RETURN FROM RAID

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 153, 31 May 1941, Page 6

RETURN FROM RAID

! BOMBER CREW’S TRIALS. ! ' ! CRASH ON LANDING. A graphic description of a bomber plane s adventures on returning front a raid on Berlin to its base is contained in a letter written to a friend by Sergt.-Pilot Trevor Bagnall, son ol Mr and Mrs H. G. Bagnall, of Palmerston North. "wo were on a very heavy raid on Berlin, a journey of over 1000 miles altogether,the letter save. “On the way back the weather was very unsatisfactory—black as ink and we could not pick out a thing, and didn’t even know when wc crossed the Dutch or .English coasts. We had to come down through several thousand feet of cloud when we ran into fog right down to the ground, and could not make out where we were. The wireless failed and wc could not get any home bearings or see any beacons. The wind had backed considerably on the way home and. when we i should have been near the base we must have been about fifty miles past it. Wc tried several last procedures, but- it was so black they were not of any use, so we headed west to try to get- out of the fog. Our starboard tank had been hit and petrol was getting low. At last we got a few home bearings but they took its over the sea, so we decided to head back for land and bale out.

“The captain said to prepare to jump, but as he was about to climb one of the engines cut out and lie saw a fiat stretch of ground on which to come down. The altimeter read lutiO feet, but there were hills about up id*' 1000 feet. The rear gunner baled out but it was too low—liis chute opened but he was killed. He had been married on his leave, too. “We hit the top of a row of trees and another lot 000 feet away and crashed on the side of a hill. The machine caught fire, but we all managed to get clear. The pilot and wireless operator were cut about the face and had slight concussion; the front gunner had a sprained ankle, but the observer and 1 didn’t get a scratch," only one or two bruises.

“We were just a hundred yards away from a country guest house and the people were very good to us. The ambulance and police were soon on the, spot. We were a hundred miles from the base, having landed in Devon near the Bristol Channel. They took us to a ’drome eight miles away where everyone looked after us well, and put us to bed for a couple of hours. A plane was sent from here to bring us back. Even back here the chiefs were very good to us and we have another eight days’ leave for a rest cure. Three of us came back by plane, the other two being held back to recuperate. 1 am feeling a hundred per cent, and nothing is wrong with me at all. and I am ready to get going again.”