A Flight off over the frontlline again dive bombing an airfield at Kirchhellen. We lost P/O 'Gunny' Cook on this mission, he seemed to lose engine power immediately on takeoff and crashed into the fields at the bottom of the runway. Heavy cloud was experienced over the target in multiple layers with moderate winds. We attacked the airfield in two groups, one per side to cover the majority of the parked a/c around the field. Everyone got their bombs away and egressed without problems with the FLAK which was surprisingly light. After moving away from the target area we were attacked by a Me262 and the whole flight seemed intent on hunting this thing down. P/O Vale was the one who first got hits onto it and then finished it off in great style, with the pilot bailing out. Skipper got a couple of 109s and as yesterday it was a long trek back to Glize so this time I dropped the RPM right and put the boost at zero lbs. I made a good landing with around 5 gallons to spare. P/O Vale on the R/T informed us that he had had to put his a/c down in a field as the engine had run rough and lost power after his exertions with the 262. F/Lt 'Madov' Emblin |
