Danny:
Thank goodness Dad never had the likes of Lootentant Hoskins-it must have been terrifying for the bomb aimer!
While I am sure it must have happened on more occasions, Dad mentioned that once they were ordered to divert upon returning from an Op. He couldn,t remember the name of it, but it was a training airfield, not an operational one, so an Intelligence Officer, to do the debrief, along with an armourer, had to be brought in from a nearby squadron. The station padre was unable to sleep, and heard them arrive. He was the first to greet them, and offered them spiritual comfort if they needed , and physical comfort as well in the form of a large bottle of rum. Not sure if he expected the crew to just take a tot, but instead the crew finished it off promptly. They were, to use Dad,s words, "quite tiddly by the time the IO showed up. The debrief did not go as well as the IO hoped", much to his extreme annoyance. Before he left, the expressed some rather un-Christian like sentiments to the Padre.