F/Lt Mervyn M. Johnstone
Royal Canadian Air Force 431st Squadron
from:Orillia, Ontario, Canada
My Uncle, Flight Lt Johnstone, pilot, RCAF, wrote:
It would be the 8th trip on our second tour of bombing operations. Night of June 16/17-airborne at about 2200 hours, the target was a part of the munitions complex in the Rhur Valley. No big deal and no problems. On leaving the German border behind, we were in and out of the tops of cloud at around 16,000 feet and homeward bound over Holland. Time to break out some flight rations of orange juice and candy bar. Wham! A burst of cannon shell holes a few inches apart, traced a pattern from the bomb aimers position, through the navigator's table and angled through the left side of the instrument panel past the port inner engine which was set afire. Going into some fairly wild weaving with height change, we shut down the port inner, deployed the one shot fire extinguisher and took stock. The navigator, John Burns had just pulled his feet back to relax and was uninjured. "Dinger" Bell was still prone in his position and received some injury to his left ribs. The aircraft was flyable. Right away, another burst of swept the port wing root and reestablished fire in that engine. Worse still, the wing began to vibrate and a major aileron control problem was developing. Bail out! Proof the the Germans had developed some mighty sophisticated radar and guns in their aircraft was evident.
They were flying Halifax MZ-537 SE-L from Croft and crashed near Druemel in The Netherlands. Names of crew were Sgt JC Fereday, Flight Engineer RAF, F/Lt JC Burns, Navigator RCAF, F/O C Bell, Bombardier RCAF, F/O Lloyd Oliver Stanley, Telegrapher RCAF, F/O MB Steeves, gunner RCAF and F/O RJ Oates, gunner RCAF. Mervyn learned that Stanley, Fereday and Oates were uninjured but were captured by the Germans shortly after landing. Burns and Steeves were at farmhouses close by and Bell was tended by a doctor who had underground connections. Lifelong friendships were made especially with the van Gelder family in Alforst. They were hidden well by the wonderful Dutch folk! On July 16 they travelled in pairs on cycles to town of Hertogenbosch, then boarded a train for Eindhoven. They were then to cycle in pairs to Belgian border but 10 miles from the border the guide that was leading them disappeared and subsequently the four of them were rounded up. They ended up in Stalag Luft 1 Barth Vogelsang until the end of the war.
