When Allied forces landed in North Africa, the Spanish forces in
Morocco found themselves once again on alert. Due to the navigational difficulties of the day, they found themselves repeatedly intercepting straying aircraft from both Allied and German forces. For instance, on the 8th of November they intercepted
C-47s dropping paratroops on Morocco. On other occasions they intercepted
Spitfire Vs from
Gibraltar, and
Dewoitine D.520s operated by the
Vichy French out of
Algeria. None of these incidents resulted in losses.
On March 3
1943 a formation of Allied planes was seen straying into Spanish airspace yet again, and Grupo 27's alert plane was scrambled with Teniente Miguel Entrena Klett at the controls. After climbing to 3500 m, he spotted the target aircraft and identified them as eleven
Lockheed P-38s. He then positioned for an attack out of the sun (which was to the rear of the formation) and made a diving pass on the trail-end aircraft. Several hits were made with the 20 mm rounds (his MGs were later discovered to be unloaded), and the plane started trailing smoke and was forced down in Algeria.