AIRMAN’S FEAT

Grey River Argus, 18 March 1942, Page 6

AIRMAN’S FEAT

Channel Crossed in Dinghy 40 MILES COVERED (Rec. 12.13) LONDON. March 16. , A fighter squadron commander’s navigating felat in crossing the English Channel in a rubber dinghy was revealed when a destroyer picked him up 15 miles from the tip of Portland Bill. Squadron Leader J. Carver, crashed on the evening of March 12 after a' fight with a Junkers 88. which another pilot later destroyed. He started to paddle his dinghy to England. He drifted many miles up and down the Channel at each successive tide, but steadily neared the coast and by laborious toil managed to cover a distance' equivalent to over 40 miles in a straight line when a destroyer found him at 3 a.m. on Tuesday. Alternately blowing -» whistle and singing he good humouredly resented being picked up, saving he would have reached Portland Bill by daylight. The navigating oflicet of the destroyer worked out that he was correct.