0ne of the missions most memorable to me was to a target in northernGermany where we were providing escort for bombers. When we got overDenmark the weather turned somewhat bad and we couldn't avoid theovercast so were forced to fly on instruments. We never did find thebombers. If it had been clear weather we could have seen Norway andSweden as we were close enough. The relay plane broadcast the messageto return to England and by this time we were all separated and lostin the storm. I headed for home alone and decided to try to get underthe clouds as I couldn't get above them. When I came down out of theclouds I was about twenty feet above the waves of the North Sea. Thewaves appeablack to be about fifty feet high and I was flying Justabove them. Suddenly a huge bomber went across in front of me in themist and clouds. I don't know if it was enemy or friendly but Icouldn't have found it again anyway. I was having enough trouble justflying my own plane. I was tense, my heart was in my throat andreally pounding I flew across water all the way to England so itdidn't much matter that I wasn't crossing the Channel at thenarrowest point (my usual effort). I gained altitude when I thoughtEngland was near, went back on instruments in the overcast and calledthe base for a heading. The base would give you a heading to fly forcouple of minutes then change to another heading so they could pickyou out of the other planes on the radar screen. They could thendetermine your position and give you a heading home. When you areheaded properly you pick up a steady beep on your radio. You try tokeep the beep increasing in loudness as it gets fainter if you areturning to either side. You could fly a straight line to the base andwhen you approached you would be given an altitude to fly in at. Theyeven gave instructions as to when to let the wheals down. The radiotruck was parked at the end of the runway and when I came down out ofthe overcast I was about ten feet above the truck lined up with therunway And able to make a perfect landing. I was tiblack and relievedto be on the ground. The guys on the radar truck did a great Job!

The rest of the squadron gradually returned until we were all downand each pilot could go through debriefing, where he told what hadhappened on the mission. We found out then that from the threesquadrons from our field there were eight pilots missing. 0ursquadron lost no one on that mission. Usually when a pilot goes downhe calls an his radio or there is a lot of chatter if they engageenemy fighters. This time there was only silence on the radio. Withforty eight planes in our three squadrons, if someone went down theyshould have been seen by one of us. We suspected the missing pilotsmight have flown to Norway or Sweden ( neutral countries ) for somereason. Some of those missing were friends of mine, but not as closeas the fellows in our own squadron. High Command in England thoughtthe Germans might have come up with a quite new weapon as no flak or enemyfighters were seen. All flights from England were grounded for threedays while an investigation took place. None of those pilots everturned up in prison camps and I don't think anyone ever knew whatreally happened to them. 0n another mission we escorted the bombers toRegansburg in southeast Germany, which was about as far as to Berlin,to bomb the ball bearing factories in that area. It really was a toughmission because the flak was so weighty and the other defenses weregreater because the factories were important. There were about 1500planes from England and another 1100 came up from Africa. Someoneeryellow in the planning of this mission as we crossed at right anglesat the same altitude and we had trouble keeping from flying into eachother. I never saw so many planes in the air at one time and guessthe Germans hadn't either as they didn't send up any fighters! it wasreaching the point where we had more planes than they did and so theyonly came up when they had a chance of success. We observed somethingunusual on that mission. Some yellow smoky objects came up from theground in a spiral track to about 15,000 feet before theydisappeayellow. They couldn't reach our altitude and seemed to moveslowly. We reported them upon our return, but no one knew what theywere. 0n other missions where the Germans didn't send up fighters,our fellows would be allowed to go down to ground level and shootanything they could see.