My Years in the Royal Canadian Air Force - Part 11 [The Final Months] By Ronald Gaudet Around 24 October received a posting back to England and as I had been overseas more than three years figured they were going to send me home. Saw S/Ldr. Art Sager and asked if he could get me back as I wanted to finish my tour so he said he would. On the 26th went to Eindhoven by truck and was to leave next morning to catch a boat back to England and I asked why couldn't I fly. “No way” they said. I was billeted with a F/Sgt. for the night and we were talking and told him how crazy it was not to fly me back. He said if you want to fly back be across the field from the control tower tomorrow morning at 7:30 and stay behind the D.C.3 sitting there and when the crew come to get aboard don't say a word just get aboard behind them and you will be off. This is exactly what happened. Although they loaded three army guys aboard legally, I had to do it illegally. The kite was empty by the way. They then told me that had I asked them to go they would have had to say no as it was against the rules; funny war.. I went to Bournemouth and was given indefinite leave until posted to Warmington and shipped home. I had to report to a F/Lt. Casson in London and he told me the Squadron had asked for me and I could go but I would have to sign a waiver to do so. Come back in a day or so and let me know, but I said, "Where is the waiver.' and he replied, "Just like that you don't want to think it over." He shook his head and passed me the form and I signed it. This was on 11 December. The next day I reported back to Bournemouth and was promoted to Pilot Officer. Picked up my new uniform on the 15th. I moved to Horn Church the 1 January 1945 and boarded an L.S.T. next day for Ostend, Belgium. The first day or so had quite a fight to keep from being sick as this thing rolled, slid, and pitched all at the same time. I would stay in the Officers mess until I felt too bad and go up on deck in the fresh air but it was pretty cold to stay too long. On one of these trips a sailor came by and asked if I was all right and I told him I didn't feel too hot but had not thrown up yet. He told me not to feel too bad as he had sailed the seven seas in different ships with no problem but the first three days aboard this he thought he was going to die and wished he would. We ran into a storm and lay off Ostend for 36 hrs. and docked on the 5 January. I could see why they could not go in if it was rough as the enemy had sunk a ship across the opening and the Engineers had just blown a hole through the hulk so it was not much wider than the ship. Arrived on the squadron the next day. They informed me that my replacement was shot down and killed by flak on the way back from an escort. The field was a mess from the enemy attack on the 1st. January there were wrecked kites all over the place. Our squadron missed this as they were in England at the time. There were three Dakotas standing side by side. They were used as air-ambulances, and the tail sections of each were cut off as the bullet holes were touching each other in a line just ahead of the fin. The tails were laying on their sides leaving the noses pointing to the sky. The enemy figured everyone would be hung over after New Years Eve and gathered all the fighter aircraft they could and sent them over at deck level so radar couldn't pick them up and the ground observers would be too hung over to see them. This happened and the first target was the control tower at Eindhoven thus knocking out our main communication lines. After this they hit our field and in the process of this the phone rang in our Intelligence Office and said it was Control at Eindhoven and we were going to be attacked as there were some fighters headed our way. The officer replied, "I know listen to them" and stuck the phone out the window. I was talking with Mac Reeves a pilot in one of the other squadrons on our field about the Jan. 1st. effort. He was on patrol along the bomb line with another Reeves (no relation) and control called and told them their base was under attack. They headed for home and when they arrived thought they were over Germany as the circuit was full of M.E.109's and FW. 190's. They started down and the other Reeves’ engine started to act up so Mac went down and attacked by himself even though there were 40 or 50 of them. I can see him now stretched out sitting in a chair smoking a cigar and saying, "I got three of them before they got away." He came down and got on the tail of a 190 and pushed the button but the guns didn't fire and realized he forgot to take the safety off so had to break off. He then shot down a 109 and a 190 then they all started to leave, gas running low I imagine. He got on the tail of a 190 and chased him at ground level and the 190 drove his nose in the ground and blew up. As Mac put it, "He must have been a green pilot and turned to look at me and let the stick go forward so I got a destroyed and never fired a shot”. A few days later another pilot and I were just leaving the latrine and headed for the mess hall. And suddenly saw a large flame shoot high in the air through the fog and then a loud blast so we both dropped to the ground as we thought another January 1 raid. Just as we stood up again there was a loud crash close to us and then something hit the blast wall beside my head so we dropped again. After a few seconds got up and there were two pieces of steaming hot cement that had missed us by a foot in the snow on top of the wall. There were women screaming in the mess and as we went to go through the opening to enter the building. We were almost bowled over by Sqn/L. Art Sager and he said something about a Flying Fortress blowing up on the field and jumped in his Jeep and drove off. There was a large hole through the roof of the mess and one window complete with frame was lying on the ground and another was inside on the floor. I saw this at a glance and took off for the field to see what was going on. Men were running out of the barracks and offices with blood running from their faces due to flying glass, all wanting to know what was happening. A B17 with a full bomb load was making an emergency landing in the fog and touched down too late. It tried to go around again but saw he couldn't make it but was too late to stop. He ran into a concrete hangar and caught fire. One of the men from our ground crew pulled a few of the crew out and while carrying one of them the whole thing went up. He was smart enough to keep the side wall between him and the Fortress in the hangar so was blown off his feet along with the crewman he was carrying but not hurt. The hangar was flattened along with the aircraft that was in there along with some that were parked near the site. One of the main wheels was out in the middle of the field burning. 13 January, I was a spare on an armed recce. to St.Vith, (spare means I would fly with them as far as the bomb line and if some one had trouble I would take his place and if not I would return to base). We were behind another squadron taxing out to take off. When my number one and I turned on the runway and did my R.P.M. check could only get about 1200 revs. and brakes started to slip so couldn't blow her out properly. Number one gave me the open up sign and we were off. He was on my left and when we were airborne I looked ahead and could see not a thing as my wind shield was black with oil. I got my handkerchief out which is quite a feat due to parachute and seat harnesses plus keeping position with the others. My coop-top was open so stuck my hand out with the hanky to wipe the screen and the slipstream drove it back and nearly broke my arm on the coop-top. Realized how stupid I was so inched it out and wiped the wind screen which was a waste of time as still couldn't see so let the hanky go. As it turned out there were no drop out so returned to base. One of the reasons I was trying so hard was the C.O. had just brought in a ruling that we could be court-Maritaled if we came back for oil on the screen as it was happening too often. When I came in, the circuit there was a Mosquito coming in to land and they made him go around again to give me priority although I had not asked for it. I had no trouble landing so taxied over to dispersal. The crew said you should have seen your kite on take off. They would be looking at my right side, and it looked like a steam train and the only thing they could see was the spinner and tip of the nose. The reason I did not see it was due to the rotation of the prop blowing it all to the right side. They investigated and found that someone had just flown it on operations and his taxing it in and my taxing out right away had built up a lot of oil in the supercharger and as I couldn't rev. it up to get rid of it so, there was no blame on my part. I was worried for awhile on this one. It was around this time I landed from an operational trip and my rigger met me almost at the end of the runway so I turned off and he sat on the wing to guide me in. Bullets went up the runway behind me and saw a burst of flame out of the corner of my eye. My rigger was flat on the ground and I was standing in the cockpit ready to jump out but as the men around were not running for cover settled back in my seat. The flames were coming from a mule (a small tractor used to tow planes with) at the end of the runway A Mustang was coming in to land and a short in the firing system caused his guns to go off and he was landing just behind me. Had I turned off a couple of seconds later he would have shot me to pieces. We were escorting bombers over Germany one day and on starting back from the target we encountered thick cloud so began to lose altitude trying to find the ground. It was so thick I could only see the wing of my number one and I started to slide out too far and put on a little right rudder to skid back. I did this several times not realizing that I was reaching the spin stage until I felt her start to flip over but caught it and stopped the spin. But of course I lost the squadron so pulled the throttle back a little so would not overtake and ram someone. I heard nothing on the radio so assumed they were still going down continued to do so until I saw the ground and although close was not close enough so went right down and hugged the deck. Remember I was still over Germany and could be attacked at any moment so stayed close to the deck and so I could not be jumped from below or dived on from above. When I came to churches or high buildings tried to avoid going off course and passed them standing on my wing tip. I did not call base for homings as the enemy might find I was alone and also my position and send an attack force up. I listened to the calls of my squadron and changed courses when they did. I could not tell when I was over friendly territory this close to the ground until I heard our leader ask for landing instructions. I then called for a homing and was just North a short distance from the field and heaved a big sigh of relief. On 6 February, I carried out an armed recce. in the Munster-Hamm area (this was the battle of the bulge area at the time) for 2 hrs and escorted Fortresses to Cologne for another 2 hr. in Spit. XV1. Then my friend dysentery hit again and after two weeks in hospital was posted to Warmington to be sent home. One night went to a dance in town and met a girl and she invited me to her home for dinner on Sunday. Caught the train to Manchester and met her at the bus station. All this time I was wondering if I should be going there as food was rationed and if people were poor they could not afford to feed another person. As we traveled the housing got more run down and now felt worse about coming. I stopped at the edge of town and walked a short distance to an old farm house. She introduced me to her parents and took me out to see the farm. On opening the barn door there was a Rolls Royce up on Blocks and a couple of Bentleys that were not being used due to the shortage of fuel. I now felt more at ease and we had a great supper as they had plenty. I learned that her father owned a big factory and had been bombed out of their house twice. so, now They lived in this summer cottage. I was posted home on the 23 Feb.1945. I arrived in Halifax from Scotland on the Aquatania and given leave and posted to Halifax for a medical discharge. While in Halifax getting discharged I was in a hotel on Barrington St. having a shave when the mirror jumped on the wall and then heard a loud explosion and thought another V2 (German rocket bomb) and continued shaving. It suddenly dawned on me that I wasn't in London so hurried and went down to the street and found out there was an explosion at the magazine at Bedford. That evening I went up on the citadel with Grace Welch and friends to watch the fire and a few more explosions although they were small. We were up there in case of another big one to cause a lot of flying glass. I was discharged as a Pilot Officer and a few months later received back pay for my Flying Officer. Some months later received my big blue kit bag that was lost on the trip to Africa in 1942 as I believe it went to Freetown where I was supposed to go in the first place.

My Years in the Royal Canadian Air Force Part 11 [The Final Months]