Larry
1st December 2009, 19:32
This is part of a letter that PO Douglas Rayment , 12 Bomber Sqn, wrote home on 10th August 1937.
As you may gather from the papers we have been having a pretty hectic time, and are still in the middle of it. I can't quite remember what day it is but yesterday evening we left Andover and went by Selsey Bill to a place near Cromer in Norfolk; arriving there just as the sun was setting we immediately refuelled and set off back to Andover via Orfordness, Colchester which we bombed.
Of course it was pitch dark by then and lots of searchlights swept round the sky until one finally located me, and when in its beam it is almost impossible to see anything, and it was a very nasty thought knowing that you are one of a formation of three and that the leader is probably only a matter of a dozen feet away.
After all that we were within fifteen minutes of Andover when we ran into low clouds. It is quite impossible to describe the predicament of being in formation on a dark night and then running into clouds. 'You come out with the horizon at an angle, and as luck would have it I managed to still keep in view the leading machine.
Well we arrived back at about 11.45pm after flying for 4 1/2 hours only to hear that we would be back in the air at 5 am.
Incidentally two fellows in one machine were killed two fields away from the aerodrome. It is surmised that the pilot fainted and dived straight into the ground. It was a terrible mess, and took men two hours to find the wreckage.
Any suggestions?
As you may gather from the papers we have been having a pretty hectic time, and are still in the middle of it. I can't quite remember what day it is but yesterday evening we left Andover and went by Selsey Bill to a place near Cromer in Norfolk; arriving there just as the sun was setting we immediately refuelled and set off back to Andover via Orfordness, Colchester which we bombed.
Of course it was pitch dark by then and lots of searchlights swept round the sky until one finally located me, and when in its beam it is almost impossible to see anything, and it was a very nasty thought knowing that you are one of a formation of three and that the leader is probably only a matter of a dozen feet away.
After all that we were within fifteen minutes of Andover when we ran into low clouds. It is quite impossible to describe the predicament of being in formation on a dark night and then running into clouds. 'You come out with the horizon at an angle, and as luck would have it I managed to still keep in view the leading machine.
Well we arrived back at about 11.45pm after flying for 4 1/2 hours only to hear that we would be back in the air at 5 am.
Incidentally two fellows in one machine were killed two fields away from the aerodrome. It is surmised that the pilot fainted and dived straight into the ground. It was a terrible mess, and took men two hours to find the wreckage.
Any suggestions?