CONVOY PROTECTION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 25 October 1941, Page 5

CONVOY PROTECTION

PLANES CATAPULTED INTO THE AIT. Rugby, Oct.. 24. A twenty-six-year-old Fleet Air Arm pilot described in an interview this 'morning the latest method of protecting British convoys oy the use of aero planes catapulted into the air. Brought up on a Hampshire farm, the pilot had not flown before the war and underwent special training lotconvoy protection. He said: "I was a junior pilot on my first trip, and when a Focke Wulf machine came in very low to attack the convoy th _■ senior pilot was catapulted to deal with it, out it was brought down by A.A. lire before he c rdd reach it. The senior pilot landed his machine in the water before bf*ng picked up. but said he would ‘bale out’ next time. as he went 35 fe . down into the water before being ab’e to get off the machine. “On my third trip. I was senior pilot and was catapulted lo attack a Focke Wulf which appeared ready to attack the convoy. I found him coming in at i bout 1000 feet—obviously to n.oke a bombing attack —and tired. He turned away and started cloud dodging. When I attacked him again, he dropped his bombs harmlessly into the sea and made off. Then I ‘baled out' —my first experience—at 3800 feet, kicking my shoes off as 1 sailed down and seeing my machine fall some distance away. As I was about to hit the water, I got rid of my parachute and inflated the dinghy attached to it. I sat in it and waited for the convoy escort to pick me up. A destroyer soon appeared and sent out i- boat for me, and I soon was back on mv ship, wrapped up in blankets and being congratulated for having saved the convoy from the Focke Wulf's attack.”—B.O.W.