Took off for intercept at Gilze and all pilots got into the air without trouble; despite snowy and slippery runway conditions. Blind-flight through approx. 4000 ft of cloud proved difficult but entire roster made it through and up to about 25,000 ft without incident. Overcast and thick cloud made navigation difficult but our flight leader got us to about over Veghel when we came upon 5 or 6 large-sized bogies flying level at about 20-25,000 ft. F/Lt 'Madov' Emblin (Red Leader) ordered my section (Yellow) to fly in to investigate with White section as top-cover. I set throttle to full and Red and Yellow sections approached targets up-sun. We came upon the convoy from it's rear and once F/Lt 'Madov' Emblin was in range he became under fire by tail-gunners of the bomber group. Entire flight was ordered to 'engage at will' and I started firing immediately at the bomber 2nd from the right. I scored a few hits with 20mm cannon however I become under fire from tail-gunners myself. I suffered light damage to the front fuselage/engine area and so I dove under the convoy of bombers to evade their fire. At this point I heard F/Lt 'Madov' Emblin claim a confirmed kill over the R/T on a Ju-88 and was able to confirm the kill. When I was clear I nosed back up to engage from below and started firing at the Ju-88 on the far-right side. I scored a 'probable' on this A/C, damaging the target extensively with 20mm cannon and saw it spinning towards the earth with heavy black smoke. I then came around to line up on another Ju-88 when my propellers ceased up and engine failed, at which point I was ordered to get below cloud to bail. I in turn ordered my wingman P/O 'Al' A. Lamothe and then set my course for due West and glided down toward the earth towards home; trying to maintain 140-160 MPH in order to glide the furthest distance into friendly lines. At about 1-2000 ft above cloud I came under fire again from an unknown source and frantically dove below cloud, getting lost for a moment but then breaching below successfully. I tried to identify my position on the map and flew to land in a field (wheels down) just outside of what I thought might be Eindhoven, although based on where the assault occurred I felt this to be unlikely. Landing was successful and I was able to walk the couple of kilometres towards the city to see about getting a ride back to Sqn headquarters at Gilze. F/O 'Zach' Z. Lamothe |
