427 Be in the Dark! and I Didn't Know If the Bloody Aeroplane Was Going To
be in the dark! And I didn't know if the bloody aeroplane was going to fall on some town or other, so I decided that I would not jump until I was out of petrol. In a Mosquito, you could go quite a long way, you see - you could be over the south coast, or you could even be up in the Pennines, or somewhere else, quite quickly. And the situation was getting worse and worse. I could have been over the North Sea, and I hadn't got the right safety equipment for surviving in the sea. Anyway, by the Grace of God [via his excellent Guardian Angel again!] my mental course was spot on, and after what seemed like two years sitting there in the pitch dark, keeping this thing upright, I saw the red beacon [of Warboys]! And I went in and landed! You wouldn't believe that, would you? It was simple. Nothing happened - no enemy fighters - nothing at all! So Ford was probably genuine, though I didn't know at the time whether they were or not. I think it was the generator that had gone, and the battery just went flat [In Pilot's Notes for the Mosquito T.III - a generator on the starboard engine and a battery supply electrical power at 24 volts. There is no Emergency Procedure listed for complete electrical failure!]. I'd switched everything off to conserve what was left of the battery, and just had enough to faintly hear Ford, which at least gave me a position! I sometimes think about that, and I think, God, how bloody frightening that was!' On 30th July 1944, Tom was posted to No 105 Squadron, Bourn, which is seven miles west of Cambridge.
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