Hung On With One Hand Mile Above Channel

Northern Advocate, 23 May 1944, Page 6

Hung On With One Hand Mile Above Channel

(fire. 1 p.m.) LONDON, May 22. Dangling a mile auovc 11 it* English Channel minus a parachute, and with only one hand gripping the bomb-rack, an American bombardier fought ills way back to the bomb-bay against a gale of nearly 100 miles an hour.

He had saved the Liberator from almost certain disaster. The Liberator, “sweating it our, ' had run into flak over the target, an airfield in Northern France. Eighty* seven flak holes gaped in the bomber. Every engine had been hit, but still functioned.

The gas tanks were peppered with 29 holes. The hydraulic system had been shot cut. and that meant no flaps for landing and no automatic release for the landing gear, and no brakes. The bombs were still in the racks, and when tin' airman., Lieutenant Gibbons, tested the release, they would not move. There was no way to land the plane with a full bomb-load and the hydraulic lines shot away. With the added weight of the huge bomb-load .the bomber could never have come to a halt on the runway. If she came in on the tail-skid a crash would have resulted. Over the Channel. Lieutenant Gibber..s came up lo the flight-deck from the bombardier’s compartment out in the nose. He slipped out of his parachute and squeezed into the narrow passage leading lo the bomb-bay. He had a crash-axe with him. The 10-inch wide catwalk was slippery with hydraulic fluid. Gripping tiie bombrack with cue hand, he swung the axe and the first giant bomb burst die doors wide open and dived for the water below. One by one lie cut the bombs loose. I , As he swung at the last bomb it came free, but so did his feet. He hung there with the axe in one hand but slowly managed to pull himself back. The plane reached its home base and landed safely.