Page 20 - John George Blair

Extract from “Night Air War” by Theo Boiten

On 15 August 1944, Squadron Leader Charles Sherring DFC flew as 97 Squadron’s
Gunnery Controller on board a Lancaster captained by Wing Commander
Woodroffe. He tells about his 45 trip with Bomber Command as follows:-
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“The programme was a combined blitz by the Americans and all Bomber Command
on German night fighter aerodromes, about twenty of them all told, with about 100
bombers to each. Our target was Deelen aerodrome, just west of the Rhine near
Arnhem. It was the loveliest day for flying I could have ever imagined. There wasn’t
a cloud in the sky and you could see as far as the horizon.
We formed our own lot up between Grantham and Coningsby and then went across
the Wash past Wells to Cromer, where the rest of our show joined us. We headed
straight out towards Holland at 18000 feet. Halfway across you could clearly see
England and Holland at the same time. We went in close to Ijmuiden, north of
Rotterdam, and then south of the Zuyder Zee, and passed an aerodrome that had
just been bombed by 6 Group – smoke was up to 12000 or 14000 feet and it looked
an awful shambles below. We were eleven minutes late, as Woodroffe was quite
inexperienced at leading. There were about thirty or forty heavy guns firing from the
aerodrome, which you could see quite clearly from some way away, runways,
buildings and all. Then we started our bombing run. The aircraft next to us to port
got a direct hit and blew up in the air. It just disintegrated completely before it even
began to fall. I’m afraid there was no chance of survivors. The flak was being pretty
accurate and then our bombs started to go off. We were carrying maximum load –
fourteen 1000lb and one 500lb, and the result below from 100 aircraft was
staggering. All the bombs were on the aerodrome, which just disappeared in a cloud
of dust and smoke, and a great column of smoke came up to nearly our height. As
we turned for home you could see far into Germany, no haze and no cloud, and here
and there a great pillar of black smoke where another aerodrome had just been
bombed. There had been a fighter patrol over all the aerodromes for the morning to
prevent any of the night fighters taking off. The damage must have been appalling.
Lindsay, who was flying the other side of the aircraft which had blown up, closed in
next to us. Before we were clear of the target area he got a direct hit on his two
starboard engines. He got the fire under control but lost half his height and a lot of
speed. He kept calling up for fighter support, which went to him and kept with him.
He kept going down on two engines till finally he was at 2000 feet trying to clear the
coast, where he was hit again by light flak and another engine went. He lost more
height and came down in the sea ten miles off Holland (Ijmuiden). We left the
formation to go on, its own and went back to Lindsay. The fighters were circling
round them. We gave out wireless fixes and so on, and finally beat them up at really
low level. The aircraft tail was still afloat and he and all his crew were near it in their
dinghy, all looking really miserable. We left them as the fighters turned for home as
well, and turned back over the sea.
Lindsay got an immediate DFC. The ASR people got going and picked him up from
within ten miles of Ijmuiden, and that same evening he was back in England. We
passed one speed launch going out as we came back. They kept a fighter patrol
over him till all was okay.”