By Frank Reeve
People in story; The Air-Crew of LANCASTER ZN-"B" BAR
Location of story;-R.A.F; Station SYERSTON Nottinghamshire
12 hrs after landing back from our first trip we were recalled to be told that we would be going to see Berlin again and reminded that it called for 100% fittness of the Lancasters. My own check was more so with having a change of air-craft, with "A" having a new engine we had been given one from the reserves, a full inspection went well, except for slight oil leak on the hydraulic hand-pump which I called the Sgt fitter to check over the glands, a quick tighten and a sprinkle of saw-dust seemed to put matters right, but I was on the point of telling the skipper that I was considering grounding "B" Bar for repairs, but together we decided to go. At 1655hrs we taxied to assembly point awaiting the Green for Go, our full call sign caused a small joke, after using it several times B-BAR-BEARD began to sound like some bar-lambs were about. This time 170 Lancasters were being dispatched , but apart from the earlier snags there was a strange feeling about the trip that neither the Pilot or myself could explain what it might be. It was a brilliant moon-lit trip and as we passed over the Danish coast our friends below had marked out a message for us in the snow "Welcome RAF". As we flew on towards our target we could see the reception awaiting us, Flak, Flares and Fighters. Our markers had been carefullly dropped and we went into our bomding run on Red-Amber-Green, which placed us dead-on target. We saw several Lancasters hit on our way in, the "Bombs gone from our bomb aimer seemed to take twice as long to come. The Lancster lifted as we un-loaded, and we were flat out and heading for home. We flew out low over the German coast to cut-out any possible attack from below, but they had planned for this by putting a line of Gun-boats just out to sea. As we flew out low over the coast they opened fire with the guns depressed to hit the surface of sea which bounced the shells, giving them half a dozen chances of a lucky hit. All went well untill we neared our coast; an urgent divert order "land on air-fields nearest to London" dense fog in Lincolnshire. We changed direction to comply, which brought a challange from our own coastal guns and searchlights barring our path and waving us away from London. The situation became more serious when we heard warning squeakers that told us we were down amongst barrage ballon cables. Our radio operator was replying to a challange from the costal guns when an American operator cut into the channel to ask us if we were going to land? we said we would and were given permission to do so, our Pilot requested which run-way we had to use? to which he replied "OK fellas just land on the longest" A few mins later we put the Lancaster down, the moment the wheels touch down I knew we were in trouble. I shone the Aldis lamp through the side window to find that they had allowed us to land on a newly laid run-way and we were up to the wheel rims in wet concrete, by the time we had persuaded the Lancaster onto firm ground an armed guard was either side of the door and a fleet of Jeeps and dozens of cycles had surrouned us. But rules had to be carried out so we were driven to de-briefing and then to the Sgts Mess for hot rum and punch. To end my night my last task was to release the two carrier pidgeons to fly back to Syerston, we had to resort to a long rail journey home, but we did feel that something was going to be dfferent this trip. Myself I will always remember Hardwick. The rail journey was endless but we arrived back on camp late on Tuesday to learn the sad news that out of the 170 Lancasters that started the trip 19 failed to get back home, but this could have been a real disaster, the returning air-craft had been turned to London at the same time that the Germans came in for a reprisal raid. |
