A Foe in the Darkness

Heroes Remember

A Foe in the Darkness

Transcript

We only had one that I could call a complete or semi-complete attack. Jimmy was flying mid-upper that night and I was in the rear turret and I don't know if you've experienced this but if you're in the dark and you want to see anything, don't look at it. You can catch it out the corner of your eye but if you look at it, it's lost and that's...I prove that even nowadays. And I remember that we were going in on the target. I guess we were probably maybe 15 minutes from the actual target area and I just momentarily caught something in the corner of my eye. And, of course, we had been taught not to look. So it was the case following it and yet not looking at it. That sounds sort of contradictory, I know but still, it works and you can prove it any night at all. And then, of course, the thing is you have to bring your turret around so that you're converging on that air craft because you had to recognize the air craft for what it was, either an FWO Focke-Wulfe 190 or a Messerschmitt ME 109, know the wing span because your gun sight was set up with a ring and bead so that when the fighter air craft's wing, the wing span, filled the radius of your gun sight, you knew that it was four hundred yards. And that was your cone of fire for the rear turret. If I can explain that cone of fire thing, when you're firing a machine gun, naturally every bullet is not going in the same direction because you've got jump. If you have four turrets as we did in the Fraser Nash 20, you've got a gun here and gun here and so on. So your cone of fire is the concenter, if you will, of these four areas of fire. And that is the concentration point, of course, where your shells or bullets can do the most damage. So you...when the fighter filled the radius of your gun sight, then you knew that that was your most effective time to shoot. It was a great trial to hold off but it was pointless to waste bullets, you know. But this particular night, it was an ME 109, which I readily because there's so much light with the search lights and that around, it was easy to identify and it was starting out as what we called a ‘curve of pursuit' attack. Now, this may be sort of technical and it may be a bit complicated, but generally speaking, the fighter would stay behind say on the port or starboard side and would turn this way and then come in directly at the rear turret or maybe just a little above or maybe a little below and our evasive action was when they made the turn, you were giving instructions to the pilot all the way through. When he came that way to be behind the turret, then you'd call it ‘corkscrew port' or starboard, depending on where the attack was coming form. If it was from the starboard, the pilot had to corkscrew starboard because what happened, his speed would make him yaw and of course we would be away from the cone from his fire. So this particular night, Jimmy James, I told him of course that the fighter was out there. He could see too but the point was his turret, the mid-upper turret, couldn't fire to the starboard a little because that tail fins were there. So there was a device in the mid-upper turret that it was flared so that when the turret came into position where either tail fin was in the direct line of fire, the turret rode up and the gun stopped. You couldn't fire. So, Jerry made his turn, the initial turn to come in, and of course, when he came in behind us, he started opening fire right away. He didn't wait. He had a 20 millimetre cannon, of course, which was more effective than our four Browning machine guns. So he yawed naturally. We were out of his line of fire. He broke off the attack and we never saw him again. So, very fortunate for us. But the point is the point that I'm making really, I guess, in essence, is that had I not caught that initial glimpse and been able to follow him around, I could never have given the pilot instructions to corkscrew. So he could have just blasted us.

Description

Mr. Cole describes the night in which he caught a glimpse of a ME-109 in the darkness and how they were trained to defend against fighter aircraft at night.

Raymond Boyd Cole

Raymond Boyd Cole was born in Elliston on July 14, 1924. His father worked in the United States and then at a papermill in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, when Raymond Cole was one month old. Mr. Cole grew up in Newfoundland.

In 1941, Mr. Cole finished grade 11 and was 17 years old in July of that year. He wanted to be a fighter pilot so in 1942 he signed up for the air force by altering his birth certificate. He received his wings on November 12, 1943. He found out later that he was not to become a pilot, but he did become an air gunner.

Mr. Cole spent three weeks at #1 Air Gunners Ground Training School (AGGTS). He then spent six weeks at #9 Bombing and Gunnery School (BGS). Following #9 BGS he went overseas. Further training includes #30 Operation Training Unit (OTU) and then 1667 Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU) where he made the conversion from twin engine aircraft to heavier, four engine aircraft with seven crew members.

Mr. Cole flew as an air gunner in over twenty operations with as much as one thousand aircraft in some. He was involved in the Normandy Campaign and many of the missions were heavy concentration bombings of the Ruhr Valley, which was a heavy industrial area.

Mr. Cole completed his flying tour (thirty operations) and went on to do three more operations afterwards. One to help his crew finish up their tour and then volunteered for another two. He worked as an orderly and as a truck driver for a while before returning to Grand Falls, after three and a half years overseas. Afterwards, he became a minister.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 05:28
Person Interviewed:: Raymond Boyd Cole
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Europe
Branch:: Air Force
Units/Ship:: 166th Airborne
Rank:: Corporal
Occupation:: Air Gunner

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A Foe in the Darkness

Heroes Remember