Most Memorable Operations

August 7/8, 1944 - Seventh operation was against German H.Q. at Caen. After dropping our bombs we ended up seven or eight miles north of track away from the main stream and decided to stay there. We had a night fighter 200 ft. above us for about five minutes. We were hit and lost all light and electrical power. Two engines on the same side went wild and we had aluminum falling like snow inside the aircraft. Wally relates how the pilot got them back to England and ordered them to bail out.

Wally, the navigator and the bomb aimer got out safely but the F/E and the MUG were killed in the crash. The pilot and rear gunner were pulled from the wreck by two brothers who were later decorated for bravery. The four suvivors completed a tour on four differen RCAF squadrons.

(2) On twelfth op to Bremen, halfway down the runway with a full bomb and petrol load, there was a severe wind change. The F/E pulled back the throttles, one wing tipped but the pilot managed to stop the aircraft inches away from a bomb dump. “We took off last from another runway.”
(3) September 15, 1944 on our sixteenth op, took off from Linton for Kiel. Went 75 miles past the turning point.The navigator had his oxygen tube pinched and passed out. With many kites converging on the target, many were hit by our own bombs.
(4) October 30, 1944 on twenty-ninth op to Cologne, shadowed by a twin-engine night fighter, hit by flak. Transmitter blew up, all lights and inter-com went off over the target. Pilot turned north instead of south. The night fighters were turning between us and the mainstream, we decided to stay put there. April 19,2001