David Hearsey, DFC, was a bomber pilot. Here he recalls participating in a raid over Leipzig in his Handley Page Halifax in February 1944.
We set out on an easterly heading across the North Sea towards the Danish coast. I told the gunners, Wally and Ted, to test their guns and fire a few rounds — mainly because I found the smell of burnt cordite through the aircraft comforting. I have a theory that combatants can stand the awfulness of battles such as Waterloo or Jutland because the smell of explosives acts as an anti-depressant drug.
The crew had many ways to contain fear. Steve, wireless operator, read cowboy paperbacks; Colin, bomb aimer, stood up all the time with his front Lewis machinegun looking for something to shoot at; Bill, the navigator, kept duplicate charts to impress ‘Intelligence’; I never knew what Wally and Ted did except grumble about being cold.
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