Visibility in the area was excellent though features on the ground were difficult to distinguish as everything lay under a layer of snow. Nevertheless Squadron Leader Perrens located the target and at 8,000 feet ordered firing to commence. Manoeuvring his Spitfire to observe the fall of shot he soon realised that the Germans had associated the lead howling round their ears with the aircraft overhead. Consequently the 88 mm flak guns opened up and the clear morning air was soon filled with black puffs straddling the two Spitfires. As the intensity of flak increased it became almost impossible for the pilots to dodge it and so they climbed to continue the shoot.
After 40 minutes of perseverance and coolness in the face of the intense flak Squadron Leader Perrens succeeded in registering the target accurately to within fifty yards, thereby enabling other American guns to be brought to bear in the destruction of the ammunition dump. At which point, having completed the mission any normal pilot would have felt fully entitled to return to base and consider himself lucky not to have been hit. However Squadron Leader Perrens had a small score to settle with the more persistent flak positions which his number two had recorded on his map. He therefore called up the American 8 inch gun position giving them the position of a particularly hostile flak battery and asked them to hurl some shells in that direction. This they willingly did, and the whole shoot procedure started again to the accompaniment of more flak which had followed them up to 13,000 feet. At this point the flak gunners were doing rather too well and Squadron Leader Perrens aircraft was hit. The engine cut completely as the fuel system had been hit causing fuel starvation and so he was faced with the situation of having to glide back over the front lines.
Not only was it difficult to pick a suitable place to land because of the layer of snow but more important he couldn’t get his hood open. After a tremendous struggle he got it open at 500 feet from the ground. A well used road presented itself ahead of him, an unlikely sight behind enemy lines as their vehicles were short of fuel anyway and so he elected to land. In the landing he fractured a vertebra in his spine which subsequently kept him in hospital for a couple of months, but the strangest thing of all was that it was the 8 inch gun crew who hauled him out of his aircraft. He had in fact landed right next to their position. Two months later,
