Read Mosquito: Menacing the Reich: Combat Action in the Twin-engine Wooden Wonder of World War II for Free Online

coast with the Main Force being informed on VHF that the marker was 3 miles south of track. Shortly afterwards two more flares went down on the port side. At 22.17 radar bearings on Hamburg and Harburg confirmed that the aircraft was still 4 miles south of track plan and at 22.25 hours an alteration to port was made to reach the Great Lakes at 22.37 hours. At the Great Lakes the reception committee awaited. The lakes showed up so well on radar (despite German attempts to cover them to spoil radar definition) that most operations were routed to the lakes, leaving only a 10-minute run-in to Berlin. The Germans knew this and therefore used the lakes area as a marshalling point for fighters. Usually with a height advantage and with all the Mosquitoes streaming contrails, the night-fighters had a chance to intercept on the run-in to Berlin, when the pathfinder aircraft had to fly straight and level. Heads down and sweat it out, was the order of the day.
    On this occasion no night-fighters were seen but heavy ack-ack was predicted as always with remarkable accuracy and the ride was uncomfortable. The TIs were dropped at 22.45 hours, Main Force being advised as the drop took place; straight and level for the photograph and then a hard turn to starboard, nose down to reduce height to 22,000ft and the hard slog home against the wind. The home trek against a 65-knot headwind meant almost a full hour’s flying to reach the enemy coast. Gee was ineffective and pulses would only start to appear through the jamming when approaching the Zuider Zee; the route chosen was well clear of all large towns and H 2 S gave little or no hope for bearings. The moon was now well up and the cloud layer well below at around 12-15,000ft. Visibility was good and it was a question of DR navigation and wait for Gee and H 2 S to come back on line nearing the coast. It was remarkable how lonely it was at 22,000ft late at night with only the presence of your partner and the occasional brief comment between you to break the loneliness. The aircraft was going well and thoughts of bacon and eggs started to intrude and yet….
    About 10° east and north of Hanover began the feeling of unease. Nothing appeared to be wrong but the feeling persisted and indeed was getting stronger. A check of fuel, engine gauges, etc., showed nothing out of the ordinary and in desperation I told my pilot I was going to have a look backwards through the astrodome (the only way you could see aft in a Mosquito). Unlike daytime when you cannot see easily into sun, at night you cannot see easily down moon as this is the dark side of the sky. Also at night you usually do not see objects you look at directly, so the trick is to keep your head moving and hope to see from the periphery of your eyes. After a good look around and seeing nothing except our own contrails, I was about to sit down when suddenly my eye picked up something on the dark side to starboard. Once having seen something and just like radar, you can ‘wash’ it with your eyes and you can see it. And there it was, a singleengined aircraft, slightly down and off to the starboard side, converging slowly. As the distance between us decreased and with us aware, as the fighter turned towards us we made a steep diving turn to starboard, putting us now in the dark side of the sky. Tracer went over the top of the aircraft but no hits. The westerly course was resumed shortly afterwards and when the feeling of unease returned I needed no telling our friend was back, probably having carried out the same manoeuvre as us. This time, without waiting for a sighting, a second hard turn to starboard was made, flying on a reciprocal course back into Germany for 2 minutes before resuming our course homewards. No more unease and I was convinced he had given up. I have often wondered about this episode. When I do, I always remember how deeply superstitious most aircrew were, always wearing the same things and dressing in the same order and so on,