We made it! It was touch and go (and cold and wet) for a while, but we made it!
It didn't start out that way. We saw no, absolutely no, enemy activity all the way to Schweinfurt. Searchlights coned us there, attracting some flak and a single-engined fighter, but the fighter missed us and the flak caused only superficial damage. Despite the buffeting, Dahlgren was able to keep us lined up on the TI's.
We thought the trip home was going to be as easy as the trip out, but about halfway back to Holland we suddenly got hammered from below. Both the #1 and #3 engines were knocked out, along with hydraulics so neither prop could be feathered. We were sitting ducks when the twin-engined fighter came around again, but even though we took more damage, none of it was serious.
I couldn't hold altitude with only two engines, and we were going pretty slow with two props windmilling, so I'll bet we stuck out like a sore thumb on German radar. Sure enough, we'd barely gotten to an altitude where I could hold her level when we got hammered again. The #4 engine was taken out, but at least I could feather this one. We were going down, but I didn't much like the idea of going down in Germany. I knew the Luftwaffe would treat us right if we got to a POW camp, but I'd heard some pretty nasty things about what civilians did to British flyers. So I got on the intercom and ordered everyone to pitch everything out that wasn't firmly attached, and tried to get that one remaining engine to stretch our descent all the way across Holland. I'd rather risk drowning than a pitchfork up the backside! Of course, our friend the Me-110 hadn't forgotten about us, and kept hammering away. But luckily, he didn't hit any of the crew, and it didn't matter what he did to Sargas any more.
Flak took pot shots at us as we sank lower and lower, but none of it hit. Chalmers reported out progress almost continuously, so Air-Sea Rescue would know where to pick us up. I have to hand it to those guys, I think they were already there and waiting for us, practically within sight of Terschelling! They has us snatched out of our raft before Sargas had even sunk out of sight.
But there seems to be no end to this — I'm sure we'll be up again in a new crate tomorrow night.
Flight Sergeant Gideon Day
Pilot, Sargas
December 20, 1943