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Live or Die
The OTU before our
posting to 627 was Wyton. Included in about eighty aircrew were RAF,
Canadian,
New Zealand and Australian pilots and navigators, three of these were
John
Herriman (pilot), and Bob Bolton and myself (navigators). We were to
crew for
Mosquitoes so Bob and I tossed a coin to determine who would crew with
John
Herriman. I won the toss and Bob crewed with an RAF pilot. They went
straight
on to the run to Berlin. Only a week later their aircraft was shot down
and
they were buried at Potsdam. Life is all just a series of incidents and
luck –
you go one way and you live, go the other way and you die. It helps to
win the
toss!
We did not ask for this
John Herriman and I
arrived at Woodhall on October 6 1944, according to my diary (the entry
in At
First Sight was not correct) and soon after our dive bombing practice
on 23
October I was detailed as a pall bearer at the funeral of the crew of
one of
our aircraft which crashed on take off. Rather a startling entry into
an
operational squadron for a 21 year old.
Anything can happen
I kept a diary during
the war years and have continued it ever since. I wrote on 25 November
“On our return from marking on the Wainfleet
range
tonight we collided with a Lanc which was being taxied in the wrong
direction
on the perimeter track opposite the duty runway. It was a dark night
and we
were watching for the perimeter lights when I looked up and saw a huge
mass of
an aircraft right in front of us We hit the Lanc just rear of the port
wing and
smashed the fuselage in two.”
The Mossie had prop
damage but the Lanc was just pushed off the perimeter track and the
Mossie
lived to fly on to a long life. We had to attend a Court Martial later
and the
617 Lanc crew were in trouble, but no crew member was injured.
(The Mosquito
involved in this incident was DZ518 AZ-F, and the Lancaster was LM492
KC-Q or
KC-W.)
Friendly transport
“Euphemia” was the
name we gave the Aerial Red Hunter motorcycle which John and I bought
to ride
out to the aircraft for local flying and about the district and on
leave. It
was quite amazing that Euphemia’s tank happened to be full of fuel when
we
arrived back from the range. We enjoyed knowing the first class ground
staff
fellows looking after the aircraft for the Squadron.
Experimental Flying
We experimented with
fuel economy on long flights such as Munich by wind finding over
England (the
Met was rarely reliable) and then maintaining an altitude down wind in
upper
atmosphere, and reducing power whilst maintaining maximum groundspeed,
and
returning as low as possible under head winds. We were able to return
to
Woodhall when other crews had to land at Manston.
Get me home each night
Our experimental
flying was continuing on every suitable occasion, and in the severe
weather of
late 1944 with snow piled up along the runway almost to wing level, we
needed a
precise system to enable us to return home at night in falling snow.
We achieved this by
practising blind landings in daylight with me under a hood and
directing John
to fly a heading to the runway by calculating our approach using “Gee”.
This gave
accurate distance to the end of the runway, and after many such
approaches and
working as a team, John was convinced that I could give him the flare
position
accurately. We landed blind on those return trips of extreme weather
instead of
being delayed down south for a few days. This procedure was outlined to
Squadron HQ.
PFF Marking
During PFF marking in
a dive from 5,000 feet to 500 feet, it is amazing what can be seen from
the
aircraft. After identification of the marking point such as the oval at
Munich,
and in the dive towards the ground, one is watching the area with
vehicles and
people racing around on the ground. It was easy for us to feel quite
removed
from all that was happening on the ground, as it took all our attention
to
avoid tracers and other other marking aircraft which were coming in
from all
directions. We had some near misses as five of us were diving for the
marking
area at the same time. The lights of Switzerland were a fascinating
sight as we
proceeded towards Munich.
Party time
All of the
celebrations held in the mess at Woodhall were wild and good fun with
various
entertainments such as a draft horse which was escorted with much
ceremony
through one door of the mess and out the other.
At one part we enjoyed
poultry. Next day, 15 October, we were in strife as the nearby farmer
had lost
his chickens. All involved had to replace them and we covered the
countryside
to find some – then the farmer had too many! For some of the
celebrations we
combined with 617.
Soon after my arrival
at 627 I was in the pub at Woodhall Spa and was surprised to meet Bill
Carey,
also of Mount Gambier, Australia, and who was mentioned as a good
performer
with the Dambusters. My wife Evelyn and I visited the pub in Woodhall
Spa in
1985 and we danced then to the old 78 rpm records which we used there
in 1944.
Oslo
My diary notes cover
the Gestapo HQ raid on Sunday 31 December when we believe all the
residents
were told to go to church. I note that the flak on our way in over the
harbour
that day was really wild, and I found out later from a Norwegian
who wrote of the raid in his book
that the German Navy was in the harbour that day for New Year
celebrations.
They threw all their firepower at us – the underground did not tell us
about
them!
Our port radiator had
a shell through it and we had to feather the prop and climb out of
Oslo, over
the mountains and the North Sea on the starboard engine. We were
thankful for a
British aircraft, as that would not have been possible in a Mitchell.
Remnants of the German fighter force
A number of German fighters entered British
airspace at the close of
the invasion period, among our main force Lancasters. We were back from
each
raid well before the Lancs and had completed our debriefing before they
reached
the circuit. When the runway lights were turned on the Gerry fighters
opened up
on our Lancs, the lights went out and with bullets flying everywhere we
dived
out of our Nissen huts into the air raid slit trench. Unfortunately it
was half
full of water at that late stage of the war and we finished up wet and
cold,
but the bullets had missed us, anyway! Dangerous! The intruders were
intercepted by some RAF squadrons down south.
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