Dirkdec
Nice to see someone from Belgium joining the Forum, Welcome. I spent most of my flying career in Belgium and have many fond memories of it. I kept a small book of some of my operations and , luckily, found this which I will tell you now, from the book......
Target Courtrai Marshalling Yards (Belgium) Dec.14th.1942 , low level attack at dusk. 4x500lbs. H.E. bombs. Mosquito 1V. 105 Sqdn. Report;
We went out with another Mosquito (Sqdn. Ldr. Reynolds) until we crossed the enemy coast where we split up. We encountered one or two inaccurate bursts of machine gun fire but, otherwise saw nothing.
I climbed from 50 feet to 2000 ft.and dived on the target and in doing so the clear vision panel on the left, blew out, hitting me on the head and giving me a nasty cut. I continued my run and, when the bomb release was pushed, the" bombs gone" indicator did not register. The "jettison" gave no sign either. We came down to rooftop height and took evasive action from the light flak which had now appeared. After three more runs over the target ,the "jettison" showed that the bombs had gone. On the return the intercom went u/s and due to a misunderstanding my navigator, Les, prepared to bail out. Luckily I was able to stop him. Very disappointing trip. Several windows were illuminated below as we went out but very little sign of life anywhere. Nb. Found later that the bombs were dropped over the target and the operation was deemed successful.
That was from my unofficial notebook which, I regret, I did not keep regularly. I see that the time for the trip was 2 hours from our base near
Kings Lynn, Marham, Norfolk. 1hr.30 of the trip was logged as night flying. As it was December I would say that takeoff would have been about 1615, Time over target about 1655 and landing around 1815. I have a feeling that during wartime we kept the extra hour all the year round so add an hour to those times to get the time that would correspond with the time in Belgium in 1942... Is it really 67 years ago ! If so I would have been just 20 yrs. of age. All the best . Tot Siens. REGLE. P.S. The raid that you referred to when we were three and the bomb bounced over me was on the yards at Tergnier (N.France ) not Courtrai. I must correct the mistake. The above report is the only time that I actually bombed a target in Belgium although I crossed the Belgian Coast many times at fity feet on other targets. Knocke was noted for its hostile reception and I later , much later had an apartment near Ostend (Middelkerke) and have often visited the Atalantic Wall Museum which was a tram stop away from my apartment.
Last edited by regle; 15th Feb 2009 at 15:20.