Bar Wing Commander Guy P. Gibson VC DSO - Enemy Coast Ahead [Illustrated Edition]

This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHINGwww.picklepartnerspublishing.com

To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books picklepublishing@gmail.com

Or on Facebook

Text originally published in 1945 under the same title.

Pickle Partners Publishing 2015, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publishers Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Authors original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern readers benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

ENEMY COAST AHEAD

BY

GUY GIBSON, VC

Contents

A/CAircraftman

AGAir Gunner

ASIAirspeed Indicator

ATAAir Transport Auxiliary

AVMAir Vice Marshal

DFCDistinguished Flying Cross

DSODistinguished Service Order

ErksSlang meaning the lowest rank in the Royal Air Force

F/LtFlight Lieutenant: commanding rank of a Fighter Flight.

Gen Verb [no object] to find out about. [w/object] To provide information

JeepWireless Operator

NAAFINavy, Army and Air Force Institutes

OTUOperational Training Units

QDM[Not an acronym] One of many three letter brevity codes

R/TRadio Telephony

SASOSenior Air Staff Officer

S/LSquadron-Leader: commanding rank of a Bomber Flight.

WAAFWomens auxiliary Air Force

W/O, W op /Wireless Operator

W/CWing Commander

IN writing this book on the past four years of war, I have had to work without notes, and without help from diaries. I have never kept a diary because I never even dreamt that the lot would fall to me, in 1944, to try to describe the work of air crews in Bomber and Fighter Squadrons.

The fact that I have been extremely lucky to have survived must go without saying. Only a few will disagree, and they dont know. But I hope that living people who have served with me will forgive me if I have left them out, or worse, put words into their mouths which they never said. A memory is a short thing, and flak never does it much good. However, the aim of this book is to illustrate the growth of a small baby in 1939 to the awesome colossus that it has become todaythe growth of Bomber Command.

Not only in size and bomb capacity, but also in accuracy it has achieved immense proportions, and has now reached the stage, perhaps the ultimate stage, when whole industrial areas or single factories can be wiped off the face of the earth in a single night, despite weather conditions and despite opposition over the target itself.

In admiring the air crews who are now engaged in completing the destruction of the Third Reich, we must remember that their lot, side by side with the American daylight crews, is to wage the toughest war of all. The losses in percentage in any one air raid are not unduly highrarely above ten per centbut remember this used to go on for some sixty missions, and the bare fact remains that out of a squadron of twenty-five crews, not many are left at the end of three months. Well, these boys know all this, and yet not in the slightest degree does it deter them from pressing home their attack with the highest possible sense of duty; in fact, they are proud to be members of the only offensive team bringing the war home to the Germans, inside Germany itself. These boys have got guts; and they must have or they never would be able to do the job.

Nor must we forget the ground crews, who make these raids possible by their untiring efforts under very tiring conditions. Nor the Squadrons and the Groups, and the WAAF and the clerks, the Ministry of Economic Warfare, the Directors of Bombing Operations in the Air Ministry, and Air Chief Marshal Harris himself and his staff. And perhaps, above all, the scientists and MAP backroom boys who have made such progress.

It will happen that by the time this book is published new events will be taking place in Europe. New place-names may be appearing in the headlines of our daily papers, and the role of the heavy bombers may even be changed to that of tactical necessity rather than strategical. If that is the case, then let no one forget the work done by home-based bombers during the dark years of 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1943, who alone fought the enemy on his own ground, and alone stand as one of the mighty factors that have brought about the changed war situation. All-powerful in the war, let the bombing forces be all-powerful in peace over Europe...Then, when one task has been done, the yellow skies of Japan will hear the same dreaded hum of thousands of aircraft, American and British, the same crump of bigger and better block-busters and the rattle of cannons. And the Japs wont like it.

To dedicate a book of this nature is not easy. Many different people are involved. Above all, I should like to mention the wives, the sweethearts and the mothers of all crews operating from this country against Germany.

Peace and war are vastly different. But the atmosphere our crews live in is shared by their next of kin. One moment they are together living their own lives and happy; a man and wife walking hand in hand down a country lane may in a few hours be separated, perhaps for ever. True, sailors leave home for the countless dangers of the Seven Seas, but their people have not got a television set which can see them every few days dive-bombed, torpedoed, undergoing the hardships of war on the sea. Those at home worry, but they dont know, and they dont want to know. A soldier in the front line, it is true, lives in the turmoil of battle; but his girlfriend does not see him every week grimy, unshaven, stepping over the dead bodies of his comrades to advance another few yards, His people cannot see him doing his job.

But picture peaceful England on a cool spring evening; the flowers are blooming, the hum of serenity is in the air. Suddenly there is a snarl of four motors, and a few hours later your airman is fighting the hell of flak and destruction over the target.

At home they wait, brave and patient, asking the same questions, again and again: I hope he gets back all right; when are they due? It is grim for them, grim and terrible. For this reason I should like to dedicate this book to Those at Home: my wifeyour sisterhis brotherthe girlfriendsand the mothers. But I know they would say no. They are brave people, and like all brave people they would have it no other way but to turn their heads aside and say: Give this book to Them.

I therefore dedicate this book to the boys who have not been so lucky; who have given all they can give to their country for Freedoms sake. Let us never, never forget Them.

THE moon was full; everywhere its pleasant, watery haze spread over the peaceful English countryside, rendering it colourless. But there is not much colour in Lincolnshire, anyway. The city of Lincoln was silentthat city which so many bomber boys know so well, a city full of homely peoplepeople who have got so used to the Air Force that they have begun almost to forget them. Lincoln with its great cathedral sticking up on a hill, a landmark for miles around. Little villages in the flat Fenland slept peacefully. Here nice simple folk live in their bastions on the East Anglian coast. The last farmer had long since gone to bed; the fire in the village pub had died down to an ember; the bar, which a few hours ago was full of noisy chattering people, was silent. There were no enemy aircraft about and the scene was peaceful. In fact, this sort of scene might not have changed for a hundred years or so. But this night was differentat least different for 133 men: 133 young fliers, and I was one of those men. This was the big thing. This was it.