Evasion Tactics

Heroes Remember

Evasion Tactics

Transcript

The coast is usually your safe haven. Once you cross the coast, it's only a matter of twenty minutes or so and you're probably going to be in Britain and you're gonna be in more, safe haven. So my tactic was always that once we drop the bomb load, I'd put the nose down and lose a little bit of altitude and losing the altitude gave you, just like your car running down hill, you could pick up speed. So you'd probably pick up, oh 30 to 50 extra mile an hour depending on how much altitude you lost. And this would give you forward speed plus change your altitude because the night fighters knew what altitude you went through the target at because in some cases they were not beside you, but they could see what level you picked. So they were anticipating you would come out at that altitude. So I would perhaps be 500 or 1000 feet, 2000 feet below that altitude depending on where you came across me.

Description

Mr. Campbell describes his techniques for evading danger immediately after dropping bombs on heavily defended targets.

John Campbell

John Campbell was born in October, 1923 in Coleman, Alberta. He was the younger of two brothers. His father was a coal miner and Mr. Campbell credits the mine’s support of the local school for his good education. Following the death of both his parents, he went into the mine. Because of the diverse ethnic mix in Coleman, the onset of war saw many miners return home to serve in their respective forces. He enlisted in 1942, joining the Air Force and becoming a bomber pilot. He finished his full complement of thirty-two missions with the same crew. After the war he remained in the Air Force and was a first responder on the DEW Line.

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