I do not know how, but all I know is that we went all the way to Berlin and back and saw only one Luftwaffe fighter. Quite a contrast to the last time we went to Berlin. Perhaps fate was simply balancing its books …
We had a quiet trip on our way to the target until zone 8. There, we had a complete malfuntion of the ship's heating system. After checking with the crew, we decided to descend to 10,000 feet and press-on towards Berlin. We were not going to come all this way and not leave our calling cards, so we continued.
Over zone 10, we did see our one and only enemy fighter. A tame boar attacked from a vertical climb and missed us. Fate must have been on our side as no other fighters were seen.
Over the target, we encountered flak but none of which hit our plane. Colin Blythe aimed his bombs and had a successful 30% bomb-run.
On our return, we did get hit by some flak over zone 9. We had two hits, one to the flight deck and one to the tail. Only the hit to the tail caused any damage; our starboard rudder was hit.
The rest of the return trip was uneventful aside from the cold conditions. However, I heard no one in our plane complaining about that. The men simply went about their jobs. I am very proud of them.
Roger Bartlett