We flew at night using the cover of darkness as stealth, also to cover the fact there were a thousand bombers in the air at one time.
This night, the mission was to bomb a critical munitions factory. As flight leader It was my job to navigate to the target by the stars, and mark the target for the other bombers to take aim.

There was heavy flack as we a aproached the target area. I stayed around to make sure the target was "painted" properly. There were no smart bombs then so the whole flight depended on the accuracy of my marking.

As was customary, we flew with no lights. Flying to the target we were in tight formation. After the bomb run was over, all thousand planes turned toward home. All planes headed back to England with no particular formation or plan except to try to return home safely. Flying with no lights, midair collisions were common, and a three to six percent attrition rate was acceptable. It may seem inhumane, but the importance of the missions overuled many safety measures that would normally be taken.

(c)2008 Walt Hardester