Thorney Island in your side

THURSDAY AUGUST 1st 1940 ......a Spitfire from one of the Photographic Reconnaissance Units, on patrol over the north of France notices heavy aircraft concentration at Cherbourg. He circles round capturing the airfield on film and heads back to base. Fighter Command are notified at once of the build up, and they decide that the German held airfield should be bombed before they are committed in any offence against Britain.

Something a bit different this week. As the Blenheim is flyable, we'll give the bombing mission a crack and then depending on what happens there's some small activity up and down the coast for the remainder of the day. Its likely to be a one way trip in the Blenny, so I'd suggest not making plans for the weekend.

 

The route out

After the trials and tribulations of last weeks "familiarisation" with the Blenheim, we managed to all get airborne on the first attempt. I'd say it was uneventful, but the near collision with WB lined up to take off on Runway 030 and Splash lined up on runway 160 had me closing my eyes.

Heading out on a heading of 210, we formed up in a loose formation with your truly leading. The 20 minute flight across the channel passed quite quickly, almost as quickly as the "dropping tanks" break I needed, with the rest of the flight wondering if I'd make it back before I hit the sea.

The flight out

Landfall was pretty good with Brigstock identifying Cherbourg and the bay of Le-Havre. We crossed the coast with WB close in formation with me taking the left side of the airfield and Brig and Splash the right side.

The first pass there was a large explosion as we touched off some ordnance being loaded onto the JU88's. The initial explosion from mine and WB bombs took out two hangars and several aircraft.

Badoooom!

The flak woke up and started to find their mark. Both Splash and WB reporting damage. As we were free from fighters we made several passes on the airfield and gave Jerry a damn good thrashing.

Burning aircraft

Eventually we knew the Luftwaffe would arrive on the scene and didn't much fancy the support of the escort we had, so decided to head back. Splash was now struggling to control his aircraft, but couldn't work out the problem. A quick check over from the boys gave him the joyful knowledge that he'd lost both ailerons.

Suprisingly, despite the flak, we'd managed to get away without being shot down. The intercepting 109's didn't find us and we had a reasonably easy crossing back to Thorney Island.

Off Bembridge

Arriving back at base is where the fun started. Little did we know that although the Blenheim is reluctant to get airborne, once its flying its reluctant to give up its lofty status and speed doesn't bleed off as much as you want.

First up was Brigstock....

Bent it - No 1

Second was the flak damaged Whiskey....

Bent it - No 2

Third was Splash who made a good landing with no ailerons

Splash down

Which left me. I was happy in the knowledge that my aircraft was flying sweetly with no damage - the smugness left me as I tried to lower undercarriage and flaps. All hydraulics had gone. I tried the emergency controls and they too failed, so I had to pancake.

Sadly there's no picture of my wreck. I put her down at around 150mph and both wings were ripped off. The fuselage, stripped of its stabilisation tumbled out of control into one of the hangars. You can see the smoke in Brigstocks landing photo.

A really good fun mission, which we all (almost) survived.

The next mission is Aug 8th, where the Battle of Britain really starts to get tough.