AIR-SEA DRAMA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 250, 21 October 1944, Page 5

AIR-SEA DRAMA

EIGHT DAYS ADRIFT

N.Z. Airman Strikes Ship's Masthead

N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent LONDON, Oct. 20. It was a pltcti black night and, as Warrant-Officer Donald H. Mann, Christchurch, of the New Zealand Beaufighter Torpedo Bomber Squadron, flew his aircraft at a low level over the North Sea, he could not see anything. He checked and rechecked the luminous dials of his instruments, which shone like bright sparks in the cockpit.

With Flight-Sergeant D. M. Kennedy, a Lancashire lad, as his navigator, he had been sent to attack a convoy which was trying to escape from Terschelling Island, Holland, under cover of night. They were flying low so enemy radio location should not pick up their position. They had been in the air nearly two hours, when suddenly WarrantOfficer Mann distinguished the dark shape of a ship ahead and with its superstructure above him. He tugged urgently at the control stick in an attempt to fly clear of her, but in the split second in which he had to act he could not gain sufficient height. The next moment the aircraft seemed to be hit with a terrific force on the port wing, and as the Beaufighter slewed round violently the pilot saw that half the wing had been ripped away. It had struck the ship's mast and the Beaufighter could not now be controlled.

Skilful Landing Made With cool, quick thinking, Warrant-Officer Mann realised be would have to make the best landing he could on the sea, no easy feat in that pitch darkness, with the water like black marble and with the controls awry. However, he managed it, and while the Beaufighter began to settle in the water he and Kennedy struggled into the. dinghy. The dinghy had been damaged in the release, and even by the time they had clawed their way into it leaks were making it water-logged. Then began four long days and nights, when the New Zealander and the Lancashire boy lay uncomfortably in the dinghy, baling from time to time and hoping almost against hope that they would be sighted by the Royal Air Force Air Sea Rescue.

Four (lays passed, and on the fifth a Warwick aircraft sighted them and dropped a lifeboat. In vain they tried through the rough seas to reach it, but it was too far away and they had not sufficient strength. Soon another Warwick appeared and dropped a dinghy bigger than their own. It fell only a few yards away, and they managed to reach it, struggle in and tow their own dinghy.

Water Supply Nearly Out Later in the evening a third Warwick dropped another lifeboat. It fell close bv, but again they were too weak to paddle toward it. Three more days passed. Their small store of water had almost gone, and it was a gloomy moment when they had used all but half a tin. For hours they lay listlessly in the dinghy, and then suddenly they heard the noise of a motor. Twentyfive yards away was a rescue launch. , In a moment or two it was alongside, but neither Mann nor Kennedy could climb into it, and they had to be hauled aboard by ropes. From that spot, 80 miles off the English coast, they were soon taken to England. They are now in hospital making a good recovery. They had been nearly eight days in the dinghy, but had never entirely given up hope of being rescued. ,