Quiet crossing the coast but Sgt Riggs in the tail spotted a ME-110 coming up fast behind us. "Corkscrew Port Now!" he yelled out over the intercom. I turn Reaper quickly to port and we could hear the guns going off in the tail. "Got Him!" Scott yelled out as he watched the flaming wreckage fall behind us. We felt pretty cocky as we continued on but were soon picked up by another Jerry, this one knew his craft well and got in close and caused S/F damage to the cockpit, tail and hit our outboard fuel tank on the SW. Sgt Singleton our Flt Eng was quick to check the pressure and patted me on the shoulder and gave me a thumbs up. Another Jerry again got in behind us and caused S/F damage to the PW and somewhere else in the Reaper before flying off. Over the target we could see the TI's and searchlights poking up like lances trying to find us. Scott managed to spot the ME-110 this time and caused some damage to his port engine. But not enough to break off his attack. The SW Root took a hit, the waist suffered S/F damage and one of Scott's ammo boxes were hit. As we came up on target, Andy was getting ready to drop our load when BAM BAM BAM we were hit numerous times by the flak guns. S/F damage to the Bomb bay and both wings, but then James yelled out that he had to shut down #3 engine before it got away from us. Despite all of this Andy put 40% on target and I pulled the Reaper down and away to port to get us out of there. No further enemy contact and we landed with no problems. We climbed out of Reaper and had a good look at the damage as we waited for the lorry to take us back. The driver found us looking up at the #3 engine. Some pretty big holes in it! Chiefy is coing to have a fit. As we piled in the young driver asked me if it was rough op. "Nah, piece of cake old son," I replied as we took off back to HQ.
F/O Cliff Trimble
Pilot, The Grim Reaper