Pete "Willy" Williamson

Willy Williamson with SirDar the dog
Willy with Sirdar. Seems like every squadron in England had a canine mascot or two

Bedhampton DFC Got JU With Gun-Sight Out of Order

A 22-year-old Bedhampton D.F.C. night fighter pilot who "blacked out" in the middle of combat with the JU. 88 and recovered only to find out that his gunsight was useless, made his ninth "kill" a few nights ago, by chasing the Junkers back to Germany and sending it crashing in flames.

Flight lieut. Peter Greville Kaye Williamson, D.F.C., of Hill Lodge, Bedhampton, was flying a mosquito over Belgium when he overheard the ground controller instructing another pilot over the radiotelephone to go to an area where an enemy aircraft was operating. Williamson asked for permission to go along too.

Like daylight

"When I got there, he said, " the whole area was so bright by the light of fires that it was almost like daylight. Finding the enemy aircraft was easy. It immediately began to take violent evasive action.

" I closed and identified it as a JU-88, but before I could attack it went into a steep dive. I followed, firing a short burst of cannon, but without success." The enemy aircraft suddenly pulled out violently, and flight Lieut. Williamson followed suit. "Then," he continued, "everything went dark. The sudden jolt as I came out of the dive had caused me to 'black out'. Fortunately, it was only temporary, and I regained my vision after a few seconds, only to find that my gunsight was out of order.

Long burst

"There was no time to fix it so I closed right in and fired a long burst. Immediately smoke and fire poured out from the starboard engine of the enemy aircraft which turned over on its back and began to lose height rapidly. Shortly afterwards there was a big flash on the ground a few miles to the East of Aachen."

Flight Lieut. Williamson, who was educated at Winchester House and Dauntsey's, joined the RAF in January 1941. Besides his score of nine "kills," he has destroyed three flying bombs.
Once, while serving with the Mediterranean forces, he was forced to bail out of his aircraft over the sea, and spent six hours in a dinghy before being picked up by a French fishing boat.

Urge to fly

His observer is flying officer Frederick Ernest Forest, of Queensland Avenue, Hornsey (London), a peacetime engineer, who has been in the RAF since September, 1939.
In the early part of the war, Forest, who is 38, was a transport officer, but the urge to fly was so strong that he volunteered for aircrew, even though it meant reverting to a lower rank. He has helped his pilot to destroy four enemy aircraft and three flying bombs.