Leading the Target

Heroes Remember

Leading the Target

Transcript

But one of the things you do, when you first get in the air plane after taking off, is, is cock the guns. Hit a toggle switch, like an arm that you gotta reach up in there and, and cock the gun. Anyway, then you had a fire and safety outfit that you had to put on to fire on safe. But that was the first, that was the first thing you had to do. But to fire at something, well, then you trained that you allowed, guessed at the speed of what the fighter is, and in what position he's in, so that you can allow, as if you were shooting at geese or ducks, how many rads you used to call it because of the ring, how many rads you had to allow to hit that over here. It rather was just like shooting a duck. Gotta, gotta lead them, same with the fighter. But, most time, they sit out on the, on the beam somewhere and then they, then they come in on the curver pursuit and you try to come into the back. But, but you have to follow them in, so it changes, but you, I think, you're pretty excited when you saw the one anyway. I don't know if you'd do what you're told to do, but that's training. As I say, when, right at the very first, they mould you into what you want to be. But they're sitting, the fighter's sitting up there with cannons, and here we are sitting here with a, a deer gun. A .303, an old .303. But, but it was mainly to deter them, if you want to call it that. Because, really, you didn't shoot that many down. Unless you happen to get lucky with... and they run into it. We figured that we got one, one night over Wesseling, which was the oil in the Ruhr Valley. You'd see them coming over there. It was, actually, it was a twin engine Junkers 88 that we saw, that come in. He was off onto the, onto the... well, I would call it the right-hand side, it is on the right side, but, you know. And then there was a chance there, so we took it. The rear gunner opened up and, and so did the mid upper. And later, it wasn't too long after that we saw the explosion on the ground, so... But these are the probables, probables that you can't confirm it as a kill.

Description

Mr. Garrison describes proper gunning technique and engaging the enemy over the Ruhr Valley.

Glenn Garrison

Mr. Garrison was born in 1925 in Sarnia, Ontario. His family moved to Blackville, Ontario, in 1930. Although his father was a boiler maker with the Canadian National Railroad, Mr. Garrison's family was poor. When old enough, he went to work in a factory, then enlisted in 1943. He received his Air Gunner training in Lachine, Quebec, then shipped overseas on the Mauritania. He was a member of 428 Squadron. The Mid-Upper and Tail gunner positions were extremely vulnerable and he was fortunate to survive many bombing missions over France and Germany. These missions included the bombing of submarine pens in Southern France and the industrial area of the Ruhr Valley. At the age of 18, Mr. Garrison returned to Canada with 43 missions to his credit. At 19, he became a flying instructor at Fingor, then CO of the Turrets and Gunnery school at Mountain view. Mr. Garrison and his wife live on a farm in Sarnia. He has his own air plane and is still flying.

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