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This time we made a good approach, but because of his slow airspeed we were still overtaking quite rapidly and I knew that we would probably only get one chance to attack him. The enemy was on an east-south-easterly course keeping about 3 miles off the coast of Trypete and slowly losing height. It looked as though they were heading for a seaplane landing area. I got a visual at about 1000 feet and as we got to within 250 yards, I gave one short burst of fire. I observed strikes on the starboard engine, which caught fire. I gave another longer burst and then went into a hard climbing turn to port intending to try and come in for another attack. The enemy was losing height quite rapidly and as we completed our turn it struck the sea and burst into flames. The time was 11:40 p.m. and well past time to go home. We had been in the target area nearly two hours, destroyed three enemy aircraft and had come very close to being destroyed ourselves. It had been a busy night so far and we were still a long way from our base. I called the Controller and told him what had happened and that we were returning to base. Whole chasing the seaplane, we had got in the middle of an area that was surrounded on three sides by land. We didn't have enough fuel to make our way home through the Straits of Kythera, so the only way back was to turn south from our present position and climb over the mountains that would confront us going across the Crete mainland. Graham would have to lead us through and over the terrain with the radar. Not the most pleasant thing to do at night but we had no choice. We were not supposed to fly overland, but it was a decision I had to make and was sure that our Flight Commander would back me up. The biggest worry was that if anti-aircraft batteries were deployed in the hills, we might get caught in crossfire. I turned south and started to climb as fast as possible. Graham was reading off the distance to the enemy coast as indicated on the radar. If we could get to about 4000 feet by the time we reached the coast, we should be able to reach the altitude required to clear the mountains. After a few minutes we were over land with the high ground a few miles ahead and I estimated that we still had another 1500 feet to climb to be safe. I could vaguely see the ground beneath us in the moonlight and it looked ominously close. Graham kept assuring me that according to his radar all was well, so we pressed on. So far there had been no hostile response from the enemy. When we reached a height of 6200 feet Graham announced that we should now be clear of the highest point and that from now on it was a piece of cake. After a few more minutes, I told Graham that if he was sure we had cleared the highest point I was going to put the nose down, build up speed and race for the southern shore and the comparative safety of the Mediterranean. He agreed and we made a run for it. As we were almost over the sea we faintly heard W/O Phelan, who had just entered the target area tell the Controller that he had a contact. Our Squadron was putting all their training to good use tonight! When we were safely over the sea I kept the height at 50 feet until we were well clear of the enemy coast. We weren’t particularly concerned about their night fighters because we believed we had a superior radar system. However, we had a long way to go to our base and as our fuel was getting low, we didn’t want to get involved in any more action. We talked excitedly about the exploits of the last few hours and how we had managed the hat trick. Our score would be confirmed by the Controller because he had seen the blips disappear off his radar tube and it was possible that the crew of the Ulster Queen had seen the fire and explosions. A few miles south of the coast of Crete, we saw a fairly large ship very well illuminated and we noted the position in order to report it to our I.O. When we were about 70 miles away from the enemy coast I slowly climbed to 6000 feet to conserve fuel. The remainder of the journey was uneventful and when we were 25 miles from base Graham picked up the beacon at Gambut and we changed course slightly to head for the airfield. The weather conditions were still good. The moon was visible, with 3/10ths.cloud at 1000 feet and visibility was 10 to 15 miles. I called Control and received permission to land and after a few minutes we could see the flares on the runway. The time was 1:05 a.m. and we had been airborne for 4hrs.55mins. We taxied to the dispersal area and switched off the engines. The ground crew could see that we had seen some action because the gun ports were exposed and they started to gather round. Nobby Clark was the first to come up the hatch to help me out. I pulled the lever that retracted the seat back and unlocked the safety harness. The next thing was to grip the overhead rails and swing myself backwards onto the steps |
