Mission 109, daylight. 31st Oct.1944
Target: Walcheren Island,Norway, Coastal Guns.
A.A.R. prepared and submitted by F.O. Bernard Keen
The idea of a daylight mission gives mixed feelings. We can see what Europe looks like. We can see our target. We can see the enemy better, sooner and get a better chance of downing them.
Take-off uneventful. We managed a formation arrangement; very un-familiar. It was rather loose. Very quickly we were entering the target zone.Enemy engagement was not much for us though we saw dog-fights happening all around. Until a trio of 190's came on us. We took a piece of one (-1). They failed to hit us.
Flak was medium intensity. It didn't rock the boat, so to speak. The weather was good and we felt very confident that we would score the mission. We were justified in our expectations. Sgt. Jack Mills was hit 'em hard. Cluster explosions appeared. Grouping almost perfect. We could report 91%. We were all elated. Further Flak basically evaporated as we departed the area.
The first we knew we had company was as metal flew up from the floor. We felt some impacts. We had been hit. Ray Hope in the tail reported damage to the tailplane and more importantly the port ammo for the MG. I had now seen that the landing gear system had taken one of the hits. The returning Jerry was a Me110. He failed to get us this time. Our fire was ineffective.
We headed for home.No further action. Landing was to be a bit iffy. But we made it okay.
Pleased with ourselves we clambered out of the craft. Lifted our faces to the weak sunshine and went off to de-brief our best mission result so far.
Reported by F.O. Bernard Keen