[CKY_86]

It was normally our way to wake up at 0400 hours & sit around in the crew room playing cards & reading magazines untill we started operations wich came around 0700 hours.

Today was diffrent however. At around 0440 hours the base sergent burst into the crew room. He looked around the room, caught sight of us (Me & Dieger) an said ''Osaka flight, report to your planes imidiatlly. You will be breifed outside''. We both moved swiftlly to the dispersal area where out planes were waiting. Before I had even chance to strap myself in, I was handed the ground telephone.
''Osaka 1 here'' I said into the reciver. There was silence for a miniute or two & then a voice broke off the silence.
''Osaka 1, an enemy aircraft of bomber size has been reported approaching this base at a low altitude of 500 Meters. You and your wingman will intercept the intruder. Stand-by for take-off.''

Pretty near as soon as the voice on the end had finished talking, the reciver was taken away from me & my cockpit canopy shut by one of the ground crew. The time was now 0452 hours. It was still relativlly dark outside and the cloud cover was very low. It looked as if it was about to chuck it down with rain at any miniute. Not the best condictions for an interception, I thought to myself.

Miniute after miniute passed with total silence. All of a sudden the loudspeakers from the hangers belowed ''Osaka flight, take off imidiatlly, Osaka flight, take off imidiatlly.'' Within a few seconds my plane was bouncing down the runway gaining speed rapidlly. As I lifted up into the dark sky I couldnt help but think that I should have gone to the can before hand.

Once my plane was in the air I made a circuit of the base & Osaka 2 formed up on my wing. I contacted base:
Osaka 1 to ground control, Osaka 1 to ground control, do you read me?''
Almost imidiatlly a voice replied: Ground control to Osaka 1, we read you loud an clear. The intruder is on vector 60 at altitude 5.

We both turned our planes on to course 60 an climbed to 500 meters. The chase was on.



I instructed Osaka 2 to keep very close. Flying conditions were almost blind. Ground control was directing us to the Intruder. Every 30 seconds or so a voice was sounding the next course to fly on. I started to get a little unsure as to if they were directing us to the bomber. It seemed we were going round in circles. We were then instructed to fly on a certain course an drop to 400 meters. ''You should have contact an moment'' ground control said.



We continued on the same course and altitude for what must have been 15 miniutes without sighting anything. ''Christ, I hate it when they get us to do these missions in this sort of weather'' Osaka 2 muttered over the radio. I tried hard not to let a little laugh escape. Dieger was never a morning person and not being able to take his plane didn't help either. His plane had been damaged in the mission yesterday & still wasn't reparied, despite the mechanics best efforts, so he was forced to take number 7. Ground control came over the radio all of a sudden. ''Osaka flight, take course 240 and return to base imidiatlly.'' Osaka flight, take course 240 and return to base imidiatlly.'' Turning our planes round to follow the same course, we were both quite confused. The sun had started to make an apperance and it was becoming much brighter, thankfully.



The flight back to base didn't take long. Osaka 2 dropped back a bit as the weather was getting better all the time. It was a very relaxing flight back an I took time to look at the scenery that was being brought out of the darkness by the sun. As we neared the base, i could see fire an smoke pouring up into the sky. we made a pass over the base & my stomach done a summersault as We flew over the crash sight of what must have been the enemy plane. So this is why we were called back.



Osaka 2 circled the base a few times & I chose to land first. On taxiing I sighted the burnt out wreck of one of the bombers that was stationd at the airfield.



As I parked my plane up, Osaka 2 got into the landing pattern. Before jumping out of my plane I said to him over the radio ''Dieger, prepair yourself for a roasting.'' Almost as soon as my feet had touched the ground one of the Flight commanders messangers said to me ''You and Osaka 2 shall report to the flight commanders office straight away.''



I waited for Dieger to land an we both headed to the comanders office together. The comander opened the door before we had chance to even knock. He invited us in & offered us seats. He then told us, much to our suprise ''don't worry, your not in trouble, it's the person that was directing you that is.'' He then went on to tell us how the person directing us onto the target was infact, leading us in circles. Apparentlly he didn't have a clue what he was doing. The comander then told us that the aircraft come over the base, came under fire from our AA wich caused a fire. The plane then came round and set one of outr bombers on fire, using its defensive guns. He then came back around but the AA gunners dealt him a death blow. The plane then reared up, turned over onto it's side an crashed a little way from the airfield. After me an Dieger both left the room we breathed a sigh of relief.

A few days later, one of the mechanics showed me a couple of pictures that were taken of the aircraft. These pictures are now framed & hang above the fire in the crew room.