大象传媒

F/Lt Peter Baxter recounts how after joining the RAF as an apprentice before the war, he started his operational sorties in Lancasters in 1943....

With the close of 1942 I had completed five years service, but did not rate my chances of doing another year very highly as our transitional period at Wickenby had now ended and we were about to become operational! There was one more training flight to make before we were blooded, and this was on January 2nd when we went local formation flying for an hour and a quarter.

The big day now dawned, and on January 3rd 1943 we trooped into the briefing room to be told our fate, but it was with some relief that we learned that we were to drop sea mines off La Rochelle in the Bay of Biscay. This relatively easy trip had been laid on to give us confidence in our new role, and it was indeed very straight forward. My log book confirms that we dropped 6 x 1500lb mines and that we flew for 6 hours 45 minutes to do it; by far the longest time we had been airborne. For some unknown reason (but probably a request from Group H.Q.), we were then required to fly on a height test during the following day, and we managed to reach 25,000ft where the outside temperature was -35 degrees centigrade. This was not an exceptional height for a Lancaster (although we rarely exceeded it), but I am surprised that we did not do better on this occasion as we were unladen and the weather was cold, which enabled the engines to run more efficiently. Perhaps there was something the matter with the trim of 'V' Victory, but otherwise she flew very well so we did not complain.

Our operational tour commenced in earnest on January 8th with another mining sortie, but this time on a more heavily defended route to the Frisian Islands of North Germany. En route we strayed too near to Texel and ran into a stiff flak barrage - my baptism of fire! This incident led to a further discomfort for me as well when I instinctively ducked to avoid being struck, causing skipper Villiers to round on me. "You clot" he said, "if you were going to be hit you would be hit, and bending down won't save you. Pay more attention to looking out for night fighters!". With his great experience Villiers was obviously unmoved by this minor show of belligerence from the enemy, and in castigating me he had killed two birds with one stone. Not only had he shown me up in the full hearing of the rest of the crew, but I was also the first recipient of the 'clot' accolade that he had threatened to bestow on any of us who warranted it. In time all the others were honoured in the same way and some more than once! This episode was the most noteworthy part of the trip, and we went on to drop our six mines and return to Wickenby after 41/2 hours in the air.

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