Читать книгу Remembering D-day: Personal Histories of Everyday Heroes - Martin Bowman - Страница 57

214 Squadron Gunnery Leader, 100 Group, 22:50 5 June.

‘We were cruising on course at 30,000 feet, a brilliant moonlit night with 10/10ths cloud 5,000ft below, the vapour trails from each wing tip standing out for all to see. Inside the Fortress aircraft “N” with its crew of ten fully trained airmen all is silent; just the steady hum of the four engines can be heard. There was a click as the wireless operator Flight Lieutenant Bill Doy switched on his intercom and spoke. “Rear gunner, there is a U/I aircraft approaching very fast from the rear, I confirm that I have it in sight some 2,000 feet astern and approximately 800 feet below.” I brought it in by commentary – 1,200 feet, 1,000 feet – at 800 feet it started to disappear under the Fortress. I handed the commentary back to the W/O, who gave the skipper the order, “Corkscrew, starboard go!” On the word go, I fired one short burst blindly with both .5s fully depressed. The next second with the Fortress in a deep dive to starboard the attacking aircraft I now recognized as an Me 410. It was on my port quarter for a second. It appeared to just hang there with the glow of two cannons being fired. I fired two short bursts and also observed an accurate burst from the mid-upper turret. There was no doubt that the Me 410 was hit as I did see smoke. He then disappeared from my view and I did not see the aircraft again. The Me 410 was claimed destroyed.’

‘We practised during May using Lincoln cathedral as our target . . . and then on 5 June we took part in Operation Glimmer to simulate a naval attack on the Pas-de-Calais area in order to deceive the Germans into believing that the D-Day landings were there. . .’

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