Six miles high

Climbing almost vertically 29,000ft above the north-east corner of France, Captain Bud Anderson skids his P-51B left as he overhauls one of the Messerschmitt Bf109-Gs that had attacked the US bombers his flight was protecting on their way to Ludwigshaven, Germany. Stalling, the 109 takes multiple strikes from the Mustang's four .50 Browning machine guns and plummets to earth more than five miles below: Anderson's second victory of the encounter.

His accounts of the high altitude, roller coaster dogfight on 27 May 1944 give credit to the flying skills of the Luftwaffe pilot he killed – although, so far as I know, no-one has been able to establish his identity.