With Loos Junction heavily damaged, we have turned our attention to the German airfield at Ghistelles, to "exercise our offensive spirit" as the Major is found of saying these days. Ghistelles is well behind enemy lines and the home of several crack Fokker squadrons so these missions are not taken lightly.
Yesterday's mission was more of a battle against devilish winds, but my flight leader and I were still able to hit the target, shredding one of the Hun hangers and more. I was quite satisfied with this until i thought of our own mechanics, all good men working away in the hangers back at Abeele, and suddenly had a deep feeling of regret and that this was not right. The feeling passed quickly as the needs of navigating our way home with the winds tossing us about took over.
Today we repeated the same flight plan with a full complement of three Bristols sweeping ahead to clear our way. Our only opposition was the driving snow and obscuring clouds; the German fliers were staying on the ground today. Sgt. Xavier got lost and never dropped his bombs but I had better luck. I have had absolutely no engine problems for weeks now and I pray that this continues. If not these "offensive spirit" missions will soon lead to a "prisoner spirit". Not a prospect I care to think about.
