AIRMEN’S ORDEAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 85, 21 January 1942, Page 8

AIRMEN’S ORDEAL

DRAMA IN WESTERN DESERT til STRAIN AND EXHAUSTION. LONDON, November 24. Here jsi a story of courage and endurance received by the British Broadcasting Corporation from Cairo. It concerns the crew of a Belgian aeroplane, forced to bale out from their damaged craft in the Western Desert some 60 miles from the coast.

Setting their course by the sun they began their trek north. It was not long before the great heat made them bury themselves in the sand in order to conserve the moisture of tlieir bodies. At nightfall they continued the journey, and all the next day they lay in the sand, their only food being some desert snails which they caught at dawn. Strain and exhaustion began to tell, and a few days after setting out one of the party—the observer —died. Gradually becoming weaker, but confident of the all but impossible chance of reaching safety, the pilot and the air-gunner stumbled onward. They lost count of the days, but actually it was on the seventh morning, almost in the last stages of physical exhaustion they reached a remote desert landingground. Even then it was only a miracle that their lives were saved. As they lay in the sand, semi-con-scious, they heard the distant sound of aircraft; the roar became loaded and in a cloud of dust, an aeroplane taxied on to the landing-ground. It was the first machine to land there in months. The two men were helped in and flown to safety, where they made a good recovery from their ordeal. This Belgian pilot has a proud re_ cord of service. He fought the Germans over the Low Countries. and safely baled out from his shot-up aircraft during the "fierce aerial combats his own country. Across his chest are the scars of fofir bullet wounds, a memento of the Hun whom he intends to repay.