AAR Mission: 119
Date: 20/21 December, 1944
Target: Industry, Stuttgart, Germany
Aircraft: Parramatta Patty (5th mission)
Pilot: Alan Baxter
Bomb run: Off; 0%
Parramatta Patty was under constant attack by Tame Boars from halfway across Holland and on to Stuttgart. The first Me110 was seen and with evasive action we took only two hits on the tail from its third pass; but these hits put the tail turret out of operation and hit the tail oxygen (luckily not causing serious damage). The second Tame Boar, a Ju88, surprised us. Armed with Schrage Musik it slammed three hits into the port wing putting out the #2 engine, hitting the wing root and destroying the aileron. It hit us again on another two passes but they were all superficial except for another hit on the #2 engine. As we were nearing Stuttgart I decided to carry on and drop our load on a target rather than abort.
This was probably not a good decision as another Me110 was spotted but with the tail guns out it had a free go at us especially as I was not evading approaching the target; it put a large hole in the starboard outer fuel tank and knocked out the waist heat; it hit us another couple of times on a second pass but only superficially; when it returned it missed again and disappeared. Gordon Reynolds the flight engineer advised us that we had only sufficient fuel to get us back to the Channel as we made our bomb run. The searchlights never found us but the flak was all around and one shell burst close enough to put several holes in us and throw off the Bomb Aimer so that our attack went for nothing.
I started to drop height to get warmth back to the waist and as we turned another Me110 surprised us but missed; as it returned, although I evaded, a shell hit the pilot compartment but it only frightened the life out of us. Gordon damaged him severely on his return and he broke off. We got back to the German-Dutch border before another Ju88 with Schrage Musik surprised us hitting the empty bomb bay and control cables; it was this fighter that seriously wounded John Dover, the mid-upper gunner, on a second pass, but Gordon got a good burst into him on his rerun and we saw a flame start from his wing before he broke away trailing heavy smoke.
They left us alone after that and we flew across the Dutch coast issuing Maydays and locations. We put down in the Channel safely and deployed the raft managing to get John down from the turret into it safely. We drifted for a couple of hours before a launch found us just before dawn. It was a scary fast run back to port; those rescue boys deserve medals for doing that out there all the time for our crews.
Claims: 0-2-0; Bomber Damage: (before ditching) Engine #2 out (hit again), Port wing root hit, Starboard outer fuel tank leak (4 turns), Port aileron inoperable, Tail turret inoperable, Mid-upper heat out, Control cables hit, Tail oxygen hit, Starboard aileron hit, Mid-upper gunner serious wound, 11 superficial
Status: Lost at sea
Replacement: Mid-upper gunner Richard (Dick) Burpin; new bomber Sydney's Pride