大象传媒

Propeller Flying,RAF
I joined the RAF in 1941 and trained as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner, flying on various types of aircraft .The first aircraft that I did my Radio training in was a DH Dominie(also known as a Rapide)and then the Percival Proctor and Avro Anson before training for gunnery on a Blackburn Botha up near Inverness in Scotland, until I joined a Lancaster Squadron(576 Squadron) in 1943 at Elsham Wolds, Lincolnshire, U/K. I was with a fairly young crew, the oldest being Bob the Navigator, who was 22,although,I imagine,most crews were of a similar age group.There was another squadron based at Elsham, as far as I remember it was 103 Squadron,(also Lancasters). We then carried out 30 operational missions over France and Germany and finished in October 1944.

There were a few hairy moments during those operations,like the one where the 2000lb bomb refused to release over the target and we had to return with it, only to find on landing , a slight thump , and the ground crew ,with their hands on their heads,aghast, as we taxied in. Apparently the bomb had dropped off the bomb rack on landing and was only being held by the bomb bay \par doors that had opened about 8 inches,or so, by the weight.! They rushed in with a scissor lift to take the weight before opening the bomb bay doors.
Another interesting one was at night, over Germany, when a bomber ahead of us was hit by flak and exploded. We veered off slightly to the right and felt and heard bits of debris hitting our plane. There were quite a number of other interesting moments during the tour of operations, one being when we were returning from a low-level raid in France and had just crossed the coast at Cap Griz Nez, heading out to sea, when the rear gunner shouted "Christ, wer`e being fired at" as tracer started flying past the aircraft. Fortunately we were quickly becoming out of range and breathed a sigh of relief . Just then the mid-upper gunner shouted "Blimey, that was a close one". Apparently a bullet had entered the turret at a bottom perspex panel and left near the top, leaving quite a hole which he had`nt noticed at the time as both he and the rear gunner were busy, firing back.

There was another incident on a night raid and we had just had a fire on No1 engine (Port outer) and had feathered it ,(To Feather is to turn the prop blades edge on to the slipstream,to stop blade turning)(as far as I remember, the Port outer engine provided the power to the rear turret!!) when we were attacked by a night fighter,I believe it was a JU188,(a JU88 with a turret on top!), from the Port side, presumably using cannon from a turret on the top, as we ended up with a huge hole in the starboard wing as we were going through the evasive manoeuvre of "corkscrew Port go",dive Port,climb Port,climb Starboard etc,etc.

The hole was about 5 feet by 4 feet, and the side of the aircraft peppered with holes. (At the time, I believe, the fuel tanks were of the self-sealing type,thankfully.)The miraculous thing was that there was a 2 by 1 inch hole through both sides of the aircraft, passing right through my wireless operators seat. I had been down the back at the time, pushing leaflets out through the flare chute. ( Normally we put the leaflets in the bomb bay and they are released when we open the bomb doors, but this time the ground engineer had asked us to put them out through the flare chute because of some technical problem.).

This may well have triggered off the attack. I had felt a big bang in the back while down there,and found later that I had been hit by a tiny piece of cannon shell,(It felt more like a House Brick!!) but the parachute harness had absorbed most of the shock. I still have it in me now and I would`nt be here if I had been sitting in my radio seat!. We managed to limp back to the uk and had to make a flapless landing with very little braking, but we made it. There were many more interesting incidents, like being caught in searchlights and having to twist and dive to evade them, and the Night Fighter passing overhead .This was sometimes a FW 190 or a JU 188.

The Bomber Stream...The Bomber Stream.....The Bomber Stream...Stream.....Stream.....Stream.....Stream...On the night raids that we did , we flew as individual aircraft in what was known as the Bomber Stream,(not in formation and even a mile or so apart), each with our own Navigator, often not seeing another aircraft the whole way there ,until nearing the target when the stream began to funnel in towards the target and Flares were being dropped. Then you had to really keep your eyes open as there seemed to be Lancasters everywhere, Left,Right,above and below, some with their Bomb doors open!!(You had to move a little to one side if they were directly above as they most probably couldn`t see you!!).As you approached the target area you were listening for the voice of the Master Bomber on the Radio (they were the Pathfinder force that had gone way ahead of the Main force to mark the target accurately with coloured Red and Green target indicators) who would advise where to aim, relative to the Target Indicators . The other critical time was over the target,when, having dropped your load, you had to hold your course long enough for the camera to take a picture of the result (maybe 10 to 20 seconds, depending on height) before turning off onto the return course home.

The trouble with that was ,with say 200 aircraft, all arriving over the target at slightly different times,and turning off at different times, the risk of collision was high (and I expect it happened).You were also having to go through quite intense anti aircraft fire which was being pumped up over the target area,once they had worked out the altitude you were at. The other thing that we had to contend with was that enemy night fighters were known to patrol the Bomber Stream, dropping flares and then climbing above us and looking for Silhouettes to pick off individually.!!. There was one other thing I remember, on a couple of raids, we noticed quite a number of what looked liked aircraft going down in flames (quite disconcerting). We heard later this was another demoralising ploy, and consisted of specially made shells full of oil and rubbish (they looked realistic), and were known as Scarecrows.

As we were returning from a night raid on our last (30th) op, the rear gunner, who was excellent at aircraft recognition, spotted a ME109 sitting out on our Port quarter.We waited,and expected, it to start turning in to attack and were ready for it, but it did not !!, it just sat there for some time (about 5 or 10 minutes, then turned away.! We often wondered,was he on his last mission?, or was he out of ammunition or low on fuel?.
The aircraft we used most of the as we called it,and it was the record breaker of the R.A.F.,having done 126 operations when we finished. It continued for at least another tour of operations as far as I know.

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