Ain't No Lady
Mission 71 — 26 / 27 May, 1944
Sable Sur Sarthe — Ammunition Dump
Outbound: A few miles out from the target Archie Bellows yelled on the intercom that an enemy aircraft was approaching from 6 O'clock low. I had just begun evasive action when he came back on and said, "Never mind I sent the bugger to his everlastin' rewards!".
A second 110 attacked as we were setting up for the bomb run. He hit us numerous times but the only damage was to the pilot's compartment which started an oxygen fire. 'Flight' was able to put it out but I had to come around again at 10,000 feet. (On his second pass mid-upper had blown away parts of the Kraut's wing and he missed his shots.)
Bomb run: (At 10.000 feet) No Wild Boars; no Searchlights and no flak hits. Bomb run on; 30%
Return: As we were leaving the bombing area an enemy aircraft got into us unseen and raked us from tail to nose. His shots came from below and not one did any damage except for a slight wound to our w/o operator. He made only the one pass and Cyril Barrette, the new bomb aimer swears it wasn't a ME-110 or 109 (this was his first flight, however). Just off the south coast a Me-110 came at us and again Sgt. Bellows put him away for good. The other lads will be buying tonight.
Landing: Fine
Victories:
2 — Me-110's, Sgt. Archie Bellows
(FBOA: Sgt. Less Wheatfield)
Casualties:
minor wound, Sgt. "Gus" Morreti
(Signed) F/O Chris Donovan, Pilot
Ain't No Lady
Pilot: F/O Chris Donovan
Bomb aimer: Sgt. Cyril Barrette
Flight engineer: Sgt. Felix Helms
Navigator: P/O Ralph Langley
W/O operator: Sgt. Giuseppe "Gus" Moretti
Mid-upper gunner: Sgt. Les Wheatfield
Tail gunner: Sgt. Archie Bellows