Unknown aircraft, perhaps a "borrowed" P-40, buzzes the 1st Fighter Group (P-38s), either at Djedeija or Mateur. Sandrino Sogus, an Italian aircraft specialist and a surfer of the 1st Fighter web site says, quite correctly, that it is not an ME109.

A clue to the aircraft's identity, pilot, and location may be included in Charles Hoffman's diary from late October 1943:

"The commander of the 325th Fighter Group came to visit our group commander [at Djedeija, Tunisia]. The 325th had recently converted from P-40s to P-47s, but their commander flew over in a P-40. When he was ready to leave he couldn’t get his plane started. Since it wasn’t important to get the P-40 back right away, our commander flew him back to his base in one of our “piggybacks” (a P-38 with the radio equipment moved to the nose to provide a small area for a passenger behind the pilot).

Several of us had flown the P-40 back in the States and we were curious as to what could be wrong with the plane. One of our crew chiefs had worked on the ’40, so we got him to check it out. He found that the starter dogs were stuck and he was able to free them with a screwdriver. We decided it would be fun to fly the plane, so we flipped a coin to see who would go first. As fate would have it, Cy Nolen won.

Before I relate Cy’s flight, one should understand the P-40’s power-on stall characteristics. Stalling with the power on could result in some violent maneuvers. First, the rudder controls would lock in the full left or right position and the stick would lock in the full aft or forward position (usually aft). This would result in a spin in the direction of the applied rudder. The controls could not be moved until the power had been moved to idle.

Anyway, Cy started the plane, taxied out, and took off. He made several low passes over the field and pulled up into several rolls. (This was known as “beating up the field.”) He made a pass, pulled up, and started rolling. In the middle of the third roll he “slopped out” and came very close to the ground. The next pass he was going a little faster and was able to complete the three rolls. Then he approached and pulled up into an Immelmann. At the top the plane stalled, snapped a couple of times, and headed for the ground.

We could hear the engine power was still on and we started yelling for him to cut the power. Of course he could not hear us, but our collective ESP must have been working because the exhaust stacks started popping, indicating that the power had been cut. Immediately, the plane started to stabilize and Cy pulled out of the dive. He couldn’t have been more than 10 or 15 feet above the ground. As expected, Nolen returned again at a much greater speed and completed the Immelmann. Unhappily for Cy, Lt Col Robert B. Richard, the Group Commander, was witness to his exploits. When Nolen parked the P-40, Col Richard was there to ground him for 30 days. "

Webmaster Note: The hill in the background of the photo looks fairly close to the airfield suspiciously like the small hill to the southwest of Djedeija airfield.