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Description
Technology has advanced over the years, but during the Second World War sometimes it was more a distraction. Mr. West recalls during one bombing run that his pilot, annoyed by the static on the airwaves, ordered that the radios be turned off, subsequently missing the order to turn back to base. Mr. West's plane was the only one who made the target and dropped their bombs.
Transcription
Our radios were good, but they're not as nearly as good as they are now. And there was a lot of, there was a lot of static, and it was bothering our skipper so badly that he ordered our wireless operator to turn it off, which he did. And we went on, no trouble. It was cloud, ten-tenths, and we were in cloud. You don't often get cloud that high. And we were going to a town by the name of Wurms. That's a very old German and a very famous city. And we went, and there was no other aircraft around. And we arrived and we bombed precisely on no markers. We bombed on H2-SNG and then came home to find that we were alone. He turned off the radio because it was bothering him and missed the recall, that's interesting. I guess I can say that now, they're all gone, but I have it marked in the log - "bombed alone."
Interview: Do you recall why they were recalled?
Oh yes, yeah, and often times they were. If the weather proved bad at your target. Sometimes you had an alternate target, and sometimes you didn't. And we didn't. And, and a recall was very serious because here you were loaded with a whole belly full of bombs, and that wasn't very healthy to land at your home base with them. And, so, often times, they were directed to dump them in the ocean, the North Sea, and then proceed home. Now this, of course, was a great waste of time and money and bombs. But that was one occasion where we did our duty alone.