The flight over the channel and much of France as we approached the target was uneventful.
We were picked up by an Me-110 as we approached Saumur and despite peppering us on it's first two passes mid-upper gunner Sgt. Cartwright took care of it as it lined up for a third.
Our tussle with the Me-110 hadn't gone un-noticed and we were picked up by searchlights over Saumur, drawing the attention of a pesky Me-109 that thankfully proved to be little more than an annoyance as we set up for the bomb run.
Despite our evasive manoeuvres, the absence of any flak helped bomb aimer P/O Morrison line up the target well. He was very confident as we delivered our bombs.
We were again picked up by an Me-110 on our way out of Saumur but Sgt. Cartwright once again saw him off with some fine marksmanship. Worryingly we took a hit to our outboard fuel tank and could see that were leaking fuel. Flight engineer Sgt. Niven believed we could make it back to English soil before we would have to land at one of the airbases nearer the coast.
Diskliking the idea of having to put her down in the english channel we pushed on for England.
As we flew over the channel we were picked up by another Me-110. Our rafts took some punishment and our decision to try for England had me concerned as we faced being shot down over water. Thankfully the Me-110 hits seemed to miss anything else important.
We made the english coast and thankfully as far as RAF Tangmere. We were lucky this mission, without doubt.
F/O Arthur Murray,
Pilot — L-Lion