Evening star., 1941-06-15

I must have got the rear gunner fo
he stopped firing and the right-han
engine started to smoke.
I drew off but followed him becaus
they sometimes fake a mortal hit. Sur
enough he flattened out at 1000 fee
and scooted for home. I attacked
third time and fired a 2-second burs
from my eight guns. His other engin
stopped and he turned over and droppe
into the marshes landing with his wheel
up.
I found out later that the pilot wa
badly wounded and the three othe
members of the crew we're dead. Mean
while the c. o. had disabled his bombe
before his Hurricane ran out of am
munition.
Met go Hun Bombers.
That night Croydon was bombed anc
we moved to the north of the city. Mex
day was the first show our squadron
went on as a unit. We went on oul
first patrol shortly after 4 am. anc
did three more patrols before we knocked
off at o'clock that night, but we didn't
meet a Hun Much of our work had
been flying protective patrols while other
squadrons were down on the ground re-
fuelling and rearming.
Two days later we ran into our frs,
fight and it was big one. We came
up over London and met more than 81
German bombers over the Estuary. 1t
was certainly an awful and awe e-inspir-
ing sight to see those ugly black bombers
in rank after rank, stepped up in layers
with the lowest layer foremost.
We flew right into them with all guns
blazing and broke up their formation
l think our score was four destroyed
for certain and three or four most cer-
tainly damaged and perhaps destroyed.
We were outnumbered five to one,
and had some losses ourselves. Flying
Officer Leslie Edwards of Toronto was
fatally wounded and Flight Lieut.. Jean
Paul Desloges of Ottawa and were
shot down. We were not wounded and
landed safely. Our aircraft were soon
back in service again.
Flight 1t. Hartland Nelson of Mont
real was in a bad spot for a minute on
that day. Edwards, Desloges and I
we're in the first section of three planes
and naturally bore the brunt of the
enemy's fire in the first moment of COL
hslon. Nelson flew along behind us
and the first thing We knew he was
right In the very middle of those so
German bombers. There were bombers
below him and bombers in front. behind
and on either side. They were as much
surprised as he was and hadn't the
Wit to fire at him. He shot out of the
top OF that formation as fast as the
Hurricane would take him.
Speaking of formations, Squadron
Leader Gordie Mcohegor of Montreal
mad his own trouble one day. Some
times 109s look very much like Hurri-
canes. Gordie was leading his Hurri-
canes and saw what looked like two
more of them loafing along higher I'D.
He waggled his wings to signal them
to join the formation and promptly put
them out of mind. A second or so later
large pieces of his wings disappeared
and bullets cut a little track across the
fuselage. The "stragglers" were 1O9s
and had swung in on his tail. He played
regular Annie Laurie on his rudder
bars before he managed to shake them
of. When he got back he found a can
ION shell had just about taken one wing
III. Large pieces of airplane flying about
he sky can be very dangerous to others
is well.
One mlsStep of mine almost cost me
1early. 1 was concentrating on a 100
,rylng to shoot it down and forgot to
ook behind me, with the result that
another got on my tail Little Pete"
Peterson, an Alberta boy, saw it in a
lash and hightailed to my assistance.
didn't know anything about it until
ater, but Pete came in too fast and was
within so feet of the 100 when he let 90
Nth his eight guns
The German aircraft simply disinte-
rated In front of him and he flew right
hrough the wreckage. His Hurricane
7as a wreck. Pieces of the 109 smashed
!. The heavy windscreen in front of
us face was smashed and so was the
ockplt cover. 1t was a wonder his air
lane stayed in the sky, but he limped
ONE somehow and made landing.
He crawled from the cockpit with his
ace red mask. His eyes were streaming
18th water. The medical officer grabbed
is hands so that he could not rub his
yes. The medical officer said later he
ad taken a couple of teaspoonfuls of
lass fragments from Pete's eyes. 1t must
ave required extraordinary will power
,r him to keep from hubbing his eyes
uring his painful flight home from an
ltitude of more than 10000 feet. Peter
IN was fatally wounded a couple of
eeks after he had returned to flying
lty.
1905 on Way Home.
A little later we ran into a large
umber of 109s a little higher than
1000 feet. Their formation broke I'D
nder the impact and the squadron pur-
led them individually. tried to rally
le squadron around me again but could
lily collect Dal Russell, the Montrealer,
I'd Flying Officer Norris from Saska-
on. We climbed back toward London.