Near miss

Near miss

Describes a very near collision at night between a Halifax and a German Fw 190, and lists crew of Halifax. He recalls it was their 31st operation out of a total of 34.

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MThomasJH424515-180122-02

NEAR MISS

On the night of 5th January 1945 Halifax aircraft {NA565} DY V-Victor of 102 Squadron Pocklington, East Yorkshire was en-route to Hanover Germany when about 15 minutes short of the target an FW-190 single engined fighter crossed in front of V-Victor. Both aircraft were at an altitude of 24000 feet and a time difference of less than 0.2 seconds was the margin of clearace [sic]. Closing speed was approximately 380 mph and the German pilot was unaware of the presence of the RAF bomber. The FW-190 was flown at night with the canopy open because of the reflection of the exhaust on the windscreen. The air temperature was -45 C.

CREW

F/O Jack Thomas Pilot
P/O Jack White Bomb/Aimer
SGT Derek Turner Navigator
FL/SGT Ross Pearson W/A/G
SGT John Hughes FL/Engineer
SGT Nat Goldberg Mid/upper/gunner
F/O "Taffy" Davies Mid/upper/gunner
FL/SGT Jack Williamson Rear/gunner

This was the 31st raid in an operational tour of 34 raids