- Contributed by听
- BeverleySlater
- People in story:听
- Dennis Mason
- Location of story:听
- Bristol
- Background to story:听
- Royal Air Force
- Article ID:听
- A2251487
- Contributed on:听
- 01 February 2004
Please note this story is written by Dennis Mason and I am submitting it on his behalf.
On the night of 1st/2nd July 1941 I was flying as Front Gunner in a Wellington Bomber returning from a raid on Brest, when our Navigator unfortunately got lost and we found overselves over Bristol in the midst of their balloon barrage.
The Wellington Aircraft is fitted with cable-cutters on the wings so there were loud explosions as we hit the cables which dragged us down and round until finally we broke free having lost a lot of height.
We were running out of petrol but we managed to reach Scampton and we made a forced landing only to find that we had 80 feet of cable attached to one side of the wing and another long section trailing from the other side.
We were very lucky to have survived.
Now I wonder whether there are any members of the Bristol community who remeber this incident or perhaps retired members of the A.R.P or Armed Forces who were on duty that night manning anti-aircraft guns or the balloon barrage. They would now be octogenarians, as I am, but it would be interesting to hear from anyone who was there on that particular night
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