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On the 25
February 1944 my navigator Nick Ranshaw and I flew from Oakington to
the American base at Halesworth in Mosquito D. Why we went there I
cannot remember, but we may have been delivering documents.
Johnny Upton and his pilot had been to
Halesworth a few days before and was amused when his Mossie crew were
met at the control tower by a small American pilot who shook hands with
them and said “Greetings, I’m Colonel Zemke”. He was the famous Hubert
“Hub” Zemke who was a fighter ace.
As Nick and I circled Halesworth we saw the
chunky Thunderbolts on the dispersals. We landed and a Jeep swooped in
front of us bearing a large board which said “Follow Me”. So we did.
However, the Jeep began pulling away from us and Nick said “Don’t let
the Yank outspeed us” so I opened the throttles and closed on the Jeep,
which increased speed. I followed until we stopped and got out at the
control tower where we met the very frightened Jeep driver. “What the
hell were you trying to do, chop my head off?” he screamed.
I have never discovered why these Halesworth
trips were made. There were rumours that Colonel Zemke had some mad
scheme to escort Mossies to Berlin in daylight using his Thunderbolts!
Perhaps someone can tell me.
By the time we left Halesworth the weather
had “clamped down”. The Americans were astonished that we were taking
off into the gloom and asked if we had a “Bad Weather Flying
Certificate”.
As a matter
of interest Hub Zemke shot down 17 German aircraft and led the 56
Fighter Group (Thunderbolts). He then switched to Mustangs and his
aircraft broke up in a violent storm over Germany on 30 October 1944.
He bailed out to become a POW, and lived to be 80.
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