...great story...! maybe I missed it but how and the where and the when did he shoot down a German aircraft...?? I didn’t see anything in the story about that....jus’ askin’...
From wiki-hahahaha-pedia:
Two of his kills were German planes: A Ju-88 and a He-115 in October 1943 near Norway. The other kills were Japanese planes so Laird has the distinction of being the only Navy ace to have scored air victories against both Germany and Japan.[6] He flew F4F Wildcat and then F6Fs and was assigned from November 1942 to March 1943, to the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CV-4). November 1944 to March 1945 he was assigned to the USS Essex (CV-9).
…Following flight training at Naval Air Station Miami, he was designated a naval aviator on 21 October 1942. The next month, he reported to Fighter Squadron FOUR (VF-4) “Red Rippers” embarked on carrier
USS Ranger (CV-4), flying the F4F Wildcat fighter.
On 4 October 1943, Ranger executed Operation Leader, a surprise strike on German shipping along the coast of German-occupied Norway, near the Arctic Circle. At least five German (or German-controlled) ships, including a large tanker and a troopship, were sunk or beached, with German casualties estimated as high as 350 going down with the ships. The raid severely disrupted shipment of critical iron ore from northern Norway to Germany for several months. Four of Ranger’s aircraft were lost, three to anti-aircraft fire and one to accident. The pilot and gunner of one downed SBD Dauntless were killed, and the pilot and gunner of another SBD were captured. One TBF Avenger was downed and only the pilot survived.
At around 1400 on 4 October 1943, radar detected three German aircraft approaching Ranger. By then, the unlimited visibility of the morning had given way to extensive cloud cover. Two pairs of Ranger VF-4 fighters played cat and mouse with the German aircraft in the clouds. Finally, Lieutenant (j.g.) Diz Laird and his flight leader located a Ju-88D twin-engine bomber and took turns shooting it full of holes—unlike the lightly constructed Japanese bombers, German aircraft did not immediately burst into flame when hit—before the plane finally crashed in the ocean. Laird subsequently sighted an He-115B twin-engine float plane flying at very low altitude and hit it. The float plane attempted to land on the water, but one of the float pylons collapsed and it cartwheeled into the sea. These were the first German aircraft shot down by U.S. Navy aircraft in World War II. (See H-Gram 022 for an overview of Operation Leader, and attachment H-022-3 for full detail.)
After Ranger returned to the States, VF-4 transitioned to the new F6F Hellcat fighter. Flying from USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), Laird shot down two Japanese Kawasaki “Tony” fighters near Manila on 25 November 1944.