Before I knew it, we were cruising across the pond towards the enemy lines. German radar had become a serious threat, we couldn’t go around it since they all but lined the coastlines, and neither could we fly over the Normandy beachhead because of course the Germans were always watching it. The only option we had left was to trick it, or rather fly under it. Much to the dismay of our newest members of the squadron, under the radar meant flying in at just twenty feet above sea level, so low you had to pull up a little every now and then to avoid a large wave or fishing boat.
We scarred the life out of a few weekend pleasure sailors who dived off the boat thinking we were making a gun run only for us to dodge them at the very last second. When they dived into the water that got a chuckle out of Peter and me. It was a refreshing distraction from the potential dangers that could have been lurking above us.
It only took a few minutes before the coast was in sight, it was a truly beautiful day to visit the beach but these days you didn’t see too many families enjoying the sunshine.
“Rabbit leader to Rabbit flight,” Percy announced. “Radio silence is now over, climb to angels three and stay on this bearing for ten miles.”
Peter let out a sigh of relief.” Thank the heavens that’s over. Crossing the pond is the worst bit if you ask me.”
I frowned. “Worse than when they start shooting at us?”
“Well, you know what’s coming, while we’re out there, anything can happen.”
We all followed Percy as he crossed the coastline and started climbing. We entered France just north of Dieppe, so the chances were good that German observers had spotted us by now. We used the ten miles ahead to climb to three thousand feet, then turned north to throw off any observers that might have spotted us.
“Shouldn’t we be higher?” Jenkins asked. “Krauts have a lot of room to dive on us this low.”
“Can’t see Jerry’s V1’s any higher,” I replied. “Cheeky buggers like to hide-”
“ROCKETS!” Nelson yelled. “V1 Rockets on the right!”
Peter pushed himself up halfway out of his seat to look out the canopy.
“What are you on about we’re still thirty miles out from the target!” Percy barked back.
“No, he’s right skipper,” Peter replied. “Four, no five launchers off the starboard side, three of them have rockets loaded I think they’re preparing to launch!”
I dipped the wing to get a better look, and sure enough, I spotted them. The ramps were hard to miss if you knew what you were looking for, the damn things were one hundred sixty feet long. the ramps were sitting in a small cluster of trees poking out over an open field where a handful of transport trucks and anti-aircraft guns were scattered around.
“Well let’s get after them then!” Jenkins yelled excitedly. “I’m itching for some action.”
“Hold on, this isn’t our target,” I said.
“Our orders were to neutralize a V1 rocket sight!” Jenkins argued. “And that right there sure looks like a V1 sight to me!”
“I don’t see the harm Rabbit one!” Nelson added. “The sooner we drop our bombs the sooner we get home.”
“There’s a rather large amount of harm, Jerry loves nothing more than to patrol the seafront. I don’t know about you but I don’t fancy getting shot up by some cheeky fighters!”
“Cut the chatter all of you!” Percy barked. “Rabbit one is right, enemy fighter patrols are frequent in this sector. We’ll have been spotted on the way in and no doubt Jerry is on his way as we speak.”
Peter made an exaggerated point of rubbing his brow. I lent back in my seat and relaxed until Percy kept talking.
“Which is why we need to do this fast! Rabbit two, stick on my wing we’ll pull flack while Rabbit one and three make their run.”
Peter grit his teeth but I couldn’t contain myself. “Damn it, Percy! I know you’re angry but-”
“Rabbit one that was direct order and you will bloody well follow it!”
Peter and I shared a look. “Rabbit, one understood.” I sighed.
Before I finished Percy and Jenkins had already broken off and begun their run.
“I don’t like this skipper.” Peter groaned. “He’s going to get us all killed!”
“Not if we stick to the plan, one run nice and fast!” I keyed the radio. “Rabbit three arm your bombs and stick close.”
“Roger!” Nelson replied.
I pulled the plane into a right-hand-turning dive. You can’t put the mozzie’s nose straight down or she’ll stall, so we had to do a roll into the dive whenever possible. I steered us away from the target, we needed to get ourselves low while Percy and Jenkins charged in and pulled flack. I pulled back on the throttle as Peter went through the process of arming our weapons. First, he turned on our reflector gunsight, then hit the safety on the guns, he had just opened the bomb panels when I pulled us out of the dive. The forces of G pulled us back into our seats, we both clenched our stomachs to keep our lunch down then I brought us around to face the target.
We were no more than fifty feet off the ground now, I pushed the throttles all the way forward, gaining as much speed as possible. The engines roared as I increased power and I watched the instrument panel as our machines reached three hundred and sixty miles per hour. Then A quick look over my shoulder was enough to confirm Nelson was still there following close behind.
“Rabbit three, drop your bombs the second you see ours alright?”
“Copy skipper!” He replied.
“Here we go!” Peter mumbled.
Percy and Jenkins charged towards the earth in a screaming dive, they must have been going four hundred miles per hour when the German guns opened up. Streams of green Tracer shells came streaming up towards them. Undeterred they opened their bomb bay doors ready to release but at the last second pulled up and charged over the rocket sight.
The Germans had arranged the four rocket tracks in two staggered groups, that way it was much harder for us to hit them all in one go, three of them had rockets sitting on the tracks ready to go the two closest to us made the perfect targets. Just eight seconds after Percy and Jenkins pulled out of their dive, we were on them. The German anti-aircraft guns were still tracking our lead element and had no time to line up on us.
“Now!” I yelled
Two five-hundred-pound bombs from both mine and Nelson’s machines dropped from our planes and came down on the German rockets. We charged out of there at full speed. I pulled back on the stick as tracer fire roared past the canopy, we were too far and too fast for them to hit us but more importantly I needed to see how effective our run was. Our bombs were fitted with eleven-second fuses, it sounds like a lot, but these are very large bombs, and the V1s were even bigger.
The explosions were glorious, first, you had the already impressive explosions from our bombs that were dwarfed by the blast from the rockets going up. The launch ramps shattered like glass, and pieces of them went flying in all directions a dozen trees collapsed around the site and panicked and wounded soldiers dived for cover wherever they could find it.
“Rabbit one good hits! I repeat good hits!” I declared, “we’re coming around to cover your run now commander!”
“Roger make it fast we’re coming in hot!” Percy answered.
Now it was our turn to run at the flack guns. Whichever guns were still standing were definitely tracking us now, but we had speed on our side. Nelson and I pulled up to one hundred feet as we turned in, engines still at full throttle, the Mosquitos hummed as they gained speed. I spotted a German anti-aircraft gun turning towards us, and with an ounce of pressure on my rudder pedals, brought the gunsight right on him.
“Hold it down!” Peter barked.
Trusting my navigator, I squeezed off a burst into the gunner. Almost immediately the flak gun was engulfed in tracer from our cannons, the steel armoured frame stood no chance, after just a second it exploded as our rounds detonated the ammunition, as Peter commanded, I kept my finger on the trigger as we pulled the nose up, sending a stream of cannon fire into a German fuel truck a few feet away from the gun. The truck went up in a fireball so large I had to yank the stick all the way back to avoid flying into it. Beside us, Nelson made quick work of a German machinegun nest and even managed to get a burst into another flack gun before he pulled out.
“Bloody hell!” Peter barked.
I laughed more out of relief than joy. “Rabbit leader, you’re all clear!”
“Roger that rabbit one!” Percy replied.
As Nelson and I levelled out I looked over my shoulder to see Percy and Jenkins running in for the remaining launchers. This time I noticed the Germans had spread the launchers slightly, meaning again a single aircraft wouldn’t be able to hit both of them in one pass. Percy took the furthest launcher, the one without a rocket on board and dropped his bombs perfectly. I watched as both his five hundred-pounders landed directly beneath the launch ramp.
“Rabbit two your bomb bay-” Peter started but was too late.
As Jenkins ran in, his bomb bay doors were still closed. When he hit the bomb release nothing happened.
“Shit!” Jenkins barked as they passed over the target.
Percy’s bombs detonated. The centre of the launch ramp exploded, and the two ends fell inwards as pieces of their supports went flying in all directions. The second ramp, however, was undamaged, as was its rocket.
“Damn it!” Jenkins barked. “Sorry skipper forgot to hit the release”
“Jenkins you blithering idiot!” Percy shouted.
“Three out of four isn’t bad!” Nelson offered.
I remained silent, we’d been here too long already, my eyes were searching the sky, looking for contrails or flashes of metal.
“Then you can tell that to the family that will be buried by that bloody missile!” Percy snapped. “Rabbit flight form up we’re running in for a second pass.”
“You can’t be serious!” Peter yelled.
“Percy no!” I growled. “It’s too dangerous! Jerry will be on us any second!”
“Then fuck off home you useless coward.” Percy snarled. “Jenkins get those doors open and follow me.”
“Roger that…” Jenkins replied and we all watched as the two mosquitoes began a long banking turn towards the rocket track.
“Uhm, Rabbit one… what are we going to do?” Nelson asked.
I looked back at my navigator, my intentions clear. He let out a long-pained sigh and leant back in his seat.
“Fine, but if you get us killed, I’m going to be bloody-woah!”
I pulled the plane around hard, throwing the Mosquito in a violent rolling dive back towards the launch site. Jenkins and Percy were ahead of us, going in for a low-altitude run on the last launcher. Percy led the charge, going in full throttle, he let loose with his guns on a cluster of German trucks, sending them all up in flames, while Jenkins lined up for his bomb drop
“THERE!” Peter pointed across the canopy.
By some miracle, I spotted it. The last AA gun that Nelson had strafed was turning towards Jenkins’s aircraft.
“Oh no you don’t!” I barked.
I held the gun sight just above the target and let loose another long burst from our machine guns. The Germans managed to fire three rounds from their autocannon before our tracers rained down on them. The cannon shells streaked across the sky, catching Jenkins’s bird in the tail, but the plucky American kept control as he released his bombs.
“Rabbit two, bombs away!”
I once again threw the old girl into a nasty high G turn to avoid Jenkins bombs. The weapons landed just short of the rocket, as I came around, I was greeted by the fireball of the V1 going up ad all but shredding everything around it, I reckoned about a quarter acre of trees collapsed from the blast.
“Bloody good show!” Peter yelled.
“Good job yank” I congratulated. “Looked like you took some shells from that ack-ack gun, how’s your plane?”
There was a brief pause as Jenkins checked over his gauges, I formed up off his wing and gave his craft a quick once over, aside from a few holes it seemed in good shape.
“Everything looks fine up here.” The American confirmed.
“Rabbit leader to Rabbit flight, good show you lot.” Percy congratulated. “That’s three V1’s that aren’t going to be hurting anyone now.”
Peter and I shared a quick thumbs-up as we both took a breath and relaxed. As Percy gave us our next instructions I leaned back in my seat and pulled off my mask.
“Right, let’s head for home, turn to heading three one zero and let’s get home, that’s about enough excitement for me.”
“Yeeha!” Jenkins yelled over the radio. “I had my doubts about flying with limeys, but you know what? You guys ain’t so-”
There was a terrifying sound of splintering wood and breaking metal, a stream of tracers cut across Jenkins’s aircraft from above and behind.
“Break!” I yelled. And all four of us split apart.
I pulled into a crushing left-hand turn, Jenkins went right and I lost sight of Nelson in the fray. Just as we turned, I saw it. A small single-engine aircraft. It was painted grey, with square wingtips marked with that dreadful black cross.
“He’s on Jenkins!” Peter yelled. “Reverse, reverse!”
I snapped the plane back to the right, Jenkins held his gruelling turn but the German was keeping pace, hanging just behind him trying to pull his nose up in front of the American plane.
“He’s on me!” Jenkins yelled.
“I’m on him,” I replied.
I pushed the throttles all the way forward as I went into the chase. Jenkins’s left engine was trailing black smoke and he was losing speed, he couldn’t maintain that turn much longer.
“Where’s the wingman!” Percy barked.
Under the pressure of the G forces, neither I nor Peter could respond. The German hadn’t spotted us yet, I guessed he was lacking in experience, a better pilot would have taken us or Nelson out first. He was determined though, the eager pilot was glued to Jenkins’s tail, he let off another burst from his machine guns, and a few rounds ran across the Mosquitos fuselage.
“Jenkins break left now!” I barked.
“Agh! All right, just don’t screw this up!” the American growled.
Jenkins’s plane suddenly broke to the left, the German didn’t hesitate, he rolled his plane around and began to pull lead once more, but with his machine giving us a flush profile, he made a perfect target. I held down the trigger, the mosquito rattled and shook something awful under the weight of all eight guns firing at once but I raked the German from nose to tail with machinegun and cannon fire. The Germans engine caught immediately, a raging inferno pooled around his cockpit and the Focke went straight down into the trees below.
“Good kill Rabbit one…” Jenkins croaked.
The tone of his voice set off alarm bells in my mind, he sounded tired, too tired.
“Rabbit two, Jenkins! You alright old boy?”
“I’m fine… my navigator Wilcock brought the farm… took a bit of shrapnel too. I just need to…” Jenkins cut out. His plane continued in its turn and I caught a brief glimpse of both him and his navigator slouched forward over the controls.
“Pull up Jenkins!” I yelled. “Pull up!”
But I was too late, the shredded mosquito continued its death dive and disappeared into a fireball on the ground.
“Damn it!” Peter yelled.
“Rabbit one-” Percy started. “Ginger on your tail!”
I didn’t bother looking over my shoulder, I pushed the nose down, just in time to see a stream of tracer rounds go over the top of our canopy.
“Ginger!” Nelson barked. “I’m on him, break-”
I didn’t wait for his next instruction the German plane was on us. I rolled the plane to the left and just as I began the turn reversed to the right. For just a second I caught a glimpse of the yellow nose off my left wing as the Focke struggled to follow the turn. Almost immediately I heard screaming, I looked forward to see Nelson charging towards us, his guns blazing. I reversed the stick and pulled the plane into a crushing barrel roll, going around and over Nelson’s plane. It was a stupid manoeuvre, one that could have stalled and killed us but it worked. Nelson shot straight under us and the German fighter broke off our tail.
Our engines sputtered and stalled, I immediately dropped the flaps and rolled the machine back over, a second later the engines restarted, but our speed had dropped too low to turn. Luckily for us, the German had found himself a more appealing target, he’d broken off of s and was now pulling into Nelson. Our youngest pilot had accepted the challenge and was trying to pull in towards the Focke, but the German was already on him, lining up for an easy shot.
“Nelson don’t!” I screamed but Percy beat me to the punch.
“Oh no you don’t!” Our flight leader bellowed.
Percy’s plane came charging in, his nose ablaze as he let loose with all four cannons and machine guns, creating a devastating onslaught of gunfire that nothing could survive. His rounds cut the left wing of the German fighter and sent it plummeting into the ground. But of course, the victory was short-lived, charging from behind Percy’s machine, were another two Fockes. Nelson, Peter and I all yelled together but we were too late, the Two fighters opened fire, Percy’s left engine went up in flames, his tail was all but ripped away and his plane broke into an uncontrollable spin, too low to bail out, I watched as my best friend plummeted to the earth below.
“No!” I pulled hard on the stick, bringing the plane around but the two German fighters were already splitting up, one of them went straight up while the other turned in pursuit of Nelson.
“Ginger!” Peter yelled. “Ginger let him go, we’ve got to get out of here!”
With Tears in my eyes and gritted teeth, I pushed the nose down to gain speed and then pulled up in pursuit of the last German fighter. The cheeky bugger had completed a full loop and was coming straight down at us.
“Ginger don’t!” Percy yelled but I already had the German in my sight.
We both fired at the same time, Tracer shells passed between the two planes, and the German’s guns hit home, racking our right wing with bullets but our mosquitos had twice the guns, and all of mine went straight into his engine. It took only a second for the German fighter to catch, I pulled up hard to avoid his burning plane as the smaller fighter zoomed under us. I levelled out our machine and we assessed the damage. The left side of the plane was fine, the right-wing however was riddled with holes.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
“Fuel leak,” Peter said. “Good job we’re close to home, though I doubt we’ll make it back to base.
“That’s fine we’ll head to Manston,” I said, then my eyes went wide. “Shit Nelson!”
We both pushed up out of our seats, franticly checking the skies around us.
“Ginger!” Nelson cried. “He’s on me I- I can’t shake him!”
“Rabbit two, where are you!”
“Four o’clock low!” Peter yelled. “Jesus’ skipper he’s right on him!”
Without hesitation, I dipped our wing and rolled into the dive. I spotted a burst of tracers and followed it to see Nelson, franticly trying to dodge from side to side, with the last Focke directly on his tail, no more than two hundred yards behind him.
“Hold on we’re coming!” Peter yelled.
Our turn put us directly in front and above the two planes, I couldn’t risk a direct shot, so I fired a burst straight over the top of the German plane. The Focke spotted us at the last second, he pulled up to try and take a shot but we passed too quickly.
“Nelson run for it!” I barked as we pulled around.
The German plane looped over and started to dive on Nelson again.
“He’s too fast!” Peter yelled.
“We’re faster,” I countered.
One final time I pumped the throttles all the way forward as we completed our turn. Using our height advantage to gather speed we were on the Focke within seconds. We had the perfect shot, I pulled the gunsight over the German machine, pressed the trigger, and nothing happened.
“Shit!” I cursed.
“We’re empty!” Peter yelled. “Nelson, get low and get out of there man!”
Nelson pushed his nose down, but the German was already on him and closing fast. There wasn’t any time, we were still higher than both of them, still on the tail of the Focke-Wulf but with no ammunition, there was nothing we could do. I thought of Nelson, I thought of the photograph of his sweetheart waiting for him back home and I smiled, I didn’t have anyone waiting for me anymore, except for my mother. Peter wasn’t much better off either.
“Peter…” I said. “I’m sorry.”
He gave me a desperate look. “What are you…” His eyes went wide. “No, no, no, no!”
I pushed the nose down, and we came in even faster now, too fast even, we skimmed right over the top of the German, so close our propellor almost cut his tail off, then I ripped the stick to the side and then back all the way into my stomach, I pulled so hard I bent the damn thing. The plane lurched and shuddered under the strain, the engines whaled in protest. We dropped a hundred miles per hour in a second, I looked back over my shoulder, Nelson was speeding away across the channel and then the swirling nose of the German was right on us, his cannons flashed and our left engine caught fire.
“Damn, you Ginger you bastard!” Peter yelled as bullets tore through our plane, our left wing was shredded, pieces of wood and metal splinted through the cockpit the windscreen shattered as I struggled to pull the plane out of its death dive but the trees were rushing up at us, I screamed as we cleared the first peak but then the German hit us again, the plane broke into a horrifying death spin, I saw our own tail flash in front of us as the German plane roared overhead, the grassy field came flashing up towards us then there was darkness.
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