FLIGHT TO TURIN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20625, 5 August 1941, Page 5

FLIGHT TO TURIN

BOMBING OF ARSENAL PILOT-OFFICER MILLER BASE ONLY JUST REACHED LONDON, July 15. Static which “turned the airscrews into two blue wheels” and caused sparks several inches long to fly from the radio set was one of the many experiences of the crew of a Witley bomber which bombed an arsenal at Turin in Italy. The captain of the aircraft was Pilot-Officer H. H. J. Miller, Morrinsville, who was formerly a school teacher in Southall, Hamilton, before he joined the Royal Air Force. ■ He was recently awarded the D.F.C. for displaying “great determination and a complete disregard of enemy opposition” during his ous operational flights. The worst possible weather conditions were experienced during the flight to Italy and back. A thick cloud bank with a ceiling of 800 ft. made navigation difficult, and after leaving the French coast Pilot-Officer Miller and his crew were not sure whether they were flying above the Atlantic or the North Sea. Fortunately the Witley’s petrol supply kept the aircraft, flying for an hour longer than the average flight. Menaced by Ice “We carried on and bombed an arsenal at Turin without incident,’said Pilot-Officer Miller. “There was some anti-aircraft fire, but only after we had dropped our bombs. Then we headed back to the Alps only to run into even worse conditions than on the outward trip. Icing up became so bad that at one stage the controls became momentarily locked. “As soon as we got clear of the Alps we began to drop down as we wanted to get a pin-point and locate our position. Our radio, of course, was out of order and it was impossible to get it going again. Although we kept on dropping down we could not get clear of the clouds. We were still in them at 3000 ft. and were not clear of them until we go down to 800 ft. Then we found it was so pitch black that we could not see anything on the ground. No Sign Seen of Land “We began to drop flares to find out whether we had crossed the coast. One of the flares showed us that we were over water, but we had no means of guessing whether we had crossed over the Dutch coast or over the French coast and were making for the Channel Islands. We decided to steer north for the time it was estimated it would take us to reach the Channel Islands. If we didn’t strike them we guessed we must have 'crossed the Dutch coast. “By 6 o’clock it was practically daylight. We were still over the water and I was becoming anxious as to whether the petrol supply would hold out. At 6.45 there was still no sign of land and I told the crew to prepare to abandon the aircraft. I throttled down as much as possible to conserve what petrol we had left and switched on from tank to tank to use up the last dregs. Just Enough Petrol “We flew on until 7.30 and ther: 7 45. A norma! petrol supply was for 11| hours and we had now been in the air for 12J hours. There was still no sign of land. I began to think we must be out over the Atlantic. I could see nothing but the great rolling waves of the sea below us. "Eventually we managed to get back to our station where everyone had given us up. They had heard nothing from us from the time that the valves of our wireless set had been blown out. It was only the fact that wc were flying such a marvellous aircraf as the Witley arid that it was capable of keeping us up 12 hours 55 minute: that we came through. I think that flying time is just about a record for the Witley.” This is but one of the many interesting experiences that this New Zealand D.F.C. has had in his 30 raids. Pilot-Officer Miller is now instructing pupils to fly Wellington aircraft.