A while back I was talking to my grandfather who was living in Southampton during the war and told me a story about the Portugeuse Air Force who were stationed there. He says that after one Luftwaffe bombing raid, the Portugeuse without permission took off after the bombers, shot a number of them down and followed the remainder back to their airfield where they strafed the fighters on the tarmac.

Apparently they were severely reprimanded but later on were celebrated as local heroes.

I went searching for the story on the internet but I couldn't find anything about it. Does anyone have anything to add to this or who can back this up. It's not that I don't believe my grandfather but he can have a wild imagination at times.

Cheers!

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?????

Why would the Portuguese Air Force (a neutral country) have armed elements based in British territory???

In any case all the PAF had at the time were British hand-me-downs, Gladiators, Curtiss Hawk 75s (based in the Azores), and Hurricanes and Spitfires of obsolete marks stricken down from RAF. The report above is extremely unlikely both diplomatically and militarily.

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I wonder if down the years he has confused Polish airmen for Portugese?

That one looks to be more likely

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