We faced our first wave of enemy fighters as we crossed the Dutch coast. This left us with no tail guns and with a serious upper arm wound to Sgt Harp in the rear turret. We then had a clear run until just short of the target when three waves of fighters descended on us. Our bomb aimer Sgt Aldrich took a shell in his head seriously wounding him, and the autopilot, nose compartment heating, main oxygen and starboard elevator were all knocked out.
The flak over the target also hit us smashing the tail wheel. Bomb release was well beyond the markers but we had no time to draw breath as we were hounded by fighters and low level flak all the way home. Keira absorbed everything that was thrown at her but another hit to the nose section killed Sgt Aldrich.
Three hours after we had safely landed, the news came through that Sgt Frank Harp had died of his wounds whilst in hospital.
F/O Anthony Lockwood [pilot: Keira]