WEATHER HAZARDS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21606, 8 January 1945, Page 3

WEATHER HAZARDS

WHAT AIRMEN FACE SNOW, ICELAND FOG i!) a.m.) RUGBY, Jan. 7. “A temperature of 50 degrees below freezing point, electric storms, fog and icing conditions ase some of the weather hazards facing the _ crews of the Bomber Command as winter moves over Europe,” states the Air Ministry News Service. “Since D-Day sorties have been carried out in the most difficult weather conditions. The, pilots have reported icing so severe that the bombers have to be brought down to low levels io prevent engine failure and when the ice broke from the outer surface of the planes it bumped across the machines like fire from enemy guns. Sometimes the air and grouna crews have had to dig their aircraft out of the snow before an operation and have cleared the runways of up to two feet of snow before they could ‘Tiie conditions were so difficult for one Australian plane returning from a raid that it struck some trees which tovo away throe of the four engines. However, the pilot made a successful crash landing and tiie crew escaped unhurt. The only casualty was a rabbit which was found dead in the bomb-aimer’s compartment.”