Shot on a Bombing Run

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Description

Mr. Sproule recalls being hit during a bombing run in Burma.

Transcription

Early in the morning, 7 o'clock in the morning, and we were to, we were to bomb two pagodas on each side of the road, the Japanese were dug in at the base of them. So, and I was leading the squadron and we went around and I came in, came around south of it and then we were going to head down into it like this and just as I came around they started firing ack-ack fire at us and one of them hit on the port side of the cockpit where the cookery was that's why that's the way it is. And I could see the muzzle blast from this ack-ack gun, when it leaves there a great big blast, instant, I don't think, I don't know whether the other fellows saw it, I pointed it out to them. But as I went down I didn't know what had been hit or broken. All I was concerned about was, I had bombed and gone around again and when I saw them then I was going to go down and strafe it and when I fired my guns I had a stoppage in one gun, so I had one 303, but I sprayed it around where the muzzle blast was but I don't know. And I turned the squadron over to another guy, by this time the fellows had pretty well had all bombed. And I got my number two to check to see whether the underneath was alright, he said it looked alright so I went in and landed, mind you, it was pretty early in the morning, there was no wind and but I didn't have any hydraulics so I had no brakes, and no, no brakes and no one of my controls. Anyway she just ran straight as a die and stopped in front of the control tower.

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