Sid was Bombardier on Richard Brown's crew with 331BS 94th BG.



On the home stretch with just four missions to go, targeted the marshalling yards at Ulm and hopefully a 'milk run'. They were carrying a motley assortment of bombs which included six of the Navy type with which Sid was unfamiliar. On most fragmentation bombs the cotter pins were removed from the vanes once they were airborne and he carried out the normal procedure. A while later one of the gunners alerted him to the fact that the vanes were turning, the prelude to explosion. The answer to the problem was to dump the bombs over water so they headed back to the Channel and all five gunners buckled on their 'chutes, expecting the worst. Over the Channel a break in the clouds revealed a large flotilla of the Royal Navy so they carried on looking for an other break over empty seas. Sid toggled out the six bombs and just as the last one cleared the bomb bay doors it exploded, rocking the plane 'crazily'. They were ordered back to base - therefore not credited with the mission -and Sid and Richard Brown were confined to base pending an enquiry. Later that afternoon Sid was interviewed by the Group Bombardier and the restriction lifted.



The long-awaited final mission - No 35- was to Frankfurt and they came through unscathed.