My batman Watt helped me unload the Austin 7. "Av a good leave sir?" he asked. "Spot on thankyou Watt".
As I wrestled my golf clubs into my cramped room, Pat Garside stuck his head around the door "What ho skipper! Had a good one?" he asked. "Excellent" I replied "Got screechers at 'Sheppard’s' last night with a load of fighter wallah’s! Head’s bad!". "Crews all back" he went on "Fluke’s making a lot of his new wound stripe!" Watt bumbled about putting my kit into its respective draws. "Coming down the Mess skipper?, there are a couple of ripping popsies there from the ATA just arrived with new kites, worth a bash!"
As we crossed the coast and entered enemy airspace I called over the intercom for Ted Childs our new wireless operator to come and have his first look at the occupied lands below. As he did so there was a clamour of shouts over the intercom as 20mm tracer whizzed past the cockpit and also thumped the starboard wing. The extreme stammering of machine guns and wild curses told me that 'Catseyes' was at work again. "Welcome to the war!" I shouted to Ted. I took evasive action and lost the hunters in the night.
Suddenly about a half a mile to port there was a bright pink glow in the clouds, and then we saw the reason, a couple of planes going down in flames. Whether it was a collision which seemed most likely or fighters or ack ack we didn’t know, but we were happy we had not been any closer to where they went down.
Approaching Stuttgart the fighters became very active, and a couple of Me110s flew across from the port side several hundred feet below us. I watched them closely as they lined up on a pair of Lancasters. I was helpless, I wished I had some way of alerting the crews but watched helplessly as the fighters shot down both Lancasters, one blew up as the fusillade of tracers hit into him whilst the other burst into flames as he fell arcing to starboard. I reported for all to keep a watchout.
A forest of searchlights and anti-aircraft fire greeted us. As we settled down to our bomb run we noticed many dummy fires away from the main target. Many great flashes were seen, the anti-aircraft was accurate but moderate. The intercom crackled; "Bomb aimer to Skipper, bomb doors open. Left, left, 20 degrees, -------Steady------------Steady Right 5 degrees------------Steady------------Steady----------Steady----------bombs gone. Close bomb doors. Hold for photo------------photo------------photo------------photo taken". As I turned for home a twin engined machine was seen flying parallel and slightly behind. Starboard outer engine suffered light damage. Catseyes Johnson returned fire and the enemy machine turned hastily away and wasn’t seen again.
The rest of the return journey was uneventful.
Up 22.46 Down 04.54.
Regards,
P/O H. Wilson
L for Leather
314 Squadron
F/Sgt. Johnson 2x Me110 Damaged.