engine trouble and he had to make a forced landing in the desert short of his destination. His squadron departed the scene after they had ensured that he had got down safely. Marseille continued his journey, first hitchhiking on an Italian truck, then, finding this too slow, he tried his luck at an airstrip, but in vain. Finally he made his way to the General in charge of a supply depot on the main route to the front and convinced him that he should be available for operations next day. Marseille's character appealed to the General and he put at his disposal his own Opel Admiral, complete with chauffeur. "You can pay me back by getting fifty victories, Marseille!" were his parting words. He caught up with his squadron on 21 April. Marseille scored two more victories on 23 and 28 April, his first in the North African Campaign. However, on 23 April, Marseille himself was shot down during his third sortie of that day by Sous-Lieutenant James Denis, a Free French pilot with No. 73 Squadron RAF (8.5 victories), flying a Hawker Hurricane. Marseille's Bf 109 E-7 (Werknummer 5160) received almost 30 hits in the cockpit area, and three or four shattered the canopy. Since Marseille was leaning forward, the rounds missed him by inches. Marseille managed to crash-land his fighter near Tobruk. Records show that James Denis shot down Marseille again just a month later, on 21 May 1941. Marseille engaged Denis, but overshot his target. A dogfight ensued, in which Denis once again bested Marseille. His Bf 109 E-7 (Werknummer 1567) came down in the vicinity of Tobruk behind German lines. In a postwar account, Denis wrote that he waited for Marseille to close on him while he feigned ignorance, then skidded [side slipped], forcing the faster German to overshoot. Marseille was lucky, as bullets passed both in front of his face and behind his head. 30 hits were counted after Marseille crash landed. In between the battles with Denis, Marseille downed a Bristol Blenheim on 28 April. Blenheim T2429, from No. 45 Squadron RAF, piloted by Pilot Officer B. C. de G. Allan, crashed killing all five men aboard. Jan Yindrich, a Polish Army soldier, witnessed the attack: "when a Blenheim came roaring down over our heads at about 50 feet, there was a terrific rattle of machine gun fire and at first I thought the