First of all, we didn't see many enemy aircraft because by that time, which was… I mean, 609 had just celebrated its 200^th victory, but that was October '43, and of course I was very keen to get on some of these shows, you see, but then found out that the one or two times that some enemy aircraft were sighted, the CO [commanding officer] or the flight commander were the first ones to get after them, you see.

And... you know, the whole thing at that time still was treated like a sport, and we had really fantastic flight commanders and squadron commanders who... quite a number had been in the Battle of Britain and so on, and so it was, you know… Even eventually when things became very nasty, you know, and we had big losses, if I look at my logbook, the language I used, you know: 'Woody shot down in flames, went into the drink; tough luck'. Things like that, which isn't me at all, you know, but it was a sort of defence mechanism against me getting too emotional. So obviously once you got back on the ground, you know, and you saw that some of your friends were not there any longer it had a… you know, a very sad effect, particularly since sometimes you had to write to the families left behind. And since I was, I think, I was already then a sensitive, very sensitive person, whereas we had Australians and New Zealanders who were really, you know, tough, but I was more sensitive, and... so maybe I felt more these things that were happening around…