Attacked By the Navy

When we were at Jessore, we had one bombing trip. I know it was a port off the China Sea. I can’t remember the name, and we could see the anti-aircraft bursts, you know, from the ground. And you sort of have a funny feeling because, if they’re going to hit you, it’s from underneath. And in my turret, I had the glass floor and glass thing around. So I had a view of the anti-aircraft fire, but they didn’t come anywhere near us.Actually, the closest we came to getting shot down was with our own navy. One trip, we were told that we might come across the naval fleet. They were preparing for the invasion of Malaya, and they were out for manoeuvres. And they said, “You might meet them.” They said, “Be careful. Make sure that you reply to their challenge.” So, we were ready to reply and all of a sudden, I have a, I forget what the colours were, the flares come up. They challenged us for identification - never had a chance to reply. We couldn’t shoot that [inaudible] pistol out to reply. They started shooting, but it was, oh, I’d say, about a mile in front of us. We were very low. We were about a 1,000 feet underneath, under the cloud, and I guess they couldn’t tell by the sound where we were. So they just shot straight up in the air, and there was a lot of stuff that came up. So of course, we veered away, right away, to get away from that. But that’s the closest we ever came to getting shot down.