Fantome:
No I haven't gotten Dad,s service records, so I have, in the absence of direct conversations with Dad I have been told stories told to me secondhand from friends and family.
In this instance, supposedly Dad and the nav went to the local pub; on the way back to base they encountered a cow in a field they were using as a shortcut, and came up with a plan to ride it rather than walk. They each tried it without a great deal of success, and a plan was hatched to sneak it on the base and place it in another crew,s hut. Apparently, wherever they placed it, the cow let out a mighty bellow, then made a mess of the place. It would seem the Powers that Be could have been less than amused.
I have also been told that Dad was the last person to exit their blazing Lancaster. The nav had assisted either the flight engineer or wireless op ( incapacitated presumably by lack of oxygen) to the nose escape hatch, where he held onto the fellow,s parachute ring and tossed him out. Dad once speculated to me he often wondered if he could have done more to help free the trapped gunner; he may have been helping and perhaps that is why he was the last one out. In any event, the official records state the aircraft settled into a long glide before crashing; however Dad mentioned that he could see the aircraft on fire as he descended, and it blew up shortly after he bailed out. I have not found out if the aircraft was indeed more or less intact when it crashed.
The final story came from one of his closest friends, where Dad had told him how him, and a US airman, were the object of German civilian rage. They were being escorted to a POW camp, either to the interrogation camp at Frankfurt, or, more likely, to the final camp at Luft 6. While enroute my train, at some city, the air raid sirens went off. It was procedure for everyone to evacuate the train and train station, which they did. A few blocks away they attracted a following of irate civilians, who forced them into a bombed out cellar, and had Dad hold a crude sign saying 'Terrorflieger', the US airman sign was ' Chicago Gangster' The guard didn,t do much to stop them-he has lost his entire extended family in a raid a few days before and had been denied compassionate leave in order to escort the airmen. They were pelted with abuse, sticks, debris, before the all clear sounded and the guard returned them to the train. It is believed this was the cause of Dad temporarily losing his vision 30 years later in 1974.In any event, his vision returned after about 6 weeks, and was excellent up to his passing.