AAR Mission: 117
Date: 16/17 December 1944
Target: Industry, Kiel , Germany
Aircraft: Parramatta Patty (3rd mission)
Pilot: Alan Baxter
Bomb run: ON; 60%
Parramatta Patty took off without incident and climbed into the clear winter sky on the long flight across the North Sea to Kiel. We were surprised about 100 miles off the German coast by an Me110 night-fighter, unexpected so far out to sea. But he did not take advantage of his position and missed us, tracers flying past the cockpit window. I put the bomber into a sort of lumbering evasive action and Johnny Dover in the mid-upper saw a chance and he hit the fighter's fuel tank which erupted; the Jerry disappeared below us, his flames lighting the way until they were quenched in the waters below. Our path from there to the target was uneventful — although we were now more alert. The outskirts of Kiel came into sight and Roley Henderson was starting his bomb run when another Me110 surprised us and once again missed us. I was unable to evade so as to maintain the bomb run but need not have worried as Jim Ramage on the tail guns nailed him on a second pass once again turning the bandit's fuel tanks into a blazing inferno. The searchlights were sweeping the sky around us but did not pick up Patty — nor did any Wild Boar which may have been in the area. But the flak was firing box patterns and we flew into it with one shell bursting close to our starboard beam, shrapnel damaging the wing root and shredding the rubber raft while two other shards hit the waist — one damaging the oxygen supply. Roley wasn't to be put off this mission and he bombed accurately on the markers and we estimate a 60% on the target. As we flew back across the Kiel suburbs another Me110 attacked our bomber but this time we saw him; however Jim missed hitting him; but the Jerry made three hits on us — two were outright superficial and the third among the bomb racks was ineffective without the bombs there. I went into evasive manoeuvres then but John Dover managed to damage this one also. He made a third pass but we missed as did he. The flight home across the North Sea was uneventful although we were all on edge after our scrapes. There were no difficulties with the landing and we had racked up our third mission.
Claims: 1-0-2; Bomber Damage: Repairable within 24 hours. Assessed 48 points
Starboard wing root, Waist oxygen hit, Rafts destroyed, 3 superficial