Post Office Telegram

13th June 1944 | Telegram sent to Reg's mother

A Poem by Reg

Unknown date | Later poem by Reg

Lucky Escape

8th June 1944 | Reg Miles Biography

The second of June started much as May with an op to Neufchatel in France for another one third point, and on the 8th two days after D Day, Les Lauzon and I were marshalling V victor from our dispersal to the main runway, as I unlocked the elevators by pulling out the large pin. Something slipped and my hand was trapped and very badly cut, I had to be taken to the hospital, sewn up, bandaged and my arm put in a sling. No possibility of my going on the op so a spare flight engineer was called up in my place.

Later that night after some pain killers and a rest I heard the 432 planes returning and went down to the Ops room where all returning crews had to call in and give our statement of events; what we saw, if we could give any details of aircraft shot down, and all the details that would help to decide if the target had been hit.

When the Station Adjutant saw me he had a fit, my mother had just been sent a telegram to say I was missing on operations, my crew had been shot down and would not be returning.

This was a great shock to me. It would also be a shock to my parents.

First Daylight Op

3rd August 1944 | Reg Miles Biography

"Ten minutes to target" came through the intercom from the navigator and as was usual a heading for the skipper to take as soon as we had dropped our bombs, often a lot of noise over the target so best to get our escape route sorted before going in.

And there was the target. The first wave had been in and were on their way home again, but it was impossible to get to the target, one solid mass of bursting flak, not enough room between the bursts for even a small plane let alone a bomber. The skipper and I stared through the windscreen, we did not say anything but guess he felt as I did that this was going to be one hell of a trip. The holiday was over that was for sure!!

The bomb aimer was crouched over the bomb sight giving directions, only the skipper and I could see what was in front of us, but in we went and all was suddenly revealed to us. What we could see were the shells that had burst, the ones to worry about were the ones that were on their way up, not quite back to the holiday spirit, but survival was now possible. The great puffs of stinking smoke were swept aside as we juddered from near misses and kept on course to our dropping point. A quick look around the sky showed our friends doing what we were doing and guess we weren't the only ones to have had a bit of a fright at our first daylight op.