8/3/2023 0 Comments Bomber crew save location![]() ![]() “There was at no time any suggestion of panic and this was largely due to the coolness and perfect calm of our captain.” “The navigator told us we were approximately on the French border. “During this time the captain asked the navigator to inform the crew of our position for the purpose of escape,” MacKinnon reported later. But the maneuver amounted to a trade-off-the fire didn’t reach the crew but they were losing altitude fast. Watson, at 21 among the eldest aboard and flying his 16th mission, side-slipped the big, lumbering plane to keep the flames at bay. The fire extinguisher system had no effect. Within 30 seconds, the wing and engine were burning. Hayes described his pilot’s response to his evasive directions as magnificent but still the Lanc was hit in the starboard inner engine. VAC Watson began corkscrewing as the attacking aircraft came closing in again from 350 metres. From his vantage point atop the Lanc, Hayes couldn’t see their attackers’ approaches and had to make his calls based on the tracers arcing past his canopy. They were essentially flying blind, however. With MacKinnon out of commission, Hayes directed the pilot’s evasive actions. Roy Clive Eames, flight engineer, said the initial attack had also penetrated the plane’s nose and knocked out its aileron and rear controls. The rear gunner, RCAF Flight Sergeant Murdock MacKinnon-a Cape Breton native living in Somerville, Massachusetts, when he signed up-later reported that his radio and turret were knocked out. The crew could hear the thuds as the German rounds hit the rear of the aircraft and they saw flashes as the port elevator badly buckled. “The aircraft was equipped with H2S radar equipment which transmits pulses and the crew and Intelligence were not aware at the time that the Germans were able to home in on the signal.” “The attack was a complete surprise, there was no moon, just complete darkness,” recalled Ron Hayes, the bomber’s mid-upper gunner. and they were a little south of Strasbourg, France. Suddenly, they were attacked from dead astern and below by three Junkers Ju-88 night fighters. The seven-member crew-three RAF, four RCAF-were at 17,000 feet as they approached the turning point, 30 minutes out, for their final run into the target. R-ND would never reach its target, but Watson’s heroic actions that black night over occupied territory would inspire an unsuccessful campaign to award him a posthumous Victoria Cross. It was the night of April 27-28, 1944, and Lancaster R-ND 781/G of 622 Squadron, Royal Air Force, piloted by Flight Lieutenant James Andrew Watson of Hamilton, Ont., was on a bombing mission to Friedrichshafen, Germany. Robert Taylor/The Military Gallery, California, in association with Wings Fine Arts ![]()
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