Vicious aerial dogfights far out over the Atlantic between B-24 Liberators of the Army Air Forces anti-submarine units and huge German Focke-Wulf Kurier bombers in which two of the latter were shot down and two others severely damaged, with the loss of one Liberator, were described yesterday by First Bomber Command headquarters, 90 Church Street.
    The Liberators and Kuriers, both four-engined long-range heavy bombers mounting many heavy-caliber weapons, engaged in three spectacular battles in full view of the crews of Allied merchant ships maneuvering to within fifty feet of the sea on occasion.
    In the first encounter, Capt. Gerald L. Mosier of Waverly, N. Y., spotted a Kurier and immediately closed with the enemy. His first sighting bursts overshot the target, then Liberator gunners scored repeated hits.
    Four minutes after the Liberator attacked, Staff Sergeant N. J. Wynkoop of Cementon, N. Y., manning the nose gun, found the Kurier squarely in his sights and fired a long burst into the Focke-Wulf's wing-root and fuselage. The plane nosed down, struck the water and exploded.

    In another encounter Capt. H. D. Maxwell of Pink Hill, N. C., piloting a B-24, attacked two Focke-Wulfs that were making a run on the ships of a convoy. In a fierce struggle, in which every man in his crew was wounded, Maxwell's plane destroyed one enemy bomber and probably destroyed the other, but was itself shot down.
    The B-24 was raked by the Nazi's fire in a matter of seconds. After vainly trying to ram one Nazi plane, Captain Maxwell jettisoned the bombs, and his crew prepared for a crash landing.
    Shattered and burning, the American plane hit the water and sank in ninety seconds. Life rafts were released and the survivors were picked up a few minuates later by one of the vessels from the convoy.
    The German planes received such severe damage in the battle that one crashed into the water. Seamen aboard vessels said another Focke-Wulf also crashed.

    In a third action First Lieut. Frederick W. McKinnon Jr. of West Roxbury, Mass., intercepted a Focke-Wulf and made a head-on attack. Closing to 300 yards, the two planes exchanged cannon and machine-gun fire until the Nazi pilot broke off combat and took cover in a cloud layer.
    Lieutenant McKinnon hunted for the German plane for an hour, finally sighting it as it was releasing bombs in the vicinity of an escort vessel. The Liberator gave chase and scored hits on the Kurier with all guns. The enemy was last seen entering a rain squall at an altitude of only 150 feet. All its guns had been silenced and one engine was smoking as it disappeared.
    All members of Captain Maxwell's crew who survived the crash have received the Purple Heart. They are Second Lieut. Joseph A. Gaudin of Tulsa, Okla.; Flight Officer K. K. Hill of Sulphur, Okla.; Sgt. Edwin H. Bliss of Dedham, Mass.; Sgt. M. L. Browne of Houston, Tex.; Sgt. J. A. Bartlett of Buffalo, N. Y., and Pvt. N. C. Minko of Brooklyn.

Source:

Unknown, "Convoy Crews See Aerial Dogfights, Two Nazi Planes Shot Down, U. S. Liberator Lost in Battle Over Atlantic," The New York Times, New York, Wednesday, 20 October 1943, p. 5.