Transferred to 'A Flight' for a bombing mission over the Kirchhellen airfield. This time I was going to flying wingman for F/Lt 'Madov' Emblin. At takeoff, shortly after I was airbourne I heard F/O 'Gunny' Cook report on the R/T that his engine had failed once right after takeoff and he had to crash-land nearby. The rest of flight continued to Kirchhellen and we were told to expect heavy FLAK and Ack-Ack - although I found this to be surprisingly light once we arrived and delivered our payloads. On our way back from the airfield, a member of our flight spotted a German jet fighter (Me 262) and the entire flight took turns going in for passes on the enemy A/C. I followed F/Lt 'Madov' Emblin and watched his 6 while he tried to get guns to bear on target; but was unable to get any good shots away. Shortly after the engagement started I heard F/O 'Will' Vale report over the R/T that the enemy jet was going down and had been destroyed; however soon after he had informed us that his engine had failed most likely due to over-exertion and had to put down in a field. F/Lt 'Madov' Emblin and I noticed that our fuel gauges were quite low and set ourselves to 1800 RPM with 0lbs boost to conserve fuel and made our way back to RTB. I had 2-3 gallons less fuel and we calculated that I might not be able to make it to base; so I put down at the Eindhoven airfield where I went straight in for a beer at a local pub and was able to rest for the night. Was picked up and brought back to base the next morning early. F/O 'Zach' Z. Lamothe |
