May, 1945
One morning early in May 1945 I awoke late, after an ops the night before, and noticed on the way to the mess hall that the aircraft parking areas on the airdrome were occupied by about five times the number of Mosquitoes and Beaufighters. It was obvious that something big was in the works. The mess was filled with aircrew most of whom I didn't recognize. The wing Commander announced that all crews were to report to the ops room in one hour. When there we were told that German shipping had commenced a large scale evacuation from German and Danish seaports on the Baltic Sea to Sweden. We were told some of the vessels would probably be flying Red Cross flags, however all shipping was to be attacked and destroyed. We were given the names of airfields in the Netherlands which had been overrun by the allies where we could land for re-fuelling, re-armament, and emergency repairs.
Each squadron took off one after the other and formed up behind their wing leader. The flight across the North Sea was carried out at about 100' above the water to evade radar detection. We continued on across Denmark right down on the deck. I'm afraid a lot of cattle, chickens and other farm animals had a rough time that morning. The people came out to wave a warm welcome with towels, shirts, etc. They knew the Germans were in full retreat. Upon reaching the Baltic our Wing swung the squadron to the south towards the German coast.
It was a beautiful sunny day with great visibility. In a short while we came across a large armada of ships of all shapes and sizes. The Winco deployed the five flights of 254 squadron around to the rear of the group and after climbing to 1500' indicated to the flight leaders their specific targets. When we closed in on our prey and went into our dive we were met by a barrage of heavy antiaircraft fire. That day I was thankful I was flying a Beaufighter because one shell bounced off my 2" thick windscreen without shattering it. As there were so many ships we decided to only fire two rockets on each run and then rake the decks with cannon fire to silence the guns.
On our third run my starboard wingman was hit and he flipped over on his back and crashed into the sea. He was a good friend of mine, and I knew I would have to tell his fiancee when and if I got safely back to North Coates that Johnny was missing in action.
When our rockets and cannon ammunition was finished the squadron regrouped and headed for Utrech in Holland where we would land at an advanced RAF fighter station. For the next two days the operation was repeated with the result that at the end of the third day we didn't have one serviceable aircraft, except for the Mossies who provided the fighter cover for the shipping strikes. The German fighter squadrons were conspicuous by their absence. I had lost my port engine due to flak and had to baby the Beau back to our temporary base.
I remember Art calling to me when we first landed at Utrech "Look at those funny planes, they have no propellers". In fact they were Gloster Meteors, the first jet fighter in action with the RAF. Its operational use had been kept a top secret. The RAF fighter squadrons operated behind the allied troops as they moved through France, Belgium and Holland. Along the way they had collected a large quantity of Champagne to be held in reserve for the grand celebration when Germany surrendered. While waiting around for someone to cone to pick us up and take us back to North Coates we listened to some of the fighter boys' stories about their experiences on the continent.
Each squadron took off one after the other and formed up behind their wing leader. The flight across the North Sea was carried out at about 100' above the water to evade radar detection. We continued on across Denmark right down on the deck. I'm afraid a lot of cattle, chickens and other farm animals had a rough time that morning. The people came out to wave a warm welcome with towels, shirts, etc. They knew the Germans were in full retreat. Upon reaching the Baltic our Wing swung the squadron to the south towards the German coast.
It was a beautiful sunny day with great visibility. In a short while we came across a large armada of ships of all shapes and sizes. The Winco deployed the five flights of 254 squadron around to the rear of the group and after climbing to 1500' indicated to the flight leaders their specific targets. When we closed in on our prey and went into our dive we were met by a barrage of heavy antiaircraft fire. That day I was thankful I was flying a Beaufighter because one shell bounced off my 2" thick windscreen without shattering it. As there were so many ships we decided to only fire two rockets on each run and then rake the decks with cannon fire to silence the guns.
On our third run my starboard wingman was hit and he flipped over on his back and crashed into the sea. He was a good friend of mine, and I knew I would have to tell his fiancee when and if I got safely back to North Coates that Johnny was missing in action.
When our rockets and cannon ammunition was finished the squadron regrouped and headed for Utrech in Holland where we would land at an advanced RAF fighter station. For the next two days the operation was repeated with the result that at the end of the third day we didn't have one serviceable aircraft, except for the Mossies who provided the fighter cover for the shipping strikes. The German fighter squadrons were conspicuous by their absence. I had lost my port engine due to flak and had to baby the Beau back to our temporary base.
I remember Art calling to me when we first landed at Utrech "Look at those funny planes, they have no propellers". In fact they were Gloster Meteors, the first jet fighter in action with the RAF. Its operational use had been kept a top secret. The RAF fighter squadrons operated behind the allied troops as they moved through France, Belgium and Holland. Along the way they had collected a large quantity of Champagne to be held in reserve for the grand celebration when Germany surrendered. While waiting around for someone to cone to pick us up and take us back to North Coates we listened to some of the fighter boys' stories about their experiences on the continent.