Morgan Hill — After Action Report
19/20 March, 1944 — Miss. No. 51
Operation: Detailed against Berlin — Industry.
Crew: Pilot: F/L Jake Fields; Bomb aimer Sgt. Randal Beale; Navigator P/O Norm Belling; Flt. Eng. F/L Ian Bellworthy; W/O Sgt. Sean Hemming; Mid-upper Sgt. Rich Dayton; Tail gunner Sgt. Joe Plaice
Weather en route: Increased heavy cloud as we neared the target area.
Opposition:
Outbound: On the outward route we were hit three times by night fighters. The first 110 was spotted by St. Plaice (tail gunner) as it approached and he sent it flaming down before it could fire. (Me-110 Destroyed — tail gunner, Sgt. Joe Plaice). The second also caused no damage as it missed on its first pass and on the second Rich flamed him. (Me-110 Destroyed — mid-upper, Sgt. Rich Dayton). Just before Berlin the third one hit us which did considerable damage, the worst of which was no. 4 engine caught fire (extinguished it) and knocked out the tail gunner's heat. Because we were so close to the target the crew voted to carry on, which we did and so I was able to gain a little speed in the drop to 10,000 feet, but we still approached Berlin at the tail end of the bomber stream.
Over target: Attacked immediately on approach to target by a Me-110 which practically destroyed the port wing, knocking out flaps and aileron. A lot of Light Flak, but no hits; coned and then encountered a 109 which did further damage to the heating's electrical system and further damage to the wings. Because of our bombing height Randy had occasional views of the city through the clouds which aided him with the on-target percentage. As we were leaving a Me-110 destroyed the raft and did more serious damage to both wings — but not enough to bring us down! Rich caught him on the third pass and destroyed him. (Me-110 Destroyed — mid-upper, Sgt. Rich Dayton).
Bomb run: (visual) on: 75%
Return: Hit three more times at various points on the return leg and encountered Light Flak near Brandenburg and over the Dutch coast (no damage). All three night fighters did further damage, especially to the electrical system (and we know now to the oxygen in two compartments). And all three attackers knew they were in a fight by the damage inflicted on them by some fine shooting from our gunners. (Me-110 FBOA — mid-upper, Sgt. Rich Dayton); ([2nd] Me-110 FBOA — mid-upper, Sgt. Rich Dayton); (Me-110 FBOA — nose gunner, Sgt. Randy Beale)
Assessment of attack: Very scattered fires — most of the bombing appeared to have been on markers.
Landing: okay.
Crew casualties: None.
Comments: No remarks like a walk in the park
on this one. Encountered much more opposition than in the last few trips — especially over the target and on our return (because of being at 10,000 and on three engines). But we had incredible luck in that we were hit so many times with less damage than we might have experienced. P/O Belling (Morgan Hill's own mathematical boffin
) and the ground crew sergeant did a very rough estimate of hits vs. effects and found just over 50% were either misses or no effect/misses. Incredible luck! (Sgt. Richard Dayton deserves mention because of his excellent gunnery [two kills and two FBOA's].)
A/C and crew will be serviceable for tonight.
(Signed) P/O Jake Fields, Pilot, Morgan Hill