Our main task was to be used inland and we would fly quite some way behind the Jap lines as deep as we could, looking for transport etc. We were also the first to fly at night which was really quite terrifying. We were getting quite good results against Jap MT convoys in daylight but suddenly it all dried up just before the seige started. Obviously the Japs were moving stuff up at night so I suggested we should go out at night, in periods of moonlight. It was absolute murder - convoys with their headlights full on etc, and we had a killing - flames going up all over the place. One of the very first I went on was strafing what I thought were lorries and then I went through the top of a tree. Branches got into the airscoop and temperatures went up and I had an awful job to get back over the hills as it wouldn't climb. But she eventually did and I landed with half a tree in the air intake - which says quite a lot about how tough the Hurricane was. I used to have nightmares about that. I'd been shot down in 79 squadron, but this gave me the most nightmares.
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