A relatively quiet trip to the first turning point when an ME110 attacked. It announced it presence with trace and the tail gunner Buck called for corkscrew starboard. At the same time he but a long burst into the cockpit of the ME110 which caused it to burst into flame and fall away to the ground where it hit with a satisfying explosion. More ME110s were in the bomber stream and a second attack resulted in minor damage throughout the AC and knocked out the bomb release controls. Bomb Aimer Green insisted we could manually salvo the load over the target with the help of the Flight Engineer Paterson. The crew prepared and on Green's command Paterson manually dropped the load. Not the best of results but post op photos showed we got 5% of our load near the TIs.
One more ME110 had a go at us leaving the target area and scored several hits one of which knocked out the tail gunner's oxygen. Wireless Op Bickle grabbed several of the portable oxygen bottles and took them back to Buck. The rest of the trip was quiet and we landed safely at base.