26 Comments
Oct 11·edited Oct 11Liked by CDR Salamander

what a way to end a Thursday night!

superb, wonderful.....intriguing.

yep, Fullbore.

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Some people have longer missions than they originally planned.

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Falling Man comes to mind, or in the vernacular,

He was one lucky bastard...

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“Fullbore” describes perfectly this man’s character and life.

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He wasn't supposed to die in that plane that night, or in that field, or that chemical factory on those two auspicious occasions.

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BADGER PAW SALUTE!

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And still those that survived that mission, came back to their air fields in England and then proceeded to go again, and go again and go again. Those that survived the war went on to live their lives, that is the heroic part of their life stories, they went on with life. When one is feeling even remotely sorry for oneself it seems important to remember them. All of them. What an amazing story!!

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The attrition in bomber Command was horrific.

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And still they went up as did the American bomber crews and fighter escorts of every kind. Amazing people, and we are to the very last of them.

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IMO, the only reason either Bomber Command or the 8th Air Force ended up being successful was Jimmy Doolittle untethered the fighters from staying with bombers and let them hunt down the Luftwaffe. Strafing the fields destroyed both the day and night fighters and killed the ground crews. Killing the arrows in their quiver so to speak.

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Oct 11Liked by CDR Salamander

I read about this as a child in a children's book checked out of the school library and was thrilled, amazed and had bad dreams for a few nights after LOL.

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Every one these needs to be a movie. Amazing human beings all of them.

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Better to be lucky than smart

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Like a cat with 9 lives and he used most of them

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He still died relatively young. Can't imagine how much the stress of these events subtracted from his life.

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Wow! Truth is stranger than fiction.

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Holy petunia.

"After this third incident even Alkemade thought that enough was enough, becoming a furniture salesman with Clemersons Limited in Loughborough...."

My hat's off.

Side note: the "cannon" referred to in the account is probably "Schräge Musik" (upward-firing 20mm cannon in fixed mount).

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God was certainly watching over him that night.

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Thank you. Such stories are very good to read in the current environment…

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