re S/L Reg Lewis
His Pilot in Dec 1942 F/O Cooke when in XV Squadron with Reg Lewis was one of 3 experienced crews detailed for an attack against Deipholz, their target was to be a German aircraft depot .The three crews were F/O Cooke,F/S McMonagle and P/O Frank Millen. F/O Cooke piloting Stirling bomber BF411.LS-A took off first at 1722 closely followed by the other two. Approaching the target at 7000 ft F/O Cooke made a low level bombing run at 1937. He was followed five minutes later by F/S McMonagle who unbeknown to the latter was being stalked by two Bf110 nightfighters. He knew of their presence when cannon and machine gun fire spat forth. As they took evasive action the gunners returned fire and shot down one of the nightfighters. The second took up the challenge scoring hits and wounding the mid upper gunner. Stirling BF355 survived to fight another day but unfortunately P/O Frank Millen was shot down by a nightfighter and crashed at Epe in Holland.
This was one of the many encounters of S/L Reg Lewis whilst completing his 30 missions at XV Squadron on Stirlings.