The first sortie for F/Lt Hilton and Sgt Webber was a baptism of fire, not for the night fighter crew but for the unfortunate Do-217 that they intercepted over Swindon on a freezing 3rd January 1944. Taking off into a light snow shower, the visibility improved as the Mosquito climbed onto its interception course, expertly guided by the GCI, with a half moon illuminating the snowy landscape below.
Handing over to approach with radar, Sgt Webber, skilfully brought the night fighter into clsoe range at six o'clock, the unsuspecting Do-217 crew failing to spot the approaching threat. Using his Ross night vision goggles for the first time, F/Lt Hilton struggled to adjust, but Sgt Webber picked up the bomber with his excellent night vision, just as the rear gunner of the Do-217 saw a shadow approaching in the slipstream of the raider.
A burst from his machine gun flew wild but the Mosquito's cannon blasted the bomber in return, hitting the pilot badly and lightly wounding the dorsal gunner, although not before the pilot managed to shut down the port engine to extinguish a fire. Once again the rear gunner opened up but missed, while the badly wounded pilot struggled to take evasive action.
This allowed the Mosquito to make a second attack, this time killing the pilot with a devastating burst of cannon shells through the floor of the cockpit. with the shocked navigator only just managing to take over the controls in the nick of time. The navigator immediately corkscrewed the bomber, forcing the Mosquito to pull away, but it was a matter of seconds before F/Lt Hilton made a second approach, bringing the night fighter into close range to finish the job.
This time the Ross night goggles did the trick and a third four-second burst of cannon fire shredded the Dornier, raking the cockpit, the fuselage and the port wing, wounding the struggling co-pilot and preventing any attempts at evasion or defensive fire. A fourth blast of cannon fire now inflicted what should have been a mortal blow, wounding the co-pilot again, peppering the fuselage and raking the port engine, but somehow the bomber kept flying with the rear gunner even taking a pot shot at the night fighter in defiance.
Now down to the last four seconds of ammunition, the Mosquito closed for the inevitable coup de grace, but in a twist of fate the cannon feed jammed, allowing the crippled bomber to disappear into the night, a complete write-off when it eventually crash landed in a field just outside Morlaix. The frustrated night fighter crew now turned back to make the short flight to base but due to a flurry of snow showers the runway was slippery and the F/Lt Hilton overshot, causing the Mosquito to veer off the apron, bursting a tyre and damaging the oleos due to overstressing. The crew would now have to wait for two days until their aircraft was repaired before setting out again for their next sortie.
