My Years in the Royal Canadian Air Force - Part 10 (Maelsbroek/Brussels) By Ronald Gaudet We landed at our new base at B58 Maelsbroek/Brussels and were quartered in the old artillery barracks. We were escorting Mitchell bombers and they were on the same field with us which did not work out too good as we were short on fuel when we came back but the bombers had priority if in trouble and some always were. We would try and slip in as we saw a Mitchel almost to the end of the runway but the safety man usually made us go around again as he is the boss.. I did this one day and was just ready to touch down and he gave me the red light so opened the throttle and climbed up to try again when I noticed my glycol temperature was at 110 and still going up. The heads can blow at 120 deg. Made the circuit and came in again but this time he let me in but I was going to land even if he gave me a red. About half way down the runway the temp. was nearly 120 so pulled off into the mud and cut the engine. The crash truck and blood wagon came out to me and the medics wanted me to come with them but I said, no I was ok so they left. We were not supposed to leave the kite in these circumstances. and it was about 20 min. before our truck came and said they were sorry but one of our kites had a flat tire and they had to get it out of the way so the others could get by. The rigger for my aircraft came up on the wing and wanted to know what the trouble was and I told them it was over heating so the rigger looked in and by this time it was down to 70 degrees. He then said I could taxi with no trouble but told him I had tried it before and never got much over the length of the kite and was up to 115. He figured me wrong and told me to start up and I did and moved a short distance and he shouted to cut as the temp. was up again. He could not figure why as he had checked the glycol before take off and it was full. I suggested he check it again and he as much as said it was a waste of time. The tank was up in front of me and he took his long screwdriver and dipped it in the tank and the look on his face was priceless as there was not a drop of glycol in it. They told me the next day they found a pinhole made by flak in the lowest point of the glycol system. Had I tried to go around again the engine would have seized up. Lucky again. On 24 October we moved in new quarters which was a château used before the war as a hunting lodge, out in the country. We had buzz bombs going by fairly regular; however, we were used to them by now. We were escorting Mitchell bombers to Zwolle on 29 October and had my first tangle with the box fired by four 88 anti-aircraft guns with predicted firing so if they caught you in the middle of the four bursts you got clobbered. We were around 16,000 ft. and I felt the kite bounce and on looking down on my left saw four bursts with one very close to me so pulled back some on the stick and skidded to the right. On looking out the four were still there so slid further and changed height again but the result was the same. After a few of more of these I leaned way over and found there was a stair step of these chasing me up all the way so had I not continued to jink around. No doubt they would have nailed me. I still figure they were foolish to shoot at me as I was no danger to them but the bombers were; however, that is war I guess. On one trip we were to meet some bombers over occupied Holland and my number one and I was a little late getting off the deck so my leader decided to stay down around 2000 ft. and see if we would catch up sooner. He thought we were still over our side of the bomb line but all of a sudden 40 mm. shells were coming up between us. As I was staying close to him they were just a foot or two in front of my spinner. We poured on the coal and jinked out of there in a hurry. We had flown over Tilburg which was occupied. We caught up with the others and carried out the mission with no further problems. One day on returning to base about four of us were still trying to land and fuel was pretty low someone called and told control to get us down soon as I am low on juice. Another voice came in and said, "you are not just bumping your gums". Control came back and wanted to know who said that; as this is not proper procedure; of course there was no reply. We of course knew it was Bub Fuller one of our flight commanders. 4 November we moved to B56 Brussels-Evaire where we were all fighters so not the landing problems.