Battle Order 204 (7)
A Perfect Landing

David called up control and asked for a priority landing, with fire engine and ambulance. And got them all.

In calling for the ambulance he had not mentioned himself, simply saying there was a wounded man on board.

Because the skipper’s arm was useless, Cyril operated the throttles and trims under his direction, as well as performing his own duties, monitoring engine and fuel gauges and lowering the undercarriage.

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Four hours and forty-five minutes after take-off Dog made a perfect landing. David had returned from his 23rd journey to hell.

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‘Cyril did a very good job throughout, as did all the crew. I was proud of them,’ David later said.

And they were proud of their Dave too. None of them knew how seriously their skipper had also been wounded. When they saw the blood congealed around his helmet and on his ripped trousers and jacket they were shocked.

Right arm dangling helplessly, David climbed with difficulty out of the cockpit, over the main spar, along the fuselage, to be assisted down the ladder by the Medical Officer. He and Cyril were taken to sick quarters where their wounds were dressed. It was an emotional crew who came to see them after interrogation.

‘Thanks, Skipper. You’re a damn good pilot.

You did a bang-on job.’

‘There’s bags of sympathy,’ Drew offered.

‘The kite’s a sieve,’ Pop reported.

‘Like me,’ their skip replied. ‘Dog’s back in its Kelstern kennel and there’s life in the two young Dogs yet.’

They grinned. No damage to their Dave’s sense of humour.

‘It was a good prang,’ they assured him. ‘And Jerry can’t claim us,’ they boasted.

David felt their love and faith in him like a shot of adrenalin, better than any painkiller. He would pull through this and come back to fly with them, he told himself with resolve. Their faces smiling encouragement were the last he saw as he was loaded into the ambulance again. And they stayed with him for the agonising 54-mile trip to Rauceby RAF Hospital. After X-rays, he was taken immediately into theatre, where surgeons removed all except one of the pieces of metal.

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By 1 am, the 10 hours since Dortmund seemed like a lifetime.