"Sit here, Adolf!" — After Action Report
21/22 April, 1944 — Miss. No. 60
Operation: Detailed against Berlin — Industry
Crew: Pilot: F/L Rick Abbotsford; Bomb aimer F/O Brian Holmes; Navigator P/O Colin Bright; Flt. Eng. F/L Malcolm Reese; W/O Sgt. Sean Hemming; Mid-upper Sgt. Arthur Kingsley; Tail gunner Sgt. Ross (Rosie) Dillon Weather en route: Clouds increased to the point that we had to bomb on T.I.'s
Opposition:
Outbound: Quiet until south of Bremen when we were attacked by a Me-110; damage: Starboard rudder hit and brake destroyed. Shortly after another Me-110 missed on his first pass even though he had not been spotted. On his second he came at us from 12 o'clock high which was a bad decision because mid-upper, Art, sent him down in flames (Destroyed — Me-110, Sgt. Art Kingsley).
Over target: Just before our bomb run another Me-110 missed us on his first pass and then made the mistake of coming at us head-on and Brian chocked up another Kraut, (Destroyed — Me-110 F/O Brian Holmes) We were caught by the search lights and a Me-109 came at us just as Brian was leading me to the target. He looked up in time and put enough rounds into the German's fuselage and engine to make his miss — he went off trailing smoke. (FBOA — Me-109, F/O Brian Holmes) Flak was light.
Bomb run: Off; 0% (When the 109 hit Brian was distracted and our bombs were off target.)
Homeward: North of Brunswick a 110 attacked: on his first pass he put several ricochets where shortly before the bombs had been. He hit us solidly in the wing structure and also knocked out the number No. 3 engine. I was fortunate enough to be able to feather it. He missed on his next run because "Ol' Dead Eye" Brian sent his packing. (FBOA — Me-110, F/O Brian Holmes). The last attack came as we crossed over into the North Sea and resulted in damage to the tail wheel.
Assessment of attack: Brian was kept busy with the 109 when he should have been able to concentrate on bombing: I'm sure it's what caused us to over-run the target area - very unfortunate in that the flight was generally rather calm.
Landing: Landing was okay
Crew casualties: None
Comments: We are still having problems with spotting incoming attacks but the shooting has been rather good. F/O Brian Holmes, bomb aimer did well with two FBOA's & one destroyed, and mid-upper, Sgt. Kingsley accounted for one destroyed. (Brian says he wants to go to gunnery school and give up bomb aiming - I'll be inclined to let him if he misses more targets!)
F/L Rick Abbotsford, pilot