It is with sadness and regret that I must report the death of Flt. Sgt. Nicholas W Briggs. In the time that I had the honour of being his skipper on The Big Bad Boar, I found his performance as the bomb aimer to be above and beyond the call of duty.
A night fighter caught us over the North Sea as we were about to make a course change. Although it was damaged before breaking off, it succeeded also in making the bomb bay doors inoperable, knocking out the navigational instruments and the intercom.
Briggs' death combined with severe damage to the above systems left us only one option. I gave the call to abort the mission and return to base. This was accomplished without further incident and despite having a full bomb load, we landed safely.
Please excuse the brevity of this report but with it being the loss of our first crew member, all of the crew are quite shaken up by this.
Respectfully yours
Frederick D Haswell (P/Off)
Damage: 52 Peckhams