SERIES OF ESCAPES

Evening Star, Issue 23717, 26 October 1940, Page 10

SERIES OF ESCAPES

THE FEATS OF A PILOT A young pilot officer in a heavy bomber squadrop has had an astonishing succession of narrow squeaks during the last month, said the 1 Manchester Guardian.’

He was second pilot in a Whitley detailed to bomb a bridge over the Oise during the German advance to the coast. Owing to bad visibility the pilot* came down to 300 ft to locate the target, in which he was successful. Unfortunately one engine was badly hit* but the pilot was able to climb to| 3.000 ft and carry out his attack before the damaged engine died out. He and the crew made their way back as far as Amiens, which was occupied by the Germans that night, before the damaged engine caught fire and all had to bale out. It was still dark when they jumped, but three of them met when it got light and, joining in the stream of refugees, made their way safely to the coast and so home. The fourth also got home safely, but the fifth is still missing. , A fortnight later the pilot officer was promoted to ’be captain of aircraft, and he carried out a successful raid over Germany. On his next raid, shortly after leaving his base, one of the crew accidentally let off a flare inside the fuselage. Thinking the aircraft was on fire, the captain ordered the crew to jump. Before attempting to leave himself he had a good look round and decided that things were not as bad as he had first thought. He stayed on board and landed the aircraft safely at the nearest aerodrome, with his full load of bombs still intact. Three nights later he made another successful raid, and on the following night went out again. This time one ofj his engines was damaged by anti-air-craft fire. The oil pressure went down to zero, so he throttled down that engine and got back on the other to an aerodrome in this country. When coming to land he tried opening the failing engine to assist his approach, but it promptly caught tire. He managed to get the machine to the ground safely. A week later, the pilot officer started off on another raid, but his wireless burnt out before he reached, the enemy coast, and he had to return. The following night he was out again, and this time carried out his task successfully. The next night he set off to attack a target in the Ruhr. While attempting to run up to the target he was caught by enemy searchlights and anti-aircraft fire. He was unable to complete his attack, and had to sheer off to the north and try an alternative target. During the run up to this target a Messerschmitt 109 attacked, wounded the wireless operator and the observer, and cut the intercommunication. The pilot did not realise what had happened, and continued on his run up. The rest of the story is best told in the pilot’s own words : “ About four minutes later another attack was delivered, and immediately I turned violently to port and saw a Messerschmitt 109 in a steep inverted dive, having been shot down by the rear .gunner. I then continued my ‘ run np ’ and bombed the blast furnace with one stick, but had to jettison the remaining bomba owing to the starboard engine catching fire. The fire was put out with the engine extinguisher, but on attempting to use the engine again it immediately caught fire and was therefore switched “ Nursing my port engine I reached the Dutch coast at 2,000 ft and there gave all my crew the option of abandoning aircraft or carrying on, explaining the grave risk of a landing in the sea. All members of the crewdecided to carry on. Said they: ‘ Last time you told us to jump you got tho machine down safely. We’re not going

to jump now.’ ” They managed to get back to th« Kent coast as dawn was breaking.