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In 1942 I volunteered for the RAF as aircrew and after training in Canada did a 'tour' of 33 operational flights (ops.) with 5 Group Bomber Command as a Bomb-Aimer flying in Lancaster bombers of 61 Sqdn. Skellingthorpe – not without incident I might add!

One involved a collision with another Lancaster at 6000ft. over Tours in France where our target was the marshalling yards.

This was my sixth operational flight and I settled down in the nose with maps etc. prepared for what we anticipated would be a fairly short trip of about 4 ½ hours. Not flying over Germany we were not unduly worried.

The outward flight as far as I remember was, apart from a moderate amount of flak fairly uneventful. Some distance from Tours we could see the area illuminated by the marker flares and got ready for the bombing run. By now the flak was more intense and trying to ignore it as much as possible, concentrated on getting the target aligned up in the bombsight graticule by giving the usual instructions to the pilot; 'left', 'left', 'right' 'steady' etc.

If I remember rightly, I was about to give the order 'Open Bomb-Doors' when there was a hell of a crash and a shout of 'Christ!' from the pilot and the aircraft vibrated like a mad thing.

Obviously I thought we had been hit by flak. 'We're O.K. Pat, can you bomb?' called the pilot and although the bombsight graticule was vibrating badly things seemed to be O.K.

We had by now swung slightly off target but by quick corrections brought it back into the graticule and released the bombs.

After an exchange of questions over the intercom, the pilot informed us that we had been hit by another Lancaster but were flying reasonably well on three engines. As we left the target area I was told by the pilot to come up into the flight deck to see what had happened. In spite of the poor light I could see the port outer propeller bent backwards (and of course stationary) over the wing and the wing itself, from the engine almost to the wing tip ripped open. The Perspex top of the cabin just above the pilot's head was also broken.

We were told that the aircraft which and hit us was flying in almost the opposite direction and had just skimmed over us – only another foot or so lower and it would have been 'curtains' for both aircrews! With the vibrations now minimised by the nature of the dead engine we carried on on three engines and headed for home. It wasn't long before the port inner engine started to run very roughly and was shut down so we carried on with the starboard engines only and gradually losing height.

Over the sea we were told to 'prepare for ditching' but fortunately just managed to reach the south coast of England and made an emergency landing at Tangmere airfield in Sussex.

The next day, relieved after landing safely, leaving our somewhat bent aircraft and after collecting our maps and other items of kit we were flown back to our base near Lincoln. How true it was I cannot vouch, but it was later stated that apparently the aircraft, which had hit us, had made a 'Dummy Run' over the target and had turned to make another run up. In such cases there was a standard procedure to gradually veer off and by steering certain courses come back into the bomber stream form the rear. This one seemed to have crossed the stream on an almost reciprocal course. The aircraft was later identified by the damage to its underside caused by our propellers.

For bringing his damaged aircraft safely back, Ron Auckland - the pilot – with whom I was to do a further 14 'ops' (before joining another crew for the remainder of my 'tour') was awarded a well-deserved D.F.C. Incidentally, on this flight, our target photograph showed a direct hit on the marshalling yards, so in spite of the hazard we'd done our bit!

I finished my 'tour' of 33 operational sorties not without further incident in August 1944, being the only member of my original crew of 7 men to survive unscathed; 2 being invalided out of the R.A.F. due to injuries received on a raid on Nuremberg, 30 March 1944, the other 4 being killed in action flying with other crews to which they were assigned after the Nuremberg 'fiasco'.

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