Page 6 - Edward 'Ted' Cachart

Head on collision

2 /3 January, 1944; BERLIN:
nd
rd

Every available person on the station gave a hand in clearing the snow ready for the evening's
operation. Take-offs were able to begin 15 minutes before midnight with Fiskerton managing to get
12 aircraft airborne from the 13 detailed.

Canadian skipper Flying Officer Johnny Young (JB231) and crew in N-Nan were in the last wave
and on approaching the final turning point before the target were made well aware of the presence
of night fighters by the lanes of flares in the sky. For the first time, the ‘Fishpond’ radar screen was
functioning well and Ted Cachart the Wireless Operator/Air Gunner reported a large number of
‘blips’ reflected from the aircraft below them, a number of these were heading in the direction of
the final turning point but with the majority heading towards the target.

Up in the top turret sat Allan 'Spud' Mahony (survivor of the FIDO crash in Nov 43) keeping a
watchful eye out for fighters as many combats had already been sighted. He had requested the
pilot to gently roll the Lancaster so as to give the gunners some vertical vision.

Allan recalls what happened next:

ʻWe were skimming through hazy cloud... the pilot had just lowered the starboard wing when in a
split second I saw another Lancaster heading straight towards us and before I could yell a
warning, the on-coming Lancaster's cockpit struck our aircraft's starboard wing between the two
engines’.