“The pilot had the aircraft under perfect control, it was still losing height in a sinking fashion and the flames had enveloped the fuselage alongside the burning wing.”
“The aircraft was now at about 4,000 feet when I bailed out,” Hayes said. The rear gunner turned away without acknowledging the news. MacKinnon turned his head and Hayes patted his parachute. Hayes, just 19 at the time, then opened the bulkhead door leading to the rear turret. “The captain’s last words to me were: ‘Yes, OK, but hurry, we’re at 4,500 feet if he’s not hit he might make it. “I then plugged into the intercom system and informed the pilot that…the rear gunner was still in his turret and I would let him know we were getting out,” said Hayes. “I’m sorry lads,” said Watson, “but you’ll have to hit the silk.” Soon, the wing was almost totally engulfed and a gaping hole was forming in the side of the plane. Watson would not leave that aircraft while there was the slightest doubt that a member of the crew remained and as a last resort would attempt a crash landing to save that member of his crew.”Īs the fuselage seam aft of the burning engine began melting, Watson directed the crew to collect their parachutes. “Whatever happens, he’ll be OK,” the pilot assured them.Īt the words ‘he’ll be OK,’” Eames said in a statement filed July 25, 1946, he realized “with horror…that Flt.-Lt. Throughout the combat, Watson repeatedly asked for news of the rear gunner, with whom he’d flown all of his missions, and assured the rest of the crew that he would look after him. “There was at no time any suggestion of panic and this was largely due to the coolness and perfect calm of our captain.” “The navigator told us we were approximately on the French border. “During this time the captain asked the navigator to inform the crew of our position for the purpose of escape,” MacKinnon reported later. But the maneuver amounted to a trade-off-the fire didn’t reach the crew but they were losing altitude fast. Watson, at 21 among the eldest aboard and flying his 16th mission, side-slipped the big, lumbering plane to keep the flames at bay. The fire extinguisher system had no effect.
Within 30 seconds, the wing and engine were burning. Hayes described his pilot’s response to his evasive directions as magnificent but still the Lanc was hit in the starboard inner engine. VAC Watson began corkscrewing as the attacking aircraft came closing in again from 350 metres. From his vantage point atop the Lanc, Hayes couldn’t see their attackers’ approaches and had to make his calls based on the tracers arcing past his canopy. They were essentially flying blind, however. With MacKinnon out of commission, Hayes directed the pilot’s evasive actions. Roy Clive Eames, flight engineer, said the initial attack had also penetrated the plane’s nose and knocked out its aileron and rear controls. The rear gunner, RCAF Flight Sergeant Murdock MacKinnon-a Cape Breton native living in Somerville, Massachusetts, when he signed up-later reported that his radio and turret were knocked out. The crew could hear the thuds as the German rounds hit the rear of the aircraft and they saw flashes as the port elevator badly buckled. “The aircraft was equipped with H2S radar equipment which transmits pulses and the crew and Intelligence were not aware at the time that the Germans were able to home in on the signal.” “The attack was a complete surprise, there was no moon, just complete darkness,” recalled Ron Hayes, the bomber’s mid-upper gunner. and they were a little south of Strasbourg, France. Suddenly, they were attacked from dead astern and below by three Junkers Ju-88 night fighters. The seven-member crew-three RAF, four RCAF-were at 17,000 feet as they approached the turning point, 30 minutes out, for their final run into the target. R-ND would never reach its target, but Watson’s heroic actions that black night over occupied territory would inspire an unsuccessful campaign to award him a posthumous Victoria Cross.
It was the night of April 27-28, 1944, and Lancaster R-ND 781/G of 622 Squadron, Royal Air Force, piloted by Flight Lieutenant James Andrew Watson of Hamilton, Ont., was on a bombing mission to Friedrichshafen, Germany. Robert Taylor/The Military Gallery, California, in association with Wings Fine Arts
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