大象传媒

NEAR MISSES
Two dangerous "near misses" took places which were nothing to do with the enemy. On a short day time test flight on which we had taken the Station Doctor along to show him what flying in a Lancaster was like, the rudder controls jammed just after take off. The pilot was struggling to get the plane back on a level keel while ordering the crew over the intercom to check the rudder control rods for an obstruction. These rods ran unshielded along the inside of the fuselage from nose to tail) Frank was first out of his seat and found the source of the problem near the tail- not an easy journey with the inside of the fuselage obstructed by spars, flare chute and other equipment. The jamming had been caused by a small incendiary bomb, which was carried to destroy the aircraft in case of forced landing in enemy territory, falling out of it's rather weak clips onto the rods. It was just as well that Frank was quick; we were in danger of doing an over steep turn over the bomb dump.

Returning from Brunswick at 4am on the morning of 23rd May 1944, we collided with another returning Lancaster. I can best describe what happened by condensing what Ray Heasman, our engineer, said to the subsequent court of enquiry. On leaving Brunswick the Skipper said "How are we of for fuel?" Ray "We've got plenty" Skipper "How about leaving the power on and getting home a bit quickly". Ray "Fair enough"

After a trip of only 5 hours 40 mins our plane, "M Mike", was first hack to East Kirkby, flying blacked out as there were enemy intruders about (long range GenTIan fighters sent to follow returning bombers and attack them while they were orbiting prior to landing) "John (me) guided "M Mike" over the airfield, the Skipper called up the airfield on the RT and got permission to land; the airfield which had been also blacked out. switched on the landing and runway lights. "M" completed its circuit, lined up with the runway and started it's final descent. At 900 feet another Lancaster from a nearby airfield cut across slightly below "M" knocking off "M's"undercarriage which had been lowered ready for landing. Frank fired a red very light (distress signal) to warn those on the airfield below and then the Skipper made a perfect belly landing on the grass, just to the right of the runway. Sadly the second Lancaster crashed nearby all it's crew being killed.
As "M" was partially blocking the runway the rest of the two squadrons operating that night from East Kirkby had to be diverted."

THE LAST TRIP
We took off at 23.30 on 21st June 1944- to attack the synthetic oil plant at Wesseling on the Rhine. This attack was the first of a new series designed to starve the Germans of fuel for their army and air force. Though successful in the end, this first operation turned out to be a disaster. 133 Lancasters and 6 Mosquitoes (Target Markers) were dispatched. The route chosen was pretty well a straight line across the North Sea and then over the south of Holland, Belgium and the Rhineland to the target on the river Rhine itself. It was the shortest night of the year and it never got really dark. Clear weather had been forecast over the target and the Mosquitoes had planned to mark the target visually from low level. In the event 10/10ths low cloud was encountered and marking had to be done from high level using the H2S Radar. This led to a 20 minutes delay and allowed a large force of German night fighters to intercept the bomber force over the target and to chase them on the return journey . 37 Lancasters were lost (27.8%), one of the highest figures for any raid in the war. It is easy to be wise after the event but the reasons for this outcome were:-
Indecision about the alteration in the method of marking causing the 20 minute delay. The absence of any other attacks or spoofs which could have confused the night fighters. Ignorance of the fact that the Germans had perfected a radar receiver which allowed their fighters to home onto the H2S signals radiated by the bombers.
An exceptionally bright night allowing visual sightings
An over optimistic estimate of the extent to which the enemy fighters had been reduced by RAP and USAF action.
We reached the target on time and then had to orbit for the 20 minutes until the markers went down. We saw a number of combats and some planes being planes shot down; sadly they seemed to be bombers with their bombs still on as was apparent from the explosions when they hit the ground. Eventually the markers went down and having bombed, we set of for home following the same course we had used on the outward leg. Further combats were seen crossing the Rhineland and over Northern Belgium but we were unscathed until a position about twenty miles north east of Antwerp when the Rear Gunner called out, "Fighter, fighter, green quarter down, corkscrew port!"
This was the signal that he had sighted a German fighter closing on us from below on the starboard (right hand or green side) and telling the pilot to fly a "corkscrew" course thereby making it harder for the fighter to aim with any accuracy.

Sadly this was obviously a well trained fighter using a technique which we knew nothing about at the time. Though both our gunners opened fire, our light .303 machine guns had no effect; the fighter accelerated, positioned himself under our right hand wing and loosed a salvo from a battery of upward firing cannon installed behind it's crew's seats.

As navigator I was sitting behind a black out curtain and saw nothing of this but I felt the heavy shock of the cannon shells hitting the wing; I pulled back the curtain and saw the starboard wing (full of petrol tanks) ablaze from end to end. Bill Bayley, the skipper, saw that the aircraft was lost and gave the order "Bail Out".

Somehow Bill kept the plane level while the rest of the crew got on with the abandon aircraft drill. The Bomb Aimer (Archie) went forward, opened the escape hatch in the floor of the nose and jumped, the Flight Engineer (Ray) followed. We all used chest type parachutes which clipped onto hooks fixed to the front of harnesses which we wore all the time and my first job was to hand his to the Wireless Operator (Frank): he had been listening to a weather broadcast from the UK and was unaware of the mess we were in. He clipped his chute on and went down the fuselage to rear door from which he and the two gunners (Lloyd-Mid Upper and Johnny- Rear) were due to jump. The drill at that end was for the Mid- Upper to open the door and jump, followed by the Wireless Operator who was expected to give any possible help to the Rear-Gunner if he came along the fuselage. The Rear- Gunner had however an alternative method of escape by rotating his turret and then falling out through the door at it's back.
The last I saw of Frank was when I handed him his parachute. He was his normal phlegmatic self and gave me the thumbs up sign.
My next job was to hand the Skipper (Bill) his parachute and follows the Bomb Aimer and the Engineer out of the front escape hatch. I found Ray, impeded by his chute, stuck in the none too large hole so I pushed him out and followed as quickly as I could. Bill was due to follow the same route.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Anastasia Travers a volunteer with WM CSV Actiondesk on behalf of John Maunsell and has been added to the site with his permission. John Maunsell fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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