It
was assumed that the Mosquito pilot and Col. Crawford bought the farm.
Several days later, it was learned that both bailed out after they
entered the undercast. They were captured and sent to a POW camp. By pure luck,
they had come down near a German air base and were captured by airmen. As a
result of that, and the fact the war was nearing the end they were treated good.
After the war in Europe ended, they were released and Col. Crawford came back to
the base and gave us a talk about his adventures. In the usual American
tradition, everything had to have a comical slant. Writings appeared on the
latrine walls stating, "he was just a kid from Toledo, but he shot down the
Red Tailed Mosquito". Incidentally, our crew was not on that mission.
Additionally,
an event came about on what was meant to be our third mission to the Berlin
(flak city) area. Just after passing northwest of Hanover, we started losing oil
pressure on one engine. Very quickly this turned into a long trail of black
smoke. There were two reasons to leave the formation. First, the smoke trail was
a dead giveaway of the formation position. The second, if we cut the engine, we
would be unable to maintain formation speed.
The
only thing left to do was leave the formation and head back as a lone wolf. Two
P51 fighter planes stayed with us for a short time but they soon dipped their
wings to say so long and good luck as they left to rejoin the formation escort
group. The engine oil pressure soon went to zero so the prop was feathered and
the engine shut down. Now we had to get rid of the bomb load in a hurry.
Keep
in mind that, even though we were now over Holland, as a result of German
takeover it was enemy territory. There was no desire to salvo the bombs
since that meant they would be duds. You also didn't want to cause unwarranted
damage to the Dutch people. Bear in mind that all these options are considered
in a proverbial split second. Anyway, someone sighted a bridge through a hole in
the clouds ahead and saw no traffic near it. So that is where we left our bombs.
Before the bombs landed, the clouds put the bridge out of sight, which
meant we would never know if the bridge was hit. Since things happened so fast,
the chances were very slim.
So
now the plan was to get to the North Sea cross, it and at least get back to
England (hopefully our base). Everyone realized that if we were to lose anymore
power it would probably mean ditching in the North Sea.
After
getting rid of the bombs, I soon determined we were headed straight for the Zider
Zee. I called for an immediate 45-degree right turn. They started to ask
why, and I said don't ask, just do it. After the turn, I explained that if we
hadn't turned we would probably have passed over some of the very accurate
antiaircraft guns on barges in the Zider Zee. Needless to say, once a final
heading was given to head home, it was then just a matter of trusting the three
engines, and the navigator.
How
Things Really Were
I'm
going to take some space just to put in words how other things really were. For
instance, our base was in a direct line between the German missile
launching sites and London. The V-I missile was actually more of a bomb
with a motor attached. It flew at a very low altitude and could be seen and
heard. If the sound stopped, you headed very quickly for an air raid shelter
because the missile was coming down. Since the programmed destination was London, only a power failure would bring one down near us.
The
V-II, which came next, was indeed a real missile and flew at extremely
high altitude. We could sometimes see the launch smoke trail across the North
Sea. These missiles were no direct concern to us, but they sure did much damage
to London. Because these missiles were never seen or heard, except for the final
huge explosion, the affect on the civilian population morale was extremely bad.
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