91热爆

This story was submitted to the Peoples War website by Karolina Kopiec from 91热爆 GMR Action Desk on behalf of John Marshall and has been added to the site with his permission

I trained as pilot in Canada but then becasue they had a slut of pilots the UK element of the course I was an we were all scrubbed off the course and were forced to re-muster as a member of a bomber crew and inspite of my abilities as a navigator I decided to remuster as a bomb aimer and return to this country. I was crewed up into a Lancaster bomber eventually and posted to 550 squadron at Killinghorne near Grimsby.
By this time the war was almost over so we weren't called upon to go operational at that time. As the war finished it was decided to utilise the bomber aircraft to transport the 8th Army back to England and we flew them back from Naples (operation Dodge). On the last night we had to pick up 20 passengers at Peterborough to return to duty in Italy. We had to avoid flying over high ground because we couldn't carry oxygen for 20 passengers.
After crossing from France at Cherbough, we flew over the Mediterrean the Touluse Gap. Before wwe could turn to get to Naples we lost not one but 3 of the 4 engines which left us just one. So we had to do as emergency engine landing at Isterss near Marseille. We got safely down but it was very hazardous. After an overnight stop we continued to Naples, where we were forced to stay 3 weeks until a further lift came out. We were divertes over the low ground in Eastern Austria and eventually St Mawgn and stayed overnight and returned to base. There we found a squadron had disbanded, so we were the last Lancaster to return to 550 Squadron.

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