Our escorts and a tight formation prevented all but one incident on the outbound trip. Four Me-109's got by the escorts near Kassel. Czechowski and Wyatt each damaged one, while our port tailplane was damaged in return.
Flak over the target was very heavy, and set the tone for the rest of the flight. Two nearby bursts took out the port landing gear, smashed Czechowski's bomb controls as he was reaching for them, and cut the power to Cymber's suit heater. The sound of fragments rattling against our bombs was disconcerting, to say the least. Czeckowski let them go, but there's no telling where they ended up.
Once we got out of the mountains, I dropped out of formation to keep Cymber warm. This was a huge mistake! I guess our usual night flights had gotten me comfortable with flying alone, and the efficiency of our escorts on the outbound trip made me over confident.
As soon as we were alone, the Luftwaffe pounced. One P-51 had stayed with us, but there was only so much he could do. We were attacked by a bunch of single-engined fighters, and our #1 engine was knocked out. They came back for more, shredding our rafts and wounding Czechowski, although fortunately not too badly.
The attacks continued over Allied-occupied territory. I would have like to have landed, but I couldn't very well do that while we were under attack, and after an attack was over, what could I say? That I'd crash-landed for fear of being attacked again? Anyway, another bunch of single-engined fighters knocked out our #3 engine, but Cymber made one of them hit the silk in return! A shell in the cockpit smashed the controls for the landing gear, not that the port gear was operative, anyway.
We were now ploughing through the air at a frighteningly low speed. I knew Lancasters could fly on two engines, but I wasn't happy with the opportunity to try it over Germany. We were far more lucky than we deserved, and were attacked by only one more small group of Me-109's. Wyatt managed to hit one about the same time it put more damage into our port tailplane.
We all walked away from the gear-up landing, which is all we could have asked for. Czechowski will recover quickly. I Know Why was probably the biggest mess I'd ever seen make it back to the station — we'll have to see what the mechanics can make of her.
P/O Steven Wynn
Pilot, I Know Why
April 25, 1945
307 Peckham Damage Points (including 84 from the "wheels-up" landing). I Know Why suffered 29 air-to-air attacks!