At dawn we took off with 345 Thunderbolts from Steeple Morden airbase - just above London. At the briefing we were told we would be escorting the fifth major raid of the month, en route to the port of Bremen. It was foggy, cloudy and cold. We were flying high above the clouds - some of the instruments even faltered in the cold - but the Germans were not going to make it too easy for us. 

We experienced fierce attacks near the German-Dutch border, with some fighters firing rockets at us to our surprise. The strong winds made manoeuvring our wind-sensitive Thunderbolts quite difficult. 

We were covering the rear of the bombers when I spotted two Focke Wulfs at four o'clock. I steered away diagonally, slightly upwind to the right, immediately followed by the others. We were turning higher and higher into the Lufberry* when I saw that Lanphier, fourth in line, was oversteering. The nose went too high, the carrying capacity was gone and I saw him tumble down. We tried to turn to cover him when we saw he was heading for the coast. He tried to disappear into the clouds there, but the Germans were too close. I saw them both firing at John, but because he deflected about 60 degrees, they couldn't hit him. Still, I'm afraid he couldn't straighten his plane - it didn't look good.” 

John Lanphier almost made it: he managed a belly landing, but the high speed and wet grass caused him to slide against the canal dike. His plane broke in three and the pilot lost his life in the process.  

Fifteen minutes earlier, another Thunderbolt from the same squadron had crashed near the Regge at Vilsteren. This pilot bailed out in time and landed safely at Mariënheem.

*If attacked and starting to circle above the enemy (a so-called 'Lufberry'), a pilot would be covered by the comrade behind you, so that in a small train they would be less vulnerable to enemy fire.

Text Hugo van den Ende

Research Stefan Hendriks