Scary Moments in Flight
Heroes Remember - The Second World War
Scary Moments in Flight
Transcript
The most scary times would be on take-off,
if you got wondering, you know,
you’re sitting on fourteen thousand pounds
of bombs and a full high octane load of gas and
it starts, if you’re sitting in my position
you see the wings take weight and
wonder where’s the end of the runway and
are we going to get this thing off the ground.
And then, of course, over the target was
the other scary part.
We flew by dead reckoning and you had
a certain time to be at the target and, you know,
the master bomber would be there directing
the pathfinders to drop the flares and
you’d be waiting to be ordered to go in and bomb.
There was aircraft everywhere,
it was just like a bee’s nest,
you know, the aircraft all around you,
in front of you, in back of you, under,
each side of you and the worst part for me was
looking up and seeing an aircraft above me
with the bomb bay open and you’re looking,
you’re staring at fourteen one thousand
pound bombs or four thousand pound cookie
with thousands of incendiaries and
they’re doing the same thing that you’re doing
and they want to drop their bombs the same place
you want to drop your bombs but
they don’t see the aircraft below them.
The only one looking downwards
is the bomb aimer and he’s concentrating
on the flares and when to drop the bombs.
And then after the bombs go,
there is a camera going to take a photograph
when the bombs hit and right after the bombs let go,
there’s a photo flash dropped also and
so when the bombs hit, if everything is as planned,
the camera will click the same time as
the photo flash flashes as the bombs hit to
prove that you bombed the target and
so after the bombs are let go the aircraft
has to remain straight and level so that
everything is in order and the bomb aimer
is counting one thousand, two thousand,
three thousand and I’m yelling,
“Count faster!”
So that was scary moments that you remember and
all the time the heavy flak if you're above
ten thousand feet or the light flak if you’re below
that. It’s going all around you.
The light flak explodes on
contact whereas the heavy flak explodes,
it’s all timed but after a while that doesn’t bother you.
You get used to it and there is nothing
you can do about it and there’s a lot of them
say that would weave through flak, you know,
but our skipper, he said, you know,
he just “hell bent for leather” as soon as he
gets through it the better and
just trust in the good Lord that
you are going to get through it.
Description
Mr. Muir describes the dangers and emotions involved with bombing runs.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Recorded:
- June 3, 2012
- Duration:
- 3:43
- Person Interviewed:
- Fraser Muir
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- England
- Branch:
- Air Force
- Units/Ship:
- RAF 50 Squadron
- Occupation:
- Mid Upper / Tail Gunner
- Date modified: