The crew is ready for this mission, everyone is kind of nervous as we taxi down the runway. But we are off on the maiden flight of Glagow Gerty! It's a strange feeling flying in the darkness, we just have trust in our Navigator to guide us through.
Everything is quiet until we approach Germany. Our first enemy contact a 110 fires at us, we are hit on the starboard wing. The wing root is hit! The Navigator gets him though, damaging the 110, as he flies off into the night.
We encounter few problems until we reach the target zone area. Suddenly everything is illuminated! We are caught in the searchlights! Almost immediately a 109 comes at us at twelve o'clock. We take two hits — the St. Wing Aileron is damaged & the Mid-Upper Gunner is hit! Lightly wounded. Luckily the tailgunner gets a piece of him and the 109 is damaged by the passing shot. Another 110 attacks & hits us but causes no damage We manage to drop 30 percent of the bombs on target! Not too bad for a first run.
We head toward home & are attacked by another 110. We are hit again in the tail section. The ammo track is hit, but the tail guns are still functioning! The bomb bay is also hit, but thank God our bombs have already been dropped.
We slip into the night & have few problems on the way back. One more 110 picks up our trail, but is then driven off with little difficulty. We approach England & land with no problems. A good first mission.