This turned out to be a long trip. We were still over the North Sea when Danforth spotted a Me-110 trying to sneak up on us. We engaged in a running battle until Eagan drove him off, but Cain's instruments got shot up in the process. I considered aborting the mission right there, but this was our sixth trip to Berlin, and Cain said he could find it, so we kept going.
We were nearly there when another Me-110 announced its presence by tearing up the port rudder and knocking out the heat in the nose. I was throwing the kite around to shake him off when the cockpit oxygen supply was set fire. It took Cain a couple of extinguishers to put it out, and by then, Eagan had driven this 110 off, too.
I took us to 10,000 feet and we crossed Berlin with the tail end of the stream, but none of the defences were looking for us that low. With no searchlights, flak, or fighters to disturb him, Dahlgreen dropped our load bang on the TI's. Danforth spotted another 110 after bombs gone
, and Eagan took care of this one permanently.
Cain tried to plot a course home that would avoid known flak concentrations, but he wasn't entirely successful. We took a single hit that knocked out our #1 engine just before we crossed the coast. Just after crossing it, a 110 shredded our raft before Danforth sent him looking for easier prey. Fortunately, that was our last contact with the enemy, and the raft wasn't needed.
Pilot Officer Kenneth Cahill
Pilot, Alcyone
November 24, 1943
128 Peckham Damage Points