大象传媒

This story was submitted by Linda Nicholson(nee Dixon) on behalf of Reg Dixon (my dad) with his permission. The author fully understands the site`s terms and conditions.

My pal and I were due to go on leave to Alexandria and it so happened the day we were leaving, one of our planes was being delivered to a base in Egypt so we were given the chance to fly down with it if we would agree to man the guns as the only crew on board were the pilot and navigator and we were told that the Luftwaffe was operating from the island of Crete. We agreed to do that as it would shorten our travelling time.

After brief instructions on operating the guns, being technical ground staff we had very little gunnery training, we collected a parachute each from stores and had them fitted to us. We had another very brief instruction:" If you have to bale out, count to ten and pull the rip cord"!!!!

So, take off time came (stomach turning over) it being the first time I had ever flown and we were on a three hundred and fifty mile flight. I was given the rear gun to take care of and when I looked out of the rear turret it was a bit frightening to see the sheer drop into a wide expanse of Mediterranean Sea.

Anyway, all went well and we landed safely.

After handing in our parachutes we carried on and hitch hiked our way to Alexandria and to the leave hostel where we enjoyed our time off.

That experience, along with many others, when I was in HM Forces I will always remember.

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