In the latter part of ’44 they were mostly
night raids and then as we got into ’45
there were more daylight raids.
I preferred the night time flights because
you didn’t see as much.
The lights, the explosions and
the gunfire were brighter at night but
you didn’t see the other aircraft that
were in around you.
In daylight, of course, when an aircraft
got shot down you could see it all happen,
you know, and you find yourself hoping that
there is going to be some parachutes
whereas at night you didn’t see any of that.
I think the weather was, we often said the
weather was worse than the Germans
actually when we were flying.
You would come back to England and
your aerodrome would be socked in and
you’d have to go to another strange
aerodrome to land and that meant not
only your own squadron but other
squadrons were all trying to get into
one aerodrome at a time.
One night there must have been almost
a hundred aircraft landed at the
Southampton transport drome
because it was the only drome open.