airbase to see if they could snare the returning Italian fighters.
Eventually a single returning 109 was spotted about 4000 feet above them and off
to port. The Messerschmitt, “Black 8” was piloted by Sottotenente Felice Squassoni, who was unaware of the danger below. Nash skilfully manoeuvred his
formation into Squassoni’s blind-spot and climbed to intercept. Once they had
closed the distance, Max Thomas loosed off a stream of tracer, but missed.
Squassoni immediately dived for the deck at full throttle, heading for the protection of the Aviano anti-aircraft defences. Nash and his wingman
Bill
Andrews 
(in
CV-A) sped after him, crossing the southern boundary of the airfield at nought
feet (Squassoni was flying only slightly higher, at nought metres!).
The 20mm flak from the airfield defences wasn’t much help to Squassoni, possibly
because everyone was going so fast at such a low altitude. Nash later rated the
flak as “medium”. Nash quickly closed to 100 yards. He had difficulty getting
a bead on the dodging Italian while they were so close to the ground, but scored
hits with three long burst from his guns. The Messerschmitt emitted a long white plume of leaking engine coolant. Nash sheared off, thinking Squassoni was
going in. However, the 109 stayed airborne, so Andrews pressed in, hammering away from a distance of 150 yards down to 20 yards. He got hits on
the port wing and cockpit and the Messerschmitt’s wheels drooped down as its hydraulics were shot away. Squassoni was terrified but still protected by his
armour plate as Andrews pulled away and Max Thomas replaced him in line, adding three more bursts of machinegun fire into the disintegrating Messerschmitt.
Squassoni decided his survival depended on getting onto the ground immediately.
As Thomas zoomed overhead, Squassoni was over a flat vineyard. He nosed his fighter straight into it, making a spectacular crash landing at full speed. The
aircraft smashed through many rows of vines and poles and juddered to a halt in a shower of dirt. Squassoni flung open his cockpit canopy and ran for his life,
but his riddled 109 didn’t explode, and there was no further gunfire as the RAAF
Mustangs were suddenly absent.
Thomas had lost sight of the 109 as he pulled up to avoid colliding with his target, so the Australians were unaware that “Black 8” had crashed. Nash, Andrews and Thomas later filed a joint claim for one Me109 “damaged”.
Ironically, this last of 3 Squadron’s long line of defeated adversaries from Professor Willi Messerschmitt’s production lines was never listed as a victory!
Squassoni returned to flying operations with Drago and both survived the war. Ugo Drago later became a leading figure in the establishment of the Italian airline Alitalia.
For the remainder of the war, 3 Squadron continued to fly their risky missions into the teeth of the deadly German flak and several more Mustangs were lost. They were relatively fortunate in that only two further pilot fatalities were suffered, but sadly one of these was Max Thomas who died on the 9th of January 1945.
Jack Quinn survived his parachute decent and friendly Italians hid him in vineyard farms for three weeks. However, an 'unfriendly' tipped off the German occupation forces and, according to Engineering Officer Ken McRae, Quinn was captured to finish the war as a POW.
Aviano airbase today is a major NATO facility.
Text by James Oglethorpe.
References: 3 Squadron RAAF Operations Record Book.
Italian research by Ferdinando D'Amico as reported in:
http://www.dalnet.se/~surfcity/italy_drago.htm
http://www.dalnet.se/~surfcity/italy_squassoni.htm
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