大象传媒

In 1943 I finished a tour with the main bomber force flying Stirling bombers. I was then screened from flying further operations and sent to Silverstone where I took over a Wellington bomber. I was a navigation instructor there. Come 1944 I was due to start a second tour. I arranged with one pilot to go back on Lancasters but they changed it to Halifaxes so another pilot, Ginger Ball, took over. We put our kit together and set off on a Wellington to go to RAF Fulton near Norwich. We were very surprised to find no Halifaxes but Fortresses and Liberators. I had to assure the pilot that it was not an American base. We landed and asked the score. We were told the Forts were not bad but the Libs had seen better days. Nevertheless we started flying in the Liberators. There were two squadrons on the station, one Forts and one Libs. They were bomber support squadrons. We carried two extra wireless operators, no bombs but loads of special equipment and the two squadrons together (about 35 aircraft) could make it appear that we were a main bomber force of 800 bombers. Hopefully the Germans would send their night fighters after us. Meanwhile the main bomber force would be attacking a target elsewhere.
These Liberators we were using had no doubt been good aircraft but they were worn out and each trip we made gave us problems. Undercarriages would not retract, there were leaks and malfunctions, the gyro compass went haywire and gunner鈥檚 turrets got stuck. We had electrically heated units and on one occasion there was a short and it burned my leg. I had to switch it off until getting near frostbite then switch it back on again. It was either burning leg or frostbite for the rest of the journey. Each trip brought its problems and at the end of the tour the flight engineer got the DFC and the rest of the crew a commendation. We had to return to base on one occasion and got turn two to land. We followed a Fortress who was turn one. He suddenly burst into flames on the approach. Some Junkers 88s had infiltrated the returning bombers and one had shot this fortress down, machine gunned the control tower putting it out of action. We got some cannon shells in our starboard wing putting the ailerons out of action. We made it to another aerodrome.

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