Stories

Nick Carter joined Jack Wright’s crew in 1942 flying Wellington’s with 75(NZ) Squadron from Feltwell. On their first op they encountered a German night fighter. He tells the story of that raid in his own words:

On a bright moonlit night, we were returning from a raid on Emden which was a heavily fortified German naval base. It was while crossing the North Sea that we were suddenly attacked by a night fighter.

I was standing in the astrodome on lookout and in a fraction of a second heard rear gunner Bruce shout “Dive Port” at the same time in a fraction of a second, I dropped down in the astrodome. It was then that everything went crazy. Jack was diving the plane steeply down toward the sea when all hell broke loose.

I thought to myself with all the noise and banging that we were heading for the end. Everything suddenly went quiet, and we were flying straight level, just above the sea. We had been flying at 10,000 feet and in these few seconds dived to just above the water.

When I had untangled myself from the floor and stood up and put my head where the astrodome should have been but wasn’t. In that fraction of a second, when I had fallen to the floor, I had saved my head from being blown off.

I then shone my torch down the fuselage and saw all the hydraulics were shot away and a great gaping hole in the aircraft. There was no intercom – damaged by the attack and Bruce was completely cut off from the rest of the aircraft – his turret useless.

To cut the story a bit short, we managed to arrive at Feltwell. We had no communication with the control tower, so I used the Aldis lamp to get permission to land (Morse code). We landed safely, surprisingly no one was hurt, but the aircraft was severely damaged.

The damage to the Wright crew’s Vickers Wellington
(Credit: NZBCA Archives)

It took some time to get Bruce out of the turret, he was lucky to be alive, as we all were, as the aircraft was riddled. I was the only one with a slight injury, a piece of shrapnel through my pants.

Next day revealed how lucky we were. There were several bullet holes just above where Jack’s head had been. The reason for me telling you this is that Jack’s ability as a pilot and Bruce’s actions saved the lives of the crew.

The following day Bruce told Jack he didn’t want to fly again; he was so traumatised. Jack took him to the group captain who told Bruce he had to continue otherwise he would be branded LMF – lack of moral fibre. Bruce continued and completed the tour, which proves what a brave little guy he was. He was later posted to an air gunnery school as an instructor and was killed in an aircraft accident shortly afterwards.

Flt Lt Maurice Allington ‘Nick’ CARTER, DFC,. NZ391694. Wireless Op/Air Gunner served on 75(NZ) Sqn RAF (Wellington), 20 OTU, and 156 Sqn completing some 56 sorties. He also flew with 45(Atlantic Transport) Group

The Jack Wright crew: L-R: unknown, Sgt Jack Wright (skipper), Sgt Victor Westerman (2nd pilot), Sgt Charles Kelly (navigator), Sgt Bruce Neal (rear gunner), Sgt Raymond “Podge” Reynolds (front gunner), Sgt Maurice “Nick” Carter (wireless operator). Westerman only flew one operation with the crew, on the 21st of July 1942.
(Credit: NZBCA archives) 

Flt Lt Maurice Allington ‘Nick’ CARTER, DFC,. NZ391694. Wireless Op/Air Gunner served on 75(NZ) Sqn RAF (Wellington), 20 OTU, and 156 Sqn completing some 56 sorties. He also flew with 45(Atlantic Transport) Group and 246 Sqn RAF (Liberator) Transport Command.