Dahlgren and Cain warned me, but you can't know what it's like until you've been there.
We were picked up by a Me-110 while still over the North Sea. Danforth spotted it, and Dahlgren and Eagan both hit it, but it wouldn't go down. He was a tough bugger, but a bad shot. Another Me-110 took up where that one left off, peppering us here and there, but Eagan gave better than we got, sending it down in flames!
We'd just spotted the continent ahead when we were ripped into again. Both wings were hit, and the hydraulic pressure in the port brake line dropped to zero. One of the rudders jammed as I tried to twist us out of the line of fire. The #4 engine conked out, and I just managed to feather the prop.
Our airspeed dropped quite a bit with one engine out, but I wasn't going to turn back from my first mission (Berlin!) just for that. We were chased by a couple of Me-110's as we made our way across Germany, and Danforth did trade some minor damage with one of them.
Searchlights caught us over the target, so what flak there was seemed to be aimed at us. Fortunately, it wasn't any more effective than the Me-109 that flashed past. Dahlgren dropped our load bang on the sky markers — if the Pathfinders placed them right, we should have had a good run.
We gained some speed after Bombs gone!
, but that didn't keep a Me-110 form shooting up one of our elevators while we were still over the city. I thought we were home free after that, but Danforth spotted one last Me-110 coming up on us long after we'd left Germany behind. Dahlgren hit him as he crossed in front of us, and we took a hit ourselves, knocking out the intercom, before I shook him off.
Tonight showed me that I've hooked up with a crew of real professionals.
Flight Sergeant Gideon Day
Pilot, Sargas
December 2, 1943
126 Peckham Damage Points