A. Stcu'm‘f MacDonald D.F.C., M.D. C..M.
- there was a rumour that we were telling Sweden that it was running a risk by sending ball bearings to Germany. All in all, Sweden treated the RCAF well, and more than one airman was allowed to slip back to England. When we got past Konigsberg, half the planes went to Stettin, the rest went to Berlin. We may have surprised the people of Stettin by going east of the town before the flight split and we attacked it from the east. No doubt, more fighters were sent to Konigsberg as more planes were lost.
The Pilot did something I never saw him do over the target - he went up to 23,000 feet and then dove down, increasing the speed several miles an hour, which helped us a great deal when we got coned in the search lights - this means that at least two ground lights cone you and fire up the path of the lights. It was a very dangerous place to be, but we were going at such a speed that the Pilot, who was trained as a Fighter Pilot, wove, wiggled and dove and got out of the cone. When we were a few miles on our way home, he called me to show me what coning meant. It was the one and only time I left the Navigator’s table to look at real activity. The coned plane I saw looked like a small toy plane with lights all around. I did not stay long enough to see if it was struck. We were coned several times in the future.
When we had dropped our bombs we set course for home. On the way to the targets we made many changes of courses, heading for a large town, hoping that the fighters would head for it, then changing our course for another town, but on our way home, it was straight back home. The Pilot usually flew along at top speed. They were always after him for his high gas consumption. I never complained, as I always felt the faster one went the harder one was to hit. The trip took over nine hours, the second longest trip I had. I could see the direction on the
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