Jerry was keen on our tail from the moment we hit the German border. Trading shots with several ME-110's. Our shooting was lousy while they got some SF hits and the Skipper reported a hit on his window up front. North of Magdeburg a ME-110 came in from 3 o'clock level and took out the mid upper turret. Sgt Jackson was ok though and moved forward to the Flt Engineers station. Just outside of the target zone, FO Mann finally got lucky and shot down one ME-110 from the Nose turret. Over the target we didn't see any fighters and the searchlights were not bothering us one bit. But the flak was murder on us as we took 7 hits from the Jerry gunners. Bugger me! These chaps are good. My oxygen supply suffered one hit and FO Mann reported his bombsight was knocked out. Pretty lucky with the wings hits (both PW and SW) were all SF damage until the last one and that took out the Starboard Landing gear. No joy at bombs gone as with the site out we were just dropping them blind. On the way out w had a quiet trip back to base. Over the base, the CO told the Skipper to belly in The Yank. He did a good job as we landed pretty clean on the grass. Chiefy is not too happy but we should be ok in acouple of weeks.
Sgt Trimble
Tail Gunner
Mr Yank