Lucky accident 

English Air Marshal, Sir Arthur T. Harris, who had taken office in February, wanted to break the morale of the German population by submitting them to scorching bombardments in the hearts of German cities. It was through this that he 'earned' the nickname Bomber Harris. 

Departing from Brighton Air Base at around 20:00, Wellington Z1212 was the last of a squadron of Australian aircrafts. Sat in the front in the nose turret of the plane was bomb aimer, Horatio Munckton. He had two machine guns at his disposal should a fighter plane appear in front of him, and would also discharge the more than 800 incendiary bombs. In case of emergency, he would also act as second pilot.  

Munckton had replaced regular bomber Johnsen, who was sick back at the air base. Needless to say, he was on extra alert now that they were the last aircraft to be potential prey for German fighter planes. What he didn't know, however, was that over the eastern Netherlands a formidable night fighter was looking for prey: Oberleutnant Lüttje. Within a few months, Lüttje would become Staffel Captain of his own group of fighters and receive the coveted Knight's Cross. 

“Soon, at 14,000 feet, we were detected and fired upon by two night fighters. A rain of bullets rumbled through our aircraft and destroyed the hydraulic system, preventing us from turning our turrets. So we couldn't fire back either. 

We dove steeply into a cloud at 7,000 feet, after which pilot Kim ordered me to leave the turret and assist him. I could see from the fuel gauge how much fuel we were losing. To make the plane as light as possible, we immediately dropped our bombs and began the return journey. Our navigator Jarrett had been wounded in the face by a shell splinter. I left my position and put an emergency bandage around his head. 

At that moment, I saw grenade explosions at the level of my foot and the plane plunged straight down. Apparently Kim was no longer in control of the plane. I could not get in touch with the cockpit: the intercom was no longer working. I opened the escape hatch by my foot and wriggled through the narrow opening. Almost immediately, I was caught by the passing airstream and within a few seconds hung wildly shaking under my parachute. 

I heard a huge explosion from the plane as I made a fairly soft landing at about the same time. As I watched the wreckage burn out a short distance away, I realised I had made it out alive and suddenly felt intensely grateful.” - Munckton in an interview in 1992.

Text: Hugo van den Ende 
Research: Stefan Hendriks