Belligerent Bulldog took off into the dark December skies for her first mission. Everything remained quiet until we passed near Aachen when an Me 110 managed to sneak up on our tail, the first indication of Jerry's presence being 20mm shells exploding in engine #1. Sgts Edgecombe and Blair returned the favor, sending the 110 limping for home on one engine, though not before making two more passes. I feathered the prop on #1 and then decided that, even with the reduced speed, we hadn't come this far just to turn around and go home. With a full bomb load, Bulldog was moving a little slow, taking more time to reach the target, and giving Jerry more time to try and stop us. Another 110 approached, this one being spotted by Francis and I threw Belligerent Bulldog into a series of evasive maneuvers. Even so, his rear gunner managed to inflict some superficial damage before the Tame Boar flew off.
Knowing we were running behind schedule, we were alert not only for enemy fighters, but also other Lancasters lest we have an unplanned midair meeting. No enemy fighters bothered us as we approached Bingen and we managed to evade the searchlights crisscrossing the sky. Still, the Ack-Ack found us, wounding Francis and taking out our bomb controls on target ingress! Then a Wild Boar came at us out of the night, trading fire to no effect on either side. Resorting to manual bomb drop but flying slow, we missed the target.
With our cookies gone, Belligerent Bulldog resumed flying at an acceptable speed. No more enemy fighters were encountered on the trip home and we landed at Lincoln without incident. Sgt Blair will return to flying duty and Belligerent Bulldog will be patched up by the next mission.
F/O James Tewsbury, Commanding
Belligerent Bulldog