BOMBER DOWN IN SEA

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 February 1942, Page 2

BOMBER DOWN IN SEA

NINE-MILE SWIM TO SHORE LONDON, December 20. When a Royal Air Force bomber came down in the sea on the way back from bombing Germany the sergeant-observer had to swim nine miles to get to the shore*. He was the sole survivor of the crew. The bomber had been damaged by anti-aircraft fire and attacked by an enemy fighter. Just before its bombs were dropped on Hamm a shell struck the nose of the aircraft. After the bombs had been released another shell bursting in the air put the starboard engine out of action. With one engine working the bomber lost height until it was only 400 feet above the sea, but there was still a chance of getting home. Then the remaining engine cut out. The aircraft came down and within a few seconds the fuselage was almost completely filled with water. It was impossible to open the door and the crew floundered through the j water toward the tail turret where I they clambered out through an escape hatch. The rear gunner had been injured and as his Mae West would not inflate the navigator handed him his own. The dinghy too had been damaged and was useless. “I saw a lightship which seemed nearer than the shore,” the navigator said ,“ and I told the others to hang on while I tried to reach it. But the current was against me and when I returned to the spot where I had left the rest of the crew they had disappeared. I found my Mae West still floating. I took my clothes off and turned for the shore.” For the first two miles he swam breaststroke, using the Mae West as a float under his arms, like water wings, but this proved too exhausting in the strong currents and he discarded the Mae West. He covered the remaining seven miles with the crawl stroke, t and kept it up for two hours. As soon as he got on the beach he walked two miles to a coastguard sial ion.