AIRMAN’S MISFORTUNE
BLOWN UP BY OWN BOMB LONDON, December 27. How Pilot-Officer G. Griffith, now a prisoner in Germany, blew himself up while endeavouring to bomb a U-boat in the North Atlantic, 500 miles from Ireland, is revealed in a letter to his parents from Bavaria. While patrolling on September 14. Pilot-Officer Griffith flew low to investigate a neutral steamer and saw a submarine submerging. Fearing that it would escape before he could climb to a safe height for attack, Griffith took a chance. The first bomb missed the submarine by 20ft and the blast from the next blew Pilot-Officer Griffith up. His aeroplane hit the sea at 200 miles an hour, killing the observer. Pilot-Officer Griffith was at first trapped in the cockpit, but he struggled out and reached the ship. The submarine came to the surface and made a prisoner of the airman, who was 13 days aboard before reaching Germany. It has been learned that some other British casualties, including the Victorian, Wing-Commander Ivan Cameron, who was lost in the Kiel raid, were due also to having been blown up by their own bombs.
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Bibliographic details
Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21555, 18 January 1940, Page 2
Word Count
187AIRMAN’S MISFORTUNE Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21555, 18 January 1940, Page 2
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