One of our rougher trips. Surprised by a Ju-88 out over the North Sea. I don't know how he missed us, but he made up for it on his second pass, hitting Lewis, our navigator, and knocking him unconscious. LeBlanc drove him off before he could take another crack at us.
Justice, our wireless operator, kept us heading toward the target. We could see the fires in the distance when a Me-110 made itself known by ripping in to our port wing. Amazingly, none of the holes were in anything that mattered. Even the two in the flap didn't keep it from working.
Flak over the target missed by a mile, but a searchlight latched on to us. That attracted a single-engined fighter that shot up our raft in a head on pass. It then approached from the port side and walked hits along our length with no obvious effect. Finally coming up from behind, LeBlanc was ready and shot him down! Meanwhile, Madden was putting just about our entire load on the TIs.
When Madden returned to the nose turret, he found a pair of holes where a shell had passed through where he would have been, had he not been at the bomb sight. We were not attacked on the way back, but more damage revealed itself when I tried to land — the port landing gear wouldn't come down. Once again, I kept us balanced on the one good gear until we'd slowed enough to set the other side down gently.
Lewis finally regained consciousness in hospital. He'll recover, but not soon enough to rejoin us.
F/S Thomas King
Pilot, Marie
June 16, 1944
126 Peckham Damage Points.
The mission probably should have been aborted according to B-17:QotS rule 8.0.d as soon as the navigator was seriously wounded. I was thinking about Lancaster rule 7.C at the time, but in retrospect, I think that was a mistake.