Gunner remembers daring bombing raids

Pilot Officer Peters, of Deane, was a 25-year-old rear gunner on a Lancaster bomber, flying over France and Nazi Germany on raids to help the Allied troops during their push for Berlin.

He was part of the Pathfinder force squadron, who would identify potential targets for other bombers by firing flares over drop zones.

Every sortie was full of danger for PO Peters, with lethal anti-aircraft fire lighting up the French sky as they attempted to destroy his plane.

His job was to help disrupt enemy supplies - targeting oil plants, rail sheds and German troops.

Mr Peters said: "We had to put up with a lot of anti-aircraft flak from Germans on the ground.

"It wasn't a business trip by any stretch of the imagination. I lost a lot of good friends and colleagues through the anti-aircraft fire. I suppose I was fortunate to survive."

He enlisted with the RAF in 1940 as an 18-year-old and was a member of the ground staff team which helped direct Spitfires and Hurricane fighters during the Battle of Britain in 1940.

In 1942, he became a member of the crew on a Lancaster bomber.

He was a gunner instructor in North Scotland and was on leave when the D-Day invasion began on June 6, 1944. But he was soon back in action as he played his part in the liberation of Europe.

"You never thought that the D-Day landings would bring about an end to the war - you just had to keep on going every day, trying to survive," he said.

Just two days after D-Day, PO Peters was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for completing many successful missions. The honour featured in the Bolton Evening News on June 8, 1944.

And he was one of only a handful of servicemen who took part in a prestigious investiture ceremony attended by the Queen Mother.

PO Peters was photographed at the event by a string of Scottish newspapers on September 22, 1944, at Holyrood, Edinburgh. Mr Peters, aged 84, is trying to track down a photograph which featured in a Scottish paper.