“WIRE WORM CLUB”

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 April 1937, Page 4

“WIRE WORM CLUB”

AIRMEN HIT BALLOON CABLES

Major C. C. Turner, “Daily Telegraph” Air Correspondent, writes: — More exclusive even than that of the “Caterpillars”—airmen who owe their lives to the use of parachutes —will be a club, yet to be formed and named, restricted to those who have flown into balloon cables and lived. Its name might well be “The Wire Worm Club.” I have just met one of the British airmen qualified for membership. Probably there are not more than two or three in this country, and only about half a dozen throughout the world. Some day there may bo more. Among those qualified would be any surviving members of the crew of the German "Gotha” bomber, which, during the war, flew into a balloon ‘apron cast of London and escaped. The history of the war contains only two or three instances of aeroplanes hitting balloon barrages, the effect of which was chiefly moral and preventive. The British airman who is qualified is an ex-oflicer of the Air Force and is now in a responsible City position. The incident in which he was concerned was one of the most thrilling in the war.

He was the observer in an F.E.2b. bomber sent out on a night expedition. The pilot was Flight-Licut. W. G. Brind. The machine was one of the “pusher” class, the observer seated in front and the engine and propeller behind the pilot. In the course of the flight a region occupied by the French was reached, and suddenly, at a height of about 5,000 feet, the nose of the machine struck a cable. It cut through the fabric and touched the observer’s hand, but two metal hooks strengthening the structure then stopped it.

The pilot throttled down and the observer jumped up and seized the cable! It slipped at such a rate, however, that his thick gloves were cut, and he had to relinquish his hold. Both pilot and observer were convinced that nothing could save them. The cable slipped round the curve of the fuselage of the machine, and embedded itself in the left. wing. It cut into the wing a few inches and then deflected, so that the cut became ”1/' shaped. PILOT PRAYING?

i Meanwhile the machine, caught in |tlie cable was descending spirally, its occupants expecting the wing to break (off at any moment. They were helpless. The. observer could hear Ihe scratch of the slipping cable and thought that through his earphone lie could also hear the pilot praying! The machine brerte clear when fewer than LOOP feet tip. and the pilot immediately regained control. They decided to land, but were nearer the ground than they thought and when they dropped a flare it only dazzled them. A landing was effected by the aid of their wing-tip lights. They fired Very lights, promptly became the objective of an artillery demonstration, and ran for it. Finally they had a job to convince the French soldiers that they were not Germans.

The sudden release of the machine was never explained. The balloon cable had not broken, and it was aocer taiued that no French balloon was missing that night.