EIGHT DAYS IN DINGHY

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 October 1944, Page 3

EIGHT DAYS IN DINGHY

N.Z. AIRMAN’S ORDEAL

LONDON, October 20. It was a pitch-black night, and as Wari-ant Officer Douglas H. Mann (Christchurch), who is a son. of Mi j Mann, Brick Street, Greymouth, or the New Zealand Beaufighter Torpedo Bomber Squadron, flew his aircraft at a low level over the North Sea he could see nothing but the velvety blockness. He checked and rechecked the luminous dials of his instruments, which shone like bright sparks in the cockpit. With FlightSergeant D. M. Kennedy, a Lancashire lad as his navigator, he had been .sent to attack a convoy, which was trying to escape from Terschelling under cover of night. They were flying low in order that the enemy radio location should not pick up their position. They had been airborne for nearly two hours when suddenly Warrant Officer 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 lie had to act lie could not gam sufficient height, 'rhe next moment the aircraft seemed to be hit with lerritic force on the port wing, ano as the Beaulighter slewed rounu violently Warrant Officer Marm saw that half of the wing had been ripped away. Il had struck the ship’s mast, and the Beaufighter was now uncontrollable. With cool, quick thinking, Warrant Officer Munn realised that he would have to make the best landing he could on the sea, no easy leaf in that pitch darkness With 'the water like black marble and with the controls awry. But he managed it, and while the Beaulighter began to settle in the water he and Flight-Sergeant Kennedy struggled into the dinghy. It had been damaged in the release, and even by the time they clawed their way into it leaks were making it waterlogged. Then ■ began four long days and nivhls when the New Zealander and the Lancashire boy lay uncomfortabiy,in the dinghy baling from time to 'lime and hoping almost against hone that they won.id be sighted by the Royal Air" Force Air Sea Rescue. Four days passed, and on the fifth a Warwick aircraft sighted them. It dropped an air-borne lifeboat. In vain" they tried through the rough seas to reach it, but it was too far away, and they had insufficient 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. Later in the evening a third Warwick dropped another lifeboat. It fell close by, but again they were too weak to paddle towards it. Three more days passed. Their small store of water was now 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. They looked up, and there, 25 yards away, was a rescue launch. In a moment or two it was alongside, but neither Warrant Officer Mann nor Flight-Sergeant Kennedy could climb into it, and they had to be hauled aboard by a rope. From that spot, 80 miles , off the English coast, they were soon taken to England, and before long they were in comfortable beds in hospital, where- they are now making a good recovery. ” They had been nearly eight days in. the dinghy, but they had never entirely given up hope of being rescued.