Don Nixon vividly recalls each of the 35 missions he flew over Nazi-occupied Holland and France, as well as Germany’s Ruhr Valley — including many close calls
It’s bound by plywood covers and contains dozens of pages with hundreds of photographs that chronicle his years as a bomber pilot during the Second World War and as a fighter pilot when he returned from overseas.
Somehow, he managed to make it back to England every time, although he admits his bombers were sometimes “like cheese, filled with holes” when he touched down on English soil. By early 1943, as bombers were being shot down in greater numbers and the loss of pilots escalated, Nixon found himself in one of the war’s most dangerous jobs, the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Command.
“I used the Halifax as a fighter and took on German fighters and beat them … the gunners were the ones — they were very good — and I just kept dodging the fighters.” On other missions, Nixon and his flight engineer sometimes would have to redistribute fuel from one engine to another if it was hit, fearing a spark could ignite the engine and wing.
He has no idea why he survived. “I taught air fighting, how to evade and hit back,” said Nixon. “I was told what to do and I did that. But I felt that in my position as a pilot and the captain, it was also my job to get that aircraft and those crew members back home. That was my principle. He discovered the connection during a casual conversation with two people in a vehicle, one of whom turned out to be the German fighter pilot.
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