Well Look what I Found stashed away on an old website

My first Duty,

Its 10:00am and the bell rings, my first duty,
we all know what to do running out to the parked Hurri i take a second to look around its so calm, yet so cinfusing as engines roar into action and men run about some pilots some ground crew, all know there role....
....Flying at only 3000ft on the climb we encounter the enemy just of the coast, ive got butterflys in my belly, voices start calling over the radio, 'Bandits 12'Oclock' i am immediatly told to cover my leader, he says with a cool voice 'follow me, do what i do and you might even survive'
Now i thought oh god ive had it, little did i know about what would happen next, our Sqn climb and then whoosh! the enemy Sqn that we now know to be 110's swipe striaght through our Sqn, the only way i can describe is like an olden days battle, with swords an all, right at the point were to two armys clash thousands of men run at each other, the only real difference here being instead of swords and spears we have machine guns and Cannons.

seconds pass as our Sqn reforms, the 110's are now on our 6 turning to catch us, my leader and Sqn m8's voices are no longer calm they scream out at the enemy, calling there targets, once again we are set up head on again, this time every man in our Sqn has its own target, Boom, miliseconds pass but it seems like hours, bullets and cannon shells fill the air, as i line up i see my targets entire nose light up, hes firing right back at me i kick the rudder about but try not to lose him in my sight, i give him a long burst and see bits fall off, just as he is whizzing by i see him hit another off my Sqn i cant believe my eyes, the thin clear air is filled with a great explosion,...Striaght away i hear calls over the radio, 'Charlies had it!'
'stay with it' 'fuzzzzzzzzz............

author: Lewis 'Mad' Bloomfield

"war is hell, but even worse when your 13000ft high"

After that am a man!,

My second time flying in combat took place at around 1300hours 9th August 1940,
After having my first experience .vs. 110's and coming out alive i was happy with life, the feeling that is decribed by so many set in, the feeling that it will happen to the other guy not me, this was alright to a point, the trouble was that because you were constantly on duty the 'other guy' was a friend of yours, each time i climbed into the pit i would look around and wonder who would not be coming back, however this was only for seconds,...
...It was a nice day with some low patchy cloud, our Sqn was being vectored towards what appered to be an enemy fighter sweep just of the Dover coast, at about 1300hours we spotted dots at our 2'Oclock, our 12 plane Sqn broke up into two 6 plane formations then again into 4 three plane formations, each at a different altitude, the dots were about 2000ft higher than us, we were all targeting when i heard a whizzing noise and what i can only describe as tatter tatter, boom. Follwed by a scream coming over the radio, i was not sure who it was, we were ordered to break, our formation quickly dispersed as i looked around i saw 109's screaming about the sky, Damn we had missed them we were so fixated about the dots ahead that we had not noticed the 109's coming from behind, (This was not completly our fault, RAF formations at the time were tight VIC's of fighters most of the time we spend in the air was trying not to hit another, only the leader could really scan the sky)
As seconds passed i pulled up to level flight, i found my self in the middle of yet another 109 formation, this was my chance i gave the leader a 3second burst, bits started falling of and black smoke, the 109 burst into flames inverted and started towards the earth.
the 109's must of thought me to be one of them, and never noticed untill i opened up on there 6.
Of course they quickly broke up as soon as i did, i tryed to follow the leaders wingman, we did nearly a full 180degree turn i was about to fire a deflection shot when an almighty bang hit me, my plane was thrown from were it had been about 4ft!,
i had to think quick recovered from the slight spin and dived down, i spotted a convoy, my first thought was flak protection!
i fly past them at low altitude, only my bird did not feel right it start swaying in the air and i had to use alot of rudder to get it to fly straight, the convoys guns opened up, this meant that there must be a 109 on my tail, i had still no time to check my damage i had to react fast i turned as tight as i dare go and there i saw a the 109, we flew around in circles for a while, it was doing this that i noticed the strange engine noise and that my airspeed seemed to be bleeding away a bit too fast for the turn i was in. The 109 straightened out and started for altitude, it must have been low on fuel, my plane was shot up so i thought i should start home, i was about a mile out to sea, i took a look on my six to check it before i started home, i never saw an enemy aircraft but there was a stream of light liquid, i knew this was from my plane, i put my throttle up all the way and started home, i had lost contact with the rest of my Sqn as soon as the battle had begun, it felt so lonely, but this was a feeling soon gone, as minutes later a Spitfire flew past.
I was just over the cliffs of Dover when i spotted a field, she was making strange noises and i still did not know what i was leaking, i started towards it...
....i had just started the run in when things went from bad to worse, the liquid must have been some kind of coolent and me going through throttle was not helping, the result was bad, all of a sudden bang, my cockpit windows went black and red with flame and smoke, my engine had gone, i throttled back, the smoke cleared and the engine was still running at about 20% throttle, the smell hit me, oil and fuel, i was too low to bail out, and i was on the run in so it was my only hope, i lowered Flaps, gear all smooth all lights correctly in pit, and i felt a slight jolt as the gear locked in.
OK steady staedy i could not keep her in the air as the speed was so low, steady bang!, my wheels hit the dirt they must have stuck in the ground as my plane started forward, the prop hit the floor then i blacked out.

I a-woke in a hospital near London, later i was told that my plane had nosed in and then flipped, then caught fire, i was lucky to have survived it in one piece, the ground crews had pulled me out of the burning wreckage.
From now on that feeling of it will happen to the other was not an issue.

(From the Diary of Pilot officer Lewis 'Mad' Bloomfield, BoB pilot)



Alone

"ACHTUNG SPITFIRE DREI UHR!"
but its too late i am nearly vertical rader towers fill my view, as i scream down towards them, the sirens start blurring, click, the stuka shudders as the bombs release, dive brakes help to pull out as some light flak starts whizzing across the sky,
i look around for my Sqn but cannot see them instead i am greeted with tracer fire.
I start throwing the slow stuka across the sky, i hear the gunner start but then stops as more hits strike the plane,
then out of no were it is like the cockpit explodes around me, glas shatters everywere and most the dials are hit, a great flash but only for a milisecond.
i start yet another dive full power trying to get all the speed i can and start across the channel,
whilst also trying to find out if i am hit or not, the cockpit is a mess, and i struggle to see out due to the screen being shattered, it looks like i am ok, although ive lost radio.
i am on my own, the intercom is out, but i hear the gunner scream "break right!"
while turning once again the gunner starts firing,
then another scream, but a scream of joy, "i got him!" i look over to see a hurricane going down.
But now cant think, must check out our own condition,
the engine is spluttering, and Hendrich reports some smoke mixed with some clear liquid.

Ok ok, get it together,
i look around and ask if we are clear, he replies "well theres a hell of a fight but it seem concentrated around the radar station"
We are now quite far out to see, i open the canopy to get some air, it is like someone had turned a fan on, the cockpit clears of the burning smell, and smoke.
i tell the gunner the situation and we decide to go on, to try to get back to our soil or at least as far over before we must ditch, ( ditching a stuka in water was a VERY tricky thing to do as you tended to flip due to the landing gear being not retracable).

With the engine coughing i reduce to 80% power and start a slow dive/climb motion to help maintain speed, we are now right on the deck, as the channel water crashes ft below us, we carry on.

Minutes turn into hours, the channel seems so big, LAND! i can see the coast!
finally we see land, and and planes! i can se planes!
We were very happy at this point although we still had to get there and land.
The engine is now starting to smoke bit by bit, come on, we can do i say...

(Stuka pilot, account of early stage in battle, it was at this time that the stuka proved its true colours, as it wasunder powered and under armed, weeks later after this mission the stukas were withdrawn from the operations.
The plane made it back to the cost and landed with no fuel in a field next to the sea)

"then another scream, but a scream of joy, "i got him!"


The human behind it all

"we are now chasing, turning twisting through the sky, through the british sky, the clear blue sky, the fields the villages, this is what i am fighting for, for england, for the island fortress that once ruled the world, for the children who are growing up with out mothers and fathers.
Turning and twisting down and down we are just about at the deck, i go high ina turn and get a bead on him, just a little bit more, i pull the trigger.

the tracers flare about the sky, finding there target, the wing of a 109, then as if the world slows down the wing gives, half the wing simply falls off as hundreds of bullets rip through it,
it floats about the sky like a paper bag, then time sudddenyl catches back up with us and the 109 spins and twists out of control i see the conopy open but there is no hope we were nearly at 0ft i watch as only seconds after ive hit him the 109 dives and spins into the ground i was fighting so hard for.
Then it hits me, he was up here fighting for his country, fighting for his family, his home for it was only yesterday that i heard our bomber chaps had hit berlin, maybe he was simply trying to do the same as i.
why?
why is war so stupid?

(Lewis 'Mad' Bloomfield)



POW's on first mission, but thats lucky,

Our wheels left the ground, the fresh green grass, of a destroyed county for only months before had been enemy grass, but now, .. now we called this place home.
We were all in high spirit on the wayove the channel, as i looked through the windows, all i could see were planes, hundreds of us all heading for England, fighters, escorts, bombers, hundreds of planes all heading to destroy.
Half way across we dropped to 0M, i was new to this game, but apperently this was so radar could not see us, surprise is the key to a good JABO mission....


....As we neared the field our hearts filled with excitement my second mission, and already i had a kill to my name, this mission was bound to give another,.. or was it?

We caught them on the ground, about 12 hurricanes all running up, it was like shooting stones, the radio was buzzing with screams of joy as each of us dropped our bombs and strafed the field, of course because we were a new group most of us rookies npone of us noticed the Sqn of spits that had started there what would become dive of death.

In pairs we went in attacking the field side by side, as we pulled up out of the run i looked to the left, my wingmans face filled with joy, but for only that split second.


My whole left side view filled with flame as my wingmans plane seemed to just disappear into nothing,, what do i do? what sould i do!?
seconds turn into hours, tracers zoom past the cockpit, i hear strange noises as they enter my aircraft, from a grown man filled with excitement and joy i am reduced to a screaming wreck,
a fire starts on the right side engine, by this time i have managed to shut down the engine, cut fuel i lower the gear but only one comes down, and it comes down with a bang.

I am not sure why, but the enemy fighter stopsfiring, maybe because of the gear coming down? i dont know but i am now free for the time being.
The ship is lost, i turn to tell Jourg but i hear no response, after what ive been through i take little noticedas it comes down to it, "right now were to put down" i see a field pretty close, with the flames still licking the wing i simply aim and hope for the best,

author: Lewis 'Mad' Bloomfield