My son Mitchell is 12 and in year 7 at school.
This was his latest story for classwork/homework. Being his mum :) I thought this was quite good for a 12 year old
who has become fascinated with Spitfires recently. His teacher was pleased with it. I do believe boys write better on a subject they are passionate
about.
He does know that I am sharing this with you .
My heart stopped. I was surrounded by the enemy in BF109’s. I knew that, while over Germany, the only thing I could do was to turn around and fight. Luckily I was in a Mk 19 spitfire so this meant that I could. So I turned around and started shooting. You’re probably wondering how this all started. Well I’ll tell you. I’m a Sgt. In the RAF and this is a story of my near death in 1940. I am one of the very few lucky survivors of the second world war. I had completed 24 missions and this meant that one more mission and I got to go home. There was one catch that this would be over the enemy’s home ground. Yes Germany, and this would be the hardest mission I would ever face. I had to get to the centre of Germany while keeping a low profile and bombing a Panzer factory which is next to a hospital and a school. This meant I had to be precise because bombing a school or hospital would be inhumane. But it’s not over yet, I would then have to fight my way back to England in one piece. Was I scared ? Yes, very scared. It was 8:00 pm so I had to get some sleep as I had to take off at 12:00 noon. I woke up the next morning and got dressed. Once I had my breakfast I got into the cockpit I checked everything and started the engine. I put on full throttle and released the brakes. The acceleration and speed was immense. You see this wasn’t just my last mission but also the test flight of the spitfire Mk XIX (19). While I was taking off, I thought about the fact that I might not make it back alive. But I had my lucky three leafed clover with me. You’re thinking that a four leafed clover is lucky. But not in a spitfire because it has three blades.
After 4 hours of flying I was at the coast of Germany. All I had to do now was to get to the target, bomb it, then get home. Suddenly three BF 109s came up behind me and started to fire. I was doing cannon rolls, ground dives and even low flying but I couldn’t shake them. I knew that there was one thing I could do. Turn around and fight back. I turned around and fired. It didn’t work so I did a half roll and dived. They followed but didn’t pull up in time and crashed. Then I found I was over the target so I released the bomb. I could hear the whistle of the bomb falling and then..... BOOM!!!!!!! It was bang on target. I turned around and put the auto-pilot on. I had got back to the coast of Germany and had found two 50 calibre turrets. They started firing and hit the bomb doors. “ that was close”, I said to myself. While landing, I suddenly realised that the bomb doors weren’t the only thing that got shot. The wheels had got shot as well and wouldn’t open. I braced myself for a crash landing. The next thing I knew was that I was on the ground. Without warning, the engine caught fire so I made a quick escape. The plane then blew up and I got out unharmed except from a few minor burns.
They threw me a party when I had got back and I was awarded the bravery medal. This was the last time I saw my cabin buddies at the base. The next day I went home to my beautiful wife and children, John and Elizabeth. John grew up to be a doctor and had three children. Elizabeth grew up to be a mechanic and had two children. I am not going to say my name because I don’t want to be remembered as a war hero but as a normal father and husband.
By
Mitchell