Date:	Monday 30 November 1942
Time:	14:47
Type:	Lockheed P-38F Lightning
Owner/operator:	48th FSqn /14th FGp USAAF
Registration:	41-7644
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	south of Tunis -   Tunisia
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:
Destination airport:

Narrative:
In the afternoon of 30 November 1942, 12 P-38s of 48th FS, 14th FG flying a tactical reconnaissance over Tunisia met around 1500 hrs ten Bf 109s 20 miles south of Mateur. 1st Lt Virgil H. Smith claimed one shot down, and Capt Wade C Walles, Jr, and Capt Ralph J. Watson one probably destroyed each, Watson also claiming a damaged. The P-38F 41-7644 of 2nd Lt Arthur Vincent Cole was shot down by a Bf 109 and the pilot baled out at 1500 hrs south a Tunis and was captured.

On the German side, Fw Anton Hafner of 4./JG 51 claimed a P-38 shot down at 1447 hrs 15 km southwest of Tunis as his 68th victory. It is the only known claim and he obviously shot down Cole.

Identifying the possible victim of 1st Lt Smith is more complicated. On this day, the Luftwaffe lost three Bf 109s shot down and one damaged in air battles, but no time is known for these losses, and two Spitfire pilots of 2nd FS, 52nd FG and one P-38 pilot of 27th FS, 1st FG claimed one shot down each in the early afternoon.

According to Cole's biography, he was hit by Flak (probably wrong, but he might not have seen his attacker) and landed wheels up somewhere in Tunisia. A voice called to him "Throw out your weapons; come out with your hands on your head." He was then told, "For you the war is over". He was taken to Tunis and then to Italy, arriving in January 1943 in an Italian IW camp near the seacoast town of Chieti. Later (probably after the Italian armistice in September 1943) Germans took over the camp and began sending the POWs to Germany by train. Cole and two other prisoners pried off a heavy wire mesh over a two-foot vent and escaped from their moving train. They lived with an Italian family for months before being recaptured. Cole then went to Stalag1 at Moosburg and sent eighteen months there, before being liberated at the end of the war. He returned home and married his girlfriend Jody Lewis on 21 September 1945.

"A history of the Mediterranean Air War 1940-1945. Volume Three: Tunisia and the End in Africa November 1942 – May 1943", by Christopher Shores and Giovanni Massimello with Russel Guest, Frank Olynyk and Winfried Bock. ISBN 978-1-910690-00-0
"Die Jagdfliegerverbände der deutschen Luftwaffe 1934 bis 1945, Teil 8/II: Einsatz im Mittelmeerraum November 1941 bis December 1942", by Jochen Prien & co. ISBN 978-3-923457-75-8
http://www.luftwaffe.cz/hafner.html
"Heroes and Teachers", by Paul M. Possemato, William J. Johnston and D. Michael Johnston. ISBN 978-1-4343-7299-4
http://www.maplandia.com/tunisia/region-1/tunis/tunis/_/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
30-Nov-2017 18:57	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Source, Narrative]
19-Mar-2020 09:12	DG333	Updated [Operator, Operator]