AAR Mission: 131
Date: 13/14 February, 1945
Target: Dresden, Transportation
Aircraft: Burke and Beyond (2nd mission)
Pilot: William Farnham
Bomb aimer Henry Prentise, Navigator David Bristow, Flight Engineer John Denham, Radio Operator George Harris, Mid-upper Gunner Dennis Tryon, Tail Gunner Anthony D'Witt
Take off went smoothly and David Bristow guided us safely across the North Sea and the Netherlands into Germany. All was quiet until we were well into Germany south of the Danish border when a Me110 surprised us hitting our bomber with four shells one on each wing root and a superficial; but the fourth knocked out the bomb controls which meant that Henry Prentise would have to bomb manually. A successive attack caused two more superficial damages. Our fire did not have any effect on the enemy fighter.
We had a quiet 15 minutes, then, just before reaching the Dresden area, another Me110 attacked, but this time it was spotted by Anthony D'Witt — he missed it but his warning allowed me to go into evasive manoeuvres. This didn't stop the fighter hitting Burke and Beyond twice more, luckily both superficial. Further approaches failed to hit from both sides.
Then we were approaching Dresden with fires seen in the distance. Again we were surprised by a night-fighter, this time a Ju88. I was unable to evade so as to give Henry a chance on the bomb run; the first pass hit us with a superficial and a hit on the tail oxygen; but this fighter missed on the following passes. We were not picked up by the searchlights and no wild boar appeared; but the flak was strong anyway — one nearby burst put a superficial hole in our bomber but it was enough to ruin any chance of Henry getting any bombs on the target.
After that we turned for home and had an uninterrupted flight back to base where we landed safely in the early morning light. We didn't put any bombs on the main target, nor knock down any enemy fighters, but at least we returned without any casualties.
Bomb run: Off; 0%
Bomber Damage: 11hits; Bomb controls inoperable, Port wing root hit, Starboard wing root hit, Tail oxygen hit, 7 superficial hits; damage repairable by tomorrow.