The Men Who Flew the Mosquito: Compelling Accounts of the 'Wooden Wonders' Triumphant World War Two Career

By Martin W Bowman

The twin-engined Mosquito was one of the classic aircraft of the Second World War. Famously wooden-built, its graceful lines and powerful performance have made it into an airborne icon. Its operational versatility as a fighter, low level bomber and reconnaissance aircraft was unsurpassed. In this book we get the firsthand crew accounts of a selection of the actions and missions that the 'Mossie' undertook. These include audacious raids on Nazi HQs and Gestapo jails -real precision attacks carried out by ace fliers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Feb 19, 2004
• ISBN: 9781783034345

Martin W Bowman

Martin Bowman is one of Britain's leading aviation authors and has written a great deal of books focussing on aspects of Second World War aviation history. He lives in Norwich in Norfolk. He is the author of many Pen and Sword Aviation titles, including all releases in the exhaustive Air War D-Day and Air War Market Garden series.

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Introduction

When the first edition of The Men Who Flew the Mosquito was published in 1995 the choice and selection of some of the stories was, to some extent, largely dictated by space considerations. Some of the equally exciting unpublished accounts subsequently found their way into Confounding The Reich and The Reich Intruders, which appeared in 1996 and 1997 respectively. Even so, some Mosquito men’s stories have had to wait in the wings, while much new material, equally worthy of inclusion, has also appeared. I have tried therefore to incorporate these accounts, and as much of the original work as possible, in this new edition for the new millenium, although some stories have not been carried forward. This Special Breed and On Ops which featured the magnificent account by John Clark, have since been included in One Man’s War, which was published by his widow, Ann Solberg Clark and is highly recommended. Since Confounding the Reich covers the history of 100 Group in some detail, the original chapter about Night Intruders has been replaced by two superb accounts of intruder ops in 100 Group, which could not be included in part or in whole in the original edition. I am delighted to be able to include Ralph Wood’s magnificent collection of ops entries, which he featured as part of his privately published account; My Lucky Number was 77. Equally, I am pleased to be able to include excerpts from Across the Common at Godmanchester by the late Bill Ball, which covers his period as a navigator on 571 Squadron, and Tommy Broom’s magnificent account of his ‘Mossie’ crash and subsequent adventures in Belgium. This story first appeared in an edition of The Marker, which unfortunately has been discontinued now that the ranks of the pathfinders have diminished. I am pleased to relate however, that the Mosquito Aircrew Association continues to flourish, with many new and often younger enthusiasts signing up on a regular basis. Sadly, many of the men who flew the Mosquito, and several who feature in both editions – George Parry, Joe Singleton and Harry Welham amongst others – have flown their last operations while others are in failing health. Age shall not weary them (at the time of writing Tommy Broom is eighty-nine) or their achievements, which I am honoured once again to feature here. Mosquito memories will never diminish and this tribute honours their kind cooperation and unstinting help as well as the fortitude and forbearance they revealed throughout those most difficult of operations during 1942 – 45.

Martin W. Bowman, Norwich, Norfolk, 2003

Chapter One

Wing Tips over the Wave Tops

Last night, aircraft of Bomber Command made a heavy attack on objectives in the Ruhr. ‘Large fires were seen on both banks of the Rhine,’ says an Air Ministry communiqué. ‘Aircraft of Fighter Command attacked enemy airfields and railways in France and the Low Countries. Six enemy aircraft were destroyed. One of our aircraft is missing.’

Each night, from 1939 until 1945, avid listeners huddled around their wireless sets and paused to hear the clipped tones of the British announcer on the BBC Home Service deliver his chilling rejoinder. Night after night. RAF bomber crews flew deep into Germany and the occupied territories of Europe. Each time their wives, girlfriends and families prayed it was not them that had ‘Bought it’ or ‘Gone for a Burton’, as it was termed in the idiom of the day.

Bomber crews had been flying night ops for as long as Peggy could remember. She had met Roy Dow, her Canadian pilot husband, on Saturday, 2 September 1939, at the Maison de Dance in Stockton-on-Tees when Roy, from Fort William, Ontario, was on a navigation course nearby. The date had been prophetic. Next morning, at 11.00 a.m. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain somberly announced that ‘Britain is now at war with Germany’. In the heady war-charged atmosphere of the time, Thomas Roy Asquith Dow and Virginia ‘Peggy’ Scott had enjoyed a whirlwind courtship, and despite little money (Roy was paid just £21 a month) and with death around every corner, they got married on 9 November. Roy whisked Peggy off in his Morgan Four-Four, painted British Racing Green, for a lightning fifty-six-hour honeymoon in her hometown of Newcastle, before rejoining his squadron at Thorney Island, Hampshire. He would fly forty-nine ops on Beauforts of Coastal Command and turn down a Group Captain post in Canada before finally being granted his greatest wish: he wanted to fly the Mosquito.

Most RAF pilots wanted to do the same, ever since that raw 15 November day in 1941, at the 2 (Fighter Bomber) Group airfield at Swanton Morley, Norfolk. For some time now, 105 Squadron observers at the large grass airfield had attended conversion training on a new W/T and the gunners had started navigation courses, all amid rumours of receiving a revolutionary type of aircraft built largely of wood, to replace the squadron’s outdated Blenheim IVs. 105 Squadron had flown its first operation on 7 – 8 November with a raid on Essen. After a short day-and-night bombing campaign the squadron had switched to suicidal anti-shipping strikes in the North Sea. Wing Commander H. I. ‘Hughie’ Edwards, the then CO, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery and leadership on an operation at roof-top height over Bremen on 4 July 1941. Operation Wreckage, as it was code-named, cost four crews, and Edwards landed back at Swanton Morley minus most of his port wing tip and with telephone wire wrapped around the tailwheel. During September and October, 105 Squadron flew anti-shipping operations from Malta. Losses were high. Returning to Swanton Morley, the surviving crews were due for a rest and in bad need of a morale boost. The arrival of the Mosquito provided it.

The grey and green shape approached the aerodrome from the north-west. First it flew over at about 500 feet, at a speed of some 300 mph; then it approached the Watch Office and hangar from the west and went into a vertical bank at a height of 2 – 3,000 feet before turning a circle so tight and at such a speed that vapour trails steamed from his wing tips. This was followed by a normal circuit and landing. Compared with the Blenheim IV 105 Squadron was used to, this performance was quite breathtaking.

The tall frame of Company Chief Test Pilot Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. emerged from the tiny cockpit of the ‘Wooden Wonder’ and he climbed down the ladder to be received like a conquering hero by Group Captain Battle OBE DFC, the station commander and Wing Commander Peter H. A. Simmons DFC, CO 105 Squadron, with his air and ground crews.

Among the gathered throng of seasoned pilots and their navigators at Swanton Morley on 15 November to admire the Mosquito’s ‘beautiful shape’ was Flight Lieutenant D. A. G. Parry, who, like his CO, was a veteran of two tours on Blenheims. He was always known as ‘George’ because, like the autopilot of the same name, he always came home! Parry had recently completed two tours and was ‘resting’ at 13 OTU at Bicester when he just happened to pick up the telephone and receive a call from Pete Simmons, who had been his ‘A’ Flight commander in 110 Squadron at Wattisham. Simmons had rung to enquire when he was getting some more pilots, adding ‘By the way George, I’m getting some fast aircraft. Do you want to come?’ Parry quickly turned down a posting to a squadron equipped with Bisleys going to North Africa and joined Simmons at Swanton Morley.

The CO’s promise of ‘fast aircraft’ had come true, although W4064 left almost as fast as it arrived. After lunch, Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. climbed back into the sleek Mosquito BIV and was joined by Simmons, who took the right-hand seat for a joyride with a difference. De Havilland Jr. treated his passenger, and the crews watching, to an exhilarating display of aerobatics. When they landed, Simmons was reported to be ‘. . . looking a bit green around the gills, but it did not stop him talking about it in the Officers’ Mess during lunch!’ (Simmons was later killed flying a Turkish Air Force Mosquito.) The sleek new bomber had to return next day to Hatfield, where the first of a paltry ten BIV bombers was coming off the production lines, for adjustments. Not until July 1941 had it been decided to build Mosquitos as bombers, and even then only converted photo-recce airframes. A further sixty Mosquito bombers were on order, but they would not start to arrive until the following February. For now, 105 Squadron had to make do with W4066, the first Mosquito bomber to enter RAF service, which arrived at Swanton Morley on 17 November watched by the AOC 2 Group, Air Vice Marshal d’Albiac and his staff; and three other BIVs: W4064, W4068 and W4071, all of which were delivered at intervals to Swanton Morley by Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. and Pat Fillingham.

George Parry and Flight Lieutenant Jack Houlston were sent to Boscombe Down to test-fly the prototype Mosquito and evaluate the aircraft for squadron service. Parry recalls:

There were no handling notes; only a few roneoed pages. On 25 November I flew W4057 for the first time, with Houlston in the right-hand seat. After the Blenheim the Mosquito was unbelievable. The maximum recommended speed was 420 mph indicated air speed, but at 20,000 feet this was equivalent to 520 mph. However, the short nacelles caused a bit of buffeting on the tailplane and it also felt tail-heavy. I had to use nose-down to get the aircraft on the deck. We found out why in the Mess. Geoffrey de Havilland was there having lunch. We went up to him and he asked us what we thought. We mentioned the problems with buffetting and he replied that the short nacelles caused it. They were going to lengthen them, he said. He looked nonplussed when I mentioned about it being tail-heavy. Then he exclaimed: ‘We put 1,000 lb of ballast in for the CoG, and I forgot to tell you!’

Swanton Morley’s grass airfield and unfinished state were proving unsuitable as a base for 105 Squadron and so, in early December 1941, they moved to Horsham St Faith, just outside Norwich. For George Parry and his fellow officers it meant a return to RAF-style barracks after the more palatial accommodation they had enjoyed at Bylaugh Hall, a large country mansion where they slept in large bedrooms with fifteen feet-high ceilings and a toilet mounted on a dais in the middle of the floor! On 27 December Flight Lieutenant Parry flew W4066 to an altitude of 30,000 feet. On 5 January he carried out fuel consumption tests in W4068 at a more sedate 10,000 feet.

Mosquito spares at this time were non-existent, although the squadron was expected to become fully operational with sixteen – eighteen crews and a dozen aircraft within a six-month period. At least the enterprising crews solved the question of spares, as ‘George’ Parry recalls:

Roy Maisey, Chief Engineer at de Havilland, lived with us. We piled all the old bits of aircraft into an Anson on 9 January 1942 and I flew it down to Hatfield with Houlston and two others, where we swapped them, with de Havilland’s permission, for brand-new parts. On another occasion I flew back with the aircraft filled with timber! Finally, the Air Ministry wrote and said, ‘The degree of serviceability of 105 Squadron is amazing’, and thereafter, spares schedules were issued and we had to abide by the rules!

Only eight Mosquitos had arrived at Horsham St Faith by mid-May 1942, but 2 Group was anxious to dispatch its new wonder aircraft on the first op as soon as possible. On 27 May it issued orders for 105 Squadron to prepare four Mosquitoes with bombs and cameras to harass and obtain photographic evidence in the wake of the ‘Thousand Bomber’ raid on Cologne, scheduled for the night of 30 – 31 May. Squadron Leader A.R. Oakeshott DFC, followed later by Pilot Officer W. E. Kennard and Pilot Officer E. R. Johnson, took off from Horsham before the ‘heavies’ had returned. Pilot Officer E. A. Costello-Bowen and Warrant Officer Tommy Broom and Flight Lieutenant J. E. Houlston and Flight Sergeant J. L. Armitage followed them, shortly before lunchtime the following day. Oakeshott flew at 24,000 feet over the battered and blasted city and added his four 500-lb bombs to the devastation; but with smoke reaching to 14,000 feet his F24 camera was rendered useless. Kennard failed to return, his aircraft being hit by anti-aircraft fire. Costello-Bowen and Houlston dropped their bombs from high-level into the smouldering and smoking ruins to prolong the night of misery for the inhabitants and bomb disposal teams, and headed back to Norfolk. In the late afternoon Squadron Leader R. J. Channer DFC took off from Horsham and flew in thick cloud to within sixty miles of Cologne, before diving down at almost 380 mph to low-level to take photographs of the damage. Channer quickly realized that this highly successful approach would be particularly effective for future Mosquito bombing operations.

On the evening of 1 June, two Mosquitoes returned to Cologne to bomb and reconnoitre the city. One of the aircraft failed to return. Then, just before dawn on 2 June, eighteen hours after a ‘Thousand Bomber’ raid on Essen, George Parry and his navigator, Flying Officer Victor Robson, flew a long two hour five minutes round-trip to Cologne carrying four 500-pounders to stoke up the fires and a camera to observe the damage. However, thick smoke made the latter task impossible. (Robson had come to 105 Squadron from Coastal Command and, according to his pilot, ‘At night [he] was like a homing pigeon. No matter how bad the weather, he always pinpointed exactly.’) The Mosquitoes were of course much faster than the ‘heavies’ were and, as Parry recalls, ‘We were back having breakfast in the Officers’ Mess while the heavies were still overhead, heading for home.’ His curiosity was taken by a Whitley which had aborted the raid with mechanical problems and was now taking off from Horsham, with its bomb load still aboard:

I looked out the window and thought, it’s not going to make it. It didn’t. He went off nose-down towards the Firs pub on the road at the far corner of the airfield, and piled into a garage forecourt the other side. Luckily, it didn’t explode. I rang the police and they cordoned off the area. Fortunately, the bombs did not go off.

In June the Mosquitoes of 105 Squadron continued their lone reconnaissance missions over Germany. On 8 June, 139 Squadron was formed at Horsham St Faith under the command of Wing Commander Peter Shand DFC, using crews and a few Mk IVs from 105 Squadron. One of the pilots transferred to 139 was Jack Houlston AFC, who was promoted to Squadron leader. Houlston flew 139 Squadron’s first op on 25 – 26 June, a low-level raid on the airfield at Stade, near Wilhelmshaven, and returned after dark just as bombers for the third in the series of ‘Thousand Bomber’ raids were taking off for Bremen. Two of 105 Squadron’s Mosquitoes flew reconnaissance over the city after the raid and four more went to reconnoitre other German cities to assess damage and bring back photographs.

On 2 July the first joint attack by 105 and 139 Squadron Mosquitoes took place when four aircraft from 105 Squadron carried out a low-level attack on the submarine yards at Flensburg and two Mosquitoes in 139 Squadron also bombed from high level. Group Captain J. C. MacDonald and Squadron Leader A. R. Oakeshott DFC failed to return. MacDonald was made POW, while Oakeshott and his observer, Flying Officer V. F. E. Treherne DFM, were killed. Houlston came off the target pursued by three Fw190s and two more fighters chased Flight Lieutenant G. P. Hughes after he had been hit by flak over the target. Both pilots made their exits hugging the wave tops, and applying plus 12lbs of boost, they easily outpaced their pursuers. On 11 July the Mosquitoes bombed Flensburg again, as a diversion for the heavies hitting Danzig. Pilot Officer Laston made it home with part of his fin blown away by flak, but Flight Lieutenant G. P. Hughes and Flying Officer T. A. Gabe were killed when their Mosquito crashed, possibly as a result of flying too low. Sergeant Peter W. R. Rowland, in DK296, borrowed from George Parry, flew so low that he hit a roof and returned to Horsham with pieces of chimney pot lodged in the nose. After he had landed Parry barked at Rowland, ‘I’m not lending you my aircraft again!’

High-level raids in clear skies were now the order of the day and during July the first 29 ‘Siren Raids’ were flown. These involved high-level dogleg routes across Germany at night, and were designed to disrupt the war workers and their families and ensure that they lost at least two hours’ sleep before their shifts the following day. Later that month came something different. George Parry was called into station commander Group Captain ‘Digger’ (later Air Chief Marshal Sir Wallace) Kyle’s office. ‘He asked if I would be willing to have a go at flying the first Mosquito diplomatic run to Stockholm, to deliver ciphers and mail for the British Embassy.’ Parry said he would. DK301 was duly painted overall pale grey and its national insignia and codes removed, while he and Robson caught the train to London to be briefed by Air Ministry and Foreign Office officials. Parry continues:

At the Air Ministry they explained to us what was happening, and then we went to the Foreign Office for their briefing. They said there would be a van coming to pick us up and take us to Liverpool Street. When the van arrived it was filled with about forty diplomatic sacks with labels clearly marked ‘British Embassy, Stockholm’. What security! I got the driver to roll them together to hide the labels, and ‘Robbie’ got in the back and I sat up front. At Liverpool Street Station I went and saw the stationmaster and persuaded him to give us a first-class compartment all to ourselves and to make sure we were locked in. Then I rang Horsham and asked for a car to meet us at Thorpe Station, to take the bags and us to the base. As far as I was aware there were codes and ciphers in the bags.

At Horsham the bags were locked in the HQ building overnight. Next morning, 4 August, ‘Robbie’ and I, wearing our Sidcot flying suits over civilian clothes, boarded our grey Mosquito now loaded with about a 1,000 lb of baggage roped together in the bomb bay and rear fuselage, and prepared to fly to Leuchars for the overwater flight to Sweden. Everyone had been told that we were doing a special test and would be away for forty-eight hours. One of the ground crew looked at our footwear and told me much later he had wondered why we were wearing black civilian shoes.

At Leuchars we rang the Foreign Office for the ‘OK’ to take off, but they could not apparently raise the Embassy in Stockholm. I had to get there before dark as we had no radio, IFF, or anything else; they had all been taken out to save weight and make room for the bags. After ringing again and getting no definite answer I finally decided I must take a chance and take off. We set off across the North Sea for Stockholm and arrived over Bromma Airport where I cut in in front of a Luftwaffe Ju52! We landed, and so did the Ju52. A whole load of Germans came out of the transport and were extremely excited about our Mosquito. We were armed with incendiary devices to set it on fire if necessary, but the Swedes marshalled the Germans into the terminal and locked them in a room. Then the British Embassy staff, tipped-off by the Swedes that we had arrived, drove up and loaded up their cars with the diplomatic bags. A twenty-four-hour guard by men in ‘civvies’ and armed with concealed revolvers was placed around the aircraft overnight.

We were taken to a large hotel in the middle of Stockholm, which overlooked a large lake. We had no money and were not allowed to buy anything but were taken out to dinner at a plush restaurant, where German Embassy staff and spies were pointed out to us by our hosts. We met a squadron leader who had been shot down in 1940 while flying Blenheims in 2 Group and had escaped after being taken prisoner by falling, unnoticed, out of the column he was in while being marched away to captivity and rolling into a ditch. He got as far as Stettin and got aboard a Swedish collier to Stockholm, where he gave himself up. He was an internee but was being looked after by the British Embassy. He wanted to get home. It was a bit tight and he would have to take turns on the oxygen mask, but I told him he could come home with us in the nose of our Mosquito. Next morning I started up one engine and all he had to do was nip in smartly, but the Swedes were not having it and they nabbed him! (He got back a year later.) On the way home we flew at 500 – 600 feet over the North Sea because of a weather front, and approaching Scotland two Hurricanes came out to intercept us. I had no IFF, so I opened up and left them behind and quickly landed at Leuchars. (Nine months later, BOAC received Mosquito airliners and flew the route regularly.)

On 25 August 1942 George Parry and Robbie Robson, Flight Lieutenant J. R. G. Roy Ralston DSO DFM and Flying Officer Sydney Clayton DFC DFM, were detailed to raid two electric power stations, and Flight Lieutenant E. A. Costello-Bowen and Flight Lieutenant Tommy J. Broom a switching station, at Brauweiler, near Cologne. The Mosquito flown by Costello-Bowen and Tommy Broom crashed in Belgium en route and it would be a month before their fate was known.

Meanwhile, on 19 September, six crews in 105 Squadron attempted the first daylight raid by Mosquitoes on Berlin, Sergeant N. Booth in DZ312, and Flight Sergeant Monaghan in DK336, were forced to return early, while Flight Lieutenant Roy Ralston and Flying Officer Sydney Clayton bombed Hamburg after finding Berlin covered by cloud. Flight Lieutenant George Parry and Flight Lieutenant Victor Robson, in DK339, were intercepted on two occasions by Fw190s as Parry was to recall: ‘I did a steep turn to get away and found myself turning towards the other, head-on. He had a squirt at me and got two hits. There was no real damage and I pulled up into the cloud. Unfortunately, the cloud soon ran out a mile later, but I got down on the sea and outran them.’ Parry jettisoned his bombs near Hamburg and turned for home, heading back across the north coast of Germany and into Holland. At 1,000 feet, just off the Dutch coast, two 109s attacked, but although one of them scored hits, Parry dropped down to sea level and soon outran them. Schwarmführer Oberfeldwebel Anton-Rudolf ‘Toni’ Piffer of 2nd Staffel/JG1 shot down Squadron Leader N. H. F. Messervy DFC and Pilot Officer F. Holland between Wesermünde and Stade, near Wilhelmshaven. Only Wing Commander C. R. K. Bools and Sergeant G. W. Jackson (both KIA 9 Oct 42), succeeded in bombing the ‘Big City’.

A few days later the expert low-level raiders in 105 Squadron were told to prepare for a long overwater mission which would be flown at heights of just 50 – 100 feet. George Parry, now a squadron leader DFC*, would lead, with ‘Robbie’ Robson as his navigator. The three other crews were Flight Lieutenant Pete W. T. Rowland and Flying Officer Dick Reilly, who would be Parry’s No. 2; Flying Officer Alec Bristow and Pilot Officer Bernard Marshall; and Flight Sergeant Gordon K. Carter and Sergeant William S. Young. Their target was the Gestapo HQ in Oslo. The Norwegian Government-in-Exile in London had been made aware by reports from the Norwegian Underground that morale in their Nazi-subjugated homeland was at a low ebb. They also learned that a rally of Hirdsmen (Norwegian Fascists) and Quislings would take place in the Norwegian capital between 25 – 26 September and it, therefore, seemed an ideal opportunity for the Mosquitoes to help restore national pride. As well as disrupting the parade, they were to bomb the Gestapo HQ between the Town Hall and the Royal Palace, which stands on a hill.

On 25 September the four Mosquitoes, their bomb bays empty, taxied out at Marham and took off for Leuchars in Scotland, where the operation came under the control of Wing Commander Hughie Edwards VC DFC. The raid would involve a round-trip of some 1,100 miles with an airtime of four hours forty-five minutes, the longest Mosquito mission thus far, the crews using dead reckoning along the entire route. George Parry recalls:

We refuelled and bombed-up with four eleven-second delayed-action 500-lb bombs and set off at low-level, fifty feet all the way, to Norway. It was like flying down a long, straight road and we were using dead reckoning throughout. We went through the Skaggerak, made landfall at the southern end of Oslo Fjord and flew up the eastern side. We flew up to a police radio station perched on a hill and I was told later I hit the flexible forty-five feet radio antenna, although it didn’t do any damage to my Mosquito. We had been briefed that there would be 10/10th cloud at 2,000 feet over Oslo, but it was a lovely day with blue sky. We had also been told there were no fighters to worry about, but the Germans had brought a squadron of Fw190s south from Stavanger for a flypast during the parade. They had landed at Fornebu and had only been on the ground a short time when we arrived at 3 p.m. over the centre of Oslo. A lookout at the southern end of Oslo Fjord reported us and they were scrambled. Two Fw190s got into the action. Fortunately, the rest did not get off in time.

The pilot of the leading German fighter was twenty-two-year-old Rudi Fenten, who had temporarily left his unit to train on and pick up the new Fw190 at Sola/Stavanger. Flying the other Fw190 was twenty-four-year-old Feldwebel Erich Klein of 3./JG5 based at Herdla near Bergen. Both pilots were very experienced; Fenten had been in the Luftwaffe since 1940, while Klein had joined it in 1937. Fenten at first thought that the twin-engined aircraft flying ahead of him in two pairs were part of the flypast. (The Mosquito was still top-secret and largely unknown to the German units). Then he realized they were too low and he chased after Carter’s Mosquito. Fenten recalls: ‘I could see the two men in the cockpit clearly, but I did not want to shoot them themselves. So I shot in the wing. I gave a signal for them to land but they shook their heads.’

Carter’s Mosquito had been hit in the port engine. It caught fire and Fenten followed until the aircraft blew up in front of him and crashed into the lake. Carter had not been on the squadron long. Parry adds:

Red tracer was going past me. Some of the Fw190’s shells hit the Royal Palace, although we were blamed for it at the time. I thought it was ground fire during our bomb run and didn’t realize he was after me until my No. 2 and No. 3 overtook me. I was concentrating on ‘buzzing’ the parade and taking a line south-west over the centre of Oslo for the bomb run. We were travelling at 280 – 300 mph when I dropped my bombs. The speed the bombs were going meant they more or less followed us. They didn’t drop but a few feet. Then they slowed down and hit. It was only after I had dropped my bombs that my navigator noticed a fighter was behind us. I opened up rapidly and shook him off by flying up the valleys at low-level.

Erich Klein, meanwhile, went after Pete Rowland and Dick Reilly. The two aircraft chased around the fir trees north of Oslo