We ran into our first night fighter while we were still over the North Sea. He managed to shred our rubber raft before Danforth drove him off. We played cat-and-mouse with the next one for a while before he hit us. I didn't think he'd hit anything important until Daily, our mid-upper ace
, came forward, carrying his right hand in his left. Dahlgren left the nose to apply a tourniquet, and then took over at mid-upper. He would have returned to his bomb sights as we approached Leipzig, of course, but he didn't get the chance. Another Me-110 surprised us over Germany, he hit us a few times as he chased us around the sky, and I saw the pressure in the bomb-door hydraulics drop to zero. There was no point in going on, so we came home early.
The German defences must have figured they'd done their job, because we didn't encounter any night fighters on the way back. Landing with a full bomb load was tricky, but we made it. Dahlgren's tourniquet saved Daily, but he won't be flying again.
Pilot Officer Kenneth Cahill
Pilot, Alcyone
November 2, 1943
50 Peckham Damage Points