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It was by chance that I was re-united with
627 Squadron. My youngest son Paul had recently obtained his Private
Pilot’s Licence and was keen to know if there were any Mosquitoes still
flying. He approached De Havilland who informed him that British
Aerospace had the only one known to them; sadly this aircraft crashed
killing both the crew at an air display. However, his letter to De
Havilland was passed to Alan who arranged a meeting. We met for a pub
lunch and afterwards visited the museum and hangar where a Mosquito was
being restored but was unlikely to fly again. However, Alan produced a
copy of “At First Sight” which brought back many memories.
To recap on
my own experiences with
the Squadron, I had completed my first tour with 115 Squadron in 3
Group, having survived three crashes in Wellington aircraft, two in
Scotland and the last at Marham. We converted to Lanc 2s whilst on 115
and had a few hairy
moments when taking off on a grass field at Thetford. It was when I was
a Staff Nav. at Silverstone that I was asked to transfer to 627
Squadron to fly as navigator to a Squadron Leader. I readily agreed and
so met Ronnie Churcher –
we completed 20 ops together and had an excellent relationship.
Sandy
Saunders in his article in At
First Sight mentions St Elmo’s Fire and I recall from my log that on an
operation to Givors there was 10/10 cloud and although we climbed to
24,000 we could not break cloud and the “gremlins” were with us all the
way.
On another
occasion we were to photograph German tanks said to be in the wooded
area north of Falaise; we took off at 1300 hrs and reached the target
area without any opposition. It was a bright sunny afternoon but no
tanks were seen although we spent about 20
minutes scouring the area, so we returned to base. We were not at a
very great height when Ronnie had to feather one engine and so flew
back losing a little height in the process; an excellent pilot and
aircraft. Later the same evening we did a bit of practice bombing.
Some days
earlier we had an operation near Bordeaux; Ronnie was Marker Leader and
whilst locating our Marking Point the light flak was the most intense I
ever experienced. The snakes of coloured flak we were flying through
were both fascinating and frightening, and it was remarkable that we
were not hit.
After Ronnie
completed his third
tour I joined Bob Boyden, a Canadian who was also an excellent pilot. I
remember the trip to the Gestapo Headquarters in Oslo – it was the last
day of 1944 and I had suggested to our Wing Commander that it was not
likely that anyone of importance would be at the HQ. However, the raid
was on even if it was only for propaganda purposes. The flak from the
ships in the fjord was intense but as we dived on to the target we
escaped most of it; then we were away over the lake where crowds of
skaters were waving to us.
There was
always a close relationship on the Squadron and a determination to be
successful in both finding our Marking Point and marking successfully
and on time. We were fortunate that later in my tour “Loran” became
available and made navigation so much more successful.
Sadly Bob
Boyden attended his last reunion in 1999. He was in poor health and we
were able to give him a few days with us before he flew back to Canada
– he died a couple of weeks later after going back into hospital. We
miss him.
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