I'm sure Erich's wanting to see the article was about the 'Thru the Eiffel Tower' story (I'd like to see that as well!), but here's a story of RCAF night fighters of 409 Squadron (RCAF):
This is an excerpt from a series, hence RCAF and some other references that were spelled out earlier are not in this.
"Win Some, Lose Some"
William "Bill" Vincent joined the RCAF as soon as he graduated from school in 1940. Another product of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, he won his pilot wings in March 1942. His graduating class was another where 90 percent of the pilots were made NCOs and 10 percent were commissioned. They were also all graduates of the twin-engine course.
Bill recalls that most of his class was posted to England and into Bomber Command since their arrival coincided with the beginnings of that Command's introduction of four-engined aircraft and the establishment of many new bomber squadrons.
He, however, was posted to nightfighters. He was introduced to the Beaufighter in the Mk II Merlin-powered version at No. 54 OTU at Charter Hall. This version had an even greater reputation for ground looping due to the longer nacelles needed to contain the Merlins as compared to the shorter, Hercules radials. His most memorable flight in the Mk II had nothing to do with ground operations however.
In Bill's words, "I had about 20 hours in the Beau and was out practicing A.I. (airborne interception) intercepts. We would fly out in pairs, one aircraft acting as the target for a while, then swap roles and conduct our own intercepts on the other aircraft and under GCI (ground control intercept) control.
"On Friday, November 13, 1942, I had a mid-air collision with another Mk II. I was acting as the target and the 'fighter' was vectored onto me. As he completed his curve pursuit intercept he did not complete the breakaway properly. He was supposed to pull off to either the left or the right. Instead, he came right underneath my aircraft and pulled up right in front of me.
"He misjudged his pull up and my starboard engine chopped off his left elevator. He was trying to throw me into his slipstream, which would make it very difficult to maintain control of my aircraft. As it was, the collision and prop wash flipped me upside down and it took a lot of altitude to regain control.
"The other guy was unable to regain any control and went straight in. Neither he nor his nav got out.
"I was having my own troubles just then, however. The propeller blades of the Mk II were wooden, variable pitch ones. When the accident occurred, the blades just shattered and wood went flying everywhere. Fortunately, none broke through the cockpit plexiglass. If it had, I would have been skewered.
"I lost a lot of height getting my aircraft back to level flight. I had to watch not over-G'ing the plane because my starboard engine had been bent sharply off center. The supports and brackets were really stressed and I didn't think the engine would stay on the wing. It did, however, and I was able to recover and land.
"They conducted an investigation and I was found not to be at fault. Seems the other pilot had a history of such 'pull ups' but had never been reported. This time he cut it too close and killed himself. Unfortunately, he took his navigator in with him and almost my crew as well."
Bill finished his night fighter training and was subsequently posted to No. 409 Squadron (RCAF) located at an airfield named Coleby Grange just south of the city of Lincoln in central England. The squadron was equipped with Mk VI Beaufighters. In December 1942, Bill was commissioned as a pilot officer. As he puts it, "I wasn't commissioned because I was exceptional but rather because Canada wanted to 'Canadianize' their overseas squadrons by eliminating or replacing the RAF and other Commonwealth squadron members in the Canadian units. No matter, it put me on a more equal footing with my Canadian nav, who already was a commissioned officer."
Due to the decline in relative numbers of the Luftwaffe and the growth in numbers of night fighter squadrons, 409 had relatively little trade in their sector.
Lacking said enemy activity, in April 1944, the squadron moved to the south to the famous night fighter field of West Malling. In addition to a new airfield, the Canadians were switching to a new aircraft, the Mosquito and designated as a D-Day invasion squadron.
On that day, June 6 1944 and after, there was plenty of enemy activity associated with the invasion of France. Numerous Ju 88 and Ju 188 aircraft were active laying mines in the invasion beach waters and the squadron racked up an impressive number of kills against these aircraft. During this time, V-1 'Flying Bombs' were also being fired from the Calais area towards London; these pilotless aircraft often flew right over 409's airfield and disrupted squadron activity transiting to and from their patrol area.
Eventually the squadron was moved from West Malling to RAF Hunsden, northeast of London. They were assigned against the V-1s for about a month. Although 409 enjoyed little success intercepting the V-1s, they did a brisk business against the pesky minelayers. Crews were obviously eager to join in during this burst of trade.
By this time in the war, Bill recalls that it took six kills to earn a DFC. He never earned a DFC, but he did achieve one kill. On the evening of June 26, 1944 Bill and his nav were on patrol over the Normandy beaches. A GCI site located on a barge near the French town of Fecamp picked up an intruder flying the same profile as earlier minelayers and vectored Bill onto it.
The GCI controller continued giving vectors for the crew to steer until the nightfighter's radar made contact with the bogey (an unindentified radar contact). Picking up the chase, Bill's navigator brought Bill into visual range. All A.I. intercepts had to go to a visual identification to avoid shooting down a friendly aircraft. Bill gained such a 'visual,' sighting a Ju 188.
Bill picks up the story, "He was just turning towards the beachhead when I laid on some deflection and gave him a short two second burst of cannon fire which hit him in the port engine near the wing root and he went down, creating a large fireball when the aircraft hit the water.
"The GCI controller radioed me that he saw the Jerry hit the water."
"Recently an RAF officer researching the fates of German aircraft that failed to return from missions against the invasion and beaches contacted me about this engagement. Evidently some of the Ju's crew did bail out and were fished out of the water by the Royal Navy. They spent the rest of the war as POWs.
"This officer was able to pinpoint the exact latitude and longitude as well as the precise date and time of the kill - one minute past midnight, June 27, 1944!"
In July 1944, Bill was tour expired and was posted to No 54 nightfighter OTU for a rest. It was here that he became reacquainted with the Beaufighter. He instructed new crops of eager crews in the aerial tactics required for successful nightfighting. He went later back to operations with 410 Squadron (RCAF) in France again flying Mosquitoes. He flew from numerous fields there and in Belgium, Holland, and Germany until the end of the war.
Bill remained in the RCAF after the war eventually rising to the rank of Major General. He remained an active military pilot until his retirement in 1976. He was a driving force in the establishment of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a joint US-Canadian air and space defense of the northern hemisphere. Since his military career, he has been very active in local government- being elected an alderman for his hometown of Comox for 18 consecutive years, helped with numerous charities, and served as Chairman, Canadian Fighter Pilots Association, Western Region