No Mice!
Mission 52 - 21/22 March, 1944
Frankfurt - Industry
Outbound. Quiet run in until just before the Frankfurt area when a Me-110 attacked. Before he could cause problems Southgate put a lot of holes in his engine and off he went after his first pass. The second attack came minutes later - damaged the port rudder, the starboard wing and finally took out the pilot compartment heat and intercom and put finished to the port rudder. Since we were so near the target decided to drop down to 10,000 and continue.
Over target. Over Frankfurt encountered no night fighters and no search light, but flak caught the no.1 engine. Feathered it but the encounter caused too much distraction and bomb run was off entirely. (Me-110 FBOA - Sgt. Clive Southgate)
Bomb run. Off target. 0%
Return. West of Frankfurt attacked by a ME-110 which slightly wounded Sgt. Freeborn in upper turret; on second took out the port wing flap. Mid-upper (in spite of his wound) caught him on the third pass and destroyed him. Encountered one other over the coast which did no significant damage. Several times targeted by low level flak but no damage. The run back to base was much too slow and low for comfort! (Me-110 Destroyed - Sgt. Basil Freeborn)
Landing. Okay
(Signed) F/O Arthur Blackwell (Pilot)
No Mice!
Pilot: F/O Arthur Blackwell
Bomb aimer: Sgt. Guy Leighton (serious wound)
Flight engineer: P/O Todd Smyth
Navigator: P/O Layton Foxx
W/O operator: Sgt. Stuart Hammond
Mid-upper gunner: Sgt. Basil Freeborn
Tail gunner: Sgt. Clive Southgate