cords, out of the blue and the silence came the most chilling of sounds – the sound of a single-engined fighter diving at my back. I had never felt fear such as surged through me at that instant. My hair did physically stand on end. I was yellow with fear. It must be a German Me109, for I was over Germany in broad daylight with our own lines still miles away to the west. To do good by stealth and to have it discovered by accident is said to be the height of fortune. I know not how to describe in similar words the opposite of that – the action of being, just once in a lifetime, brave as a lion but without an audience, aware that it can never be discovered and that relating it would possibly be lacking in credibility. This was my once in a lifetime chance to do something courageous, and there was no-one to applaud! I had no sooner felt that tremendous surge of real terror at the thought of being shot in the back, helpless to avoid it and unable to respond, than I decided that I was not going to end my days in that miserable fashion. If the pilot of this 109 was going to shoot me, suspended helpless on my straps and an easy target, then I was going to have a good look at him whilst he did it and I was going have the dubious satisfaction of being shot in the front, not the back. So I did the only brave thing I can remember ever doing. I reached above my head to the parachute cords which connected me to the 28 foot canopy billowing there, wrenched at them with both hands and pulled myself round to face the enemy. It was the most wonderful sight I had ever seen. There, climbing away in a gentle turn, was a little blue Spitfire with its RAF rondavels clearly visible and the hum of its Merlin engine no longer a threat. It was one of the fighter cover we had been promised for the raid, and I gave it a heartfelt wave as it climbed away, then settled down for the rest of the descent, thanking the good Lord for two things – I was still alive and my underpants were still scrupulously dry and clean.


I clearly remember the thoughts that passed through my mind in the next few calmer minutes. The first concern was to try to see what lay beneath me, the sort of terrain on which I would be obliged to make my landing. I was fluttering down above a typical Ruhr district scene of industrial works with their smoking chimneys and the streets of the built-up areas around them. I could see no open ground and I had to reconcile myself to a landing which might be on top of one of those chimneys, on the sloping roof of a steel mill or even in the waters of the Ruhr itself. Two other thoughts occurred to me. The first was that I was glad to have been promoted that very morning, for if I did ‘buy it’ on landing, my widow would get the pension attaching to my new rank. The other was that United Steels might, for old times sake, be inclined to be generous to my widow. Both pious hopes would have been misplaced. I doubt if my company could have done much more than express sympathy, for their pension arrangements were really quite good. Secondly, my elevation to the rank of Squadron Leader was


126


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164