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Davis climbed to 15,000 feet (4,600 m) and used the glare of the sun to ambush two of the aircraft below him. He pursued them as far as Cebu Island. He closed to within 75 yards (69 m) of the pair before destroying the first with his machine guns, and then the second near Negros Island as it attempted to dive for cover in a cloud.[10] ... before (the Japanese aircraft) could make a pass at the bombers, I closed in on him from astern and fired at him from about 200 yards with no deflection. Some pieces flew off, and then he burst into flames and started down in a spin. My number three man saw this one crash. We then returned to the bombers and stayed with them until our fuel supply ran so low we were forced to leave them. I believe that up to the time we left the B-24s, no enemy fighters had gotten within firing range of them, although 10 to 15 aerial bombs had been dropped. —Davis' after action report for the December 23 mission over Clark Field.[11] The unit undertook eight more patrol missions over Mindoro, covering Allied convoys. On December 20, Davis was in one of twelve Thunderbolts patrolling Mindoro when eight A6M Zeroes were spotted attempting to ambush the flight from behind. Davis managed to rake the cockpit of one Zero and kill the pilot, earning him his fifth victory to become a flying ace. Immediately after this, however, Davis' P-47 was struck by machine-gun fire from another aircraft, damaging the propeller and left wing components.[10] On December 24, on a mission to escort several B-24s on a bombing mission of the Japanese-held Clark Field at Manila, Davis shot down two more Zeroes, part of a group of Japanese aircraft attempting to harass the bombers.[12] Davis was awarded a Silver Star for this action. Between this action and February 19, 1945, Davis flew another 47 missions, most escorting bombers or ships, in addition to a few ground-attack missions, but saw little or no aerial combat in that time. On February 19, he was withdrawn from the front to begin certification on the P-51 Mustang, logging 45 hours of training time on the aircraft through the end of March. He returned to combat duty only briefly in April, flying in three combat missions as a copilot aboard a B-25 Mitch