MANY PERILS FACED
RAIDERS OVER GERMANY NEW ZEALANDER'S EXPERIENCE (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent) LONDON, Apl. 19. The experiences of Pilot Officer Alan George, D.F.M., of Hawera, are quoted by an Air Ministry order to exemplify the perils facing bombers raiding Germany. "We were raiding the Ruhr, and had just opened the bomb doors when the plane was hit by flak along its whole length. The needle of the airspeed indicator flopped back to zero, and several other instruments went. The rear gunner was hit, while a petrol pressure pipe was gashed and petrol streamed over the fuselage, ran down the catwalk, and poured out of the back of the machine. "When the wireless operator went to assist the rear gunner the petrol was well over his ankles," he added. " The second pilot was partially successful in the stopping of petrol by using first-aid bandages and wrappings. But the 'old girl' kept going, although both engines cut out as we neared the coast. When the petrol in the main tanks ran out we pumped down the under-carriage by hand and larded safely. We felt we had been quite lucky."
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Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 24896, 21 April 1942, Page 5
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187MANY PERILS FACED Otago Daily Times, Issue 24896, 21 April 1942, Page 5
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