COURAGEOUS AIRMEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24632, 13 June 1941, Page 6

COURAGEOUS AIRMEN

CZECHOSLOVAKIAN■ CREW ■ ’-■■■ ■. ■ .Ui-.'MV- • 11 ______ '-'.V.r- yV * RECENT RAID Oli®ijHßUß<t (Rec. 8 p.m.) RUGBY, June 11. A story of the courage of a Czechoslovakian crew of .an R.A.F. bomber during a recent attack on Hamburg is told in London. "Within five''miles of the town a searchlight picked up the aircraft, and by the time it reached the target area iLwas tfansg?&cLin> a cone of 30 serachlights. Shells began to burst all round the bomber, and a few splinters hit the starboard wing and the starboard side of the fuselage. Thp damage was not serious, and the Czechoslovak crew kept on their way through an ever-increasing barrage. The captain kept a steady course and made his bombing run without taking any evasive action which might have prevented the observer from taking accurate aim. 1

The aircraft was hit twice, and the captain heard the sound of breaking glass and felt a pain in his side. Though almost feinting he kept at the controls and managed to keep the aircraft steady to open the bomb doors and to follow the changes of course given him by the bomb-aimer. As the aircraft continued on its bombing run it was hit agairl and again. ' Two shell fragments went through the pilot’s cockpit without , hurting anyone, and another fragment destroyed-the wireless equipment, but the Captain still held on to his course till the bombs had gone. Then he took violent evasive action and shook off the pursuing searchlights. . When he got well away from Hamburg the captain handed the control* to the second pilot, and the navigator and wireless operator helped him -to his bunk in the middle of the aircraft. The controls were working and the hydraulic system had been put out of action. Without the system it is impossible to lower the undercarriage,, end the second pilot, who was making his first operational flight, had to make a belly landing wh,en he reached the base. There were 93 holes in the wings and fuselage, and more on the bottom of the fuselage.