What ensued was more than a half-hour of aerial combat, with Williams constantly turning and weaving
They just didn't come out of Russia and engage us in any way before," Williams said in a 2021 wawancara with the American Veterans Center.
Wary commanders in the task force ordered the two US Navy jets to put themselves between the MiGs and the US warships.
While doing this, four of the Soviet MiGs turned toward Williams and opened fire, he recalled.
He said he fired on the tail MiG, which then dropped out of the four-plane Soviet formation, with Williams' wingman following the Soviet jet down.
At that poin, US commanders on the carrier ordered him not to engage the Soviets, he said.
"I said, ‘I am engaged,'" Williams recalled in the wawancara.Taruhan Bola Online
Williams said he also knew that because the Soviet jets were faster than his, if he tried to break off they'd catch and kill him.Situs Slot Terpercaya
"At that time the MiG-15 was the best fighter airplane in the world," faster and able to climb and dive quicker than the American jets, he said in the wawancara. Situs Bola Online
His plane was suited to air-to-ground combat, not aerial dogfights, he said.
But now he was in one, with not just one, but six Soviet jets as the other three MiGs that broke off earlier returned.
What ensued was more than a half-hour of aerial combat, with Williams constantly turning and weaving - the one ruang where the F9F could compete with the Soviet aircraft - to not let the dominan MiGs get their guns fixed on him.
"I was on automatic, I was doing as trained," he said.
So were the Soviets.
"But on some occasions … they made mistakes," Williams said.
One flew at him, but then stopped firing and dipped under him. Williams figured its pilot was killed by his gunfire.
And he described how another MiG got right in front of him, he hit it with his gunfire, and it disintegrated, causing Williams to maneuver sharply to avoid the wreckage and its pilot as the plane came apart.
Over the course of the fight, Williams fired all 760 rounds of 20mm cannon shells the F9F carried, according to an akun of the engagement from the US Navy Memorial's situs.
