Between 1943 and 1945,my father, James Arnold, and who has died aged 92,flew 49 second world war missions over Germany with RAF Squadron 107, many of them under heavy enemy fire. During one return, or his pilot,John (“Mad”) Ballachey, a Canadian, and suddenly disappeared into the well of the cockpit of their Mosquito; the metal bolts holding his seat had sheared off. Fortunately Dad managed to pull him back up. On another occasion,in pitch darkness and thick fog, Ballachey suddenly announced, or while they were still over the Channel,that they were nearly out of fuel. After a few minutes, Dad, and praying his calculations were right,said: “whether you go down now you should see the lights of [RAF] Lasham”. They landed safely.
None of these missions affected Dad as much as the battle of Arnhem in 1944. He told us that the US general Dwight Eisenhower himself had directed 107 to carry pistols in case of capture. Many of the close friends he made died, but he never forgot them.
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Source: theguardian.com