ADRIFT IN GALE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIX, Issue 21992, 18 June 1941, Page 6

ADRIFT IN GALE

Crew of a Bomber On Capsized Boat How the crew of an RAJ 1 , plane that had come down in the sea were saved after balancing themselves on an upside-down rubber dinghy in an 80-mile-an-hour gale was revealed by the Air Ministry recently, says the “Daily Mail.” The machine had got into difficulties on a night when the weather was very bad. The radio was out of action, too. The captain, with no messages from his base, and only an occasional glimpse of land or sea through the clouds, found it impossible to keep on his course, and after cruising up and down for a long time he decided there was no hope of reaching home. He told the erew he would have to come down in the sea. The rear gunner took up a hatchet and hacked away the fuselage door while the rest of the crew stood ready for escape. At the last moment the captain made up his mind to try once again. He saw what he believed to te a lightship, and thought the opportunity too good to miss, and made a perfect landing on the rough sea. But there was no lightship there. Jumped Into Sea The rear gunner and three others of the crew threw out the dinghy, but the waves snapped the rope which tied it to the plane. It turned upside down and drifted away. The rear gunner left the machine first and reached the dinghy. The other three men jumped into the sea, but one got stuck in the doorway and the man behind him had to push him cut with his foot. When the captain's turn came the dinghy was too far away, and he went down with his aircraft. The rear gunner waited anxiously on the overturned dinghy to haul in the rest of the crew. Two swam towards him, but the navigator could not swim. He was kept up by his “Mae West” lifebelt. Somehow he managed to paddle his way towards the dinghy. But when he got; to-it hl' belt hampered him. anti it was 15 minutes before he could be' pulled out of the water.

He clung with one arm to one of the men on the dingfiyi and with the other to the dinghy itself. The rear gunner was all the while trying to ptfll Him in. It was only by- kneeling oh another man that he could get sufficient pur-: chase. The rubber boat Was still upside down and' there was only one thing to do. The fbur men sat roufld the edge of it apij ttirust their ftet down in the middle to make a well. This was just enough to keep the craft from collapsing. Three Planes Pass

In the 80-mile-an-hour gale it was wildly tossed about, by Jhe wa-ves. The men had to bale aontinUouslS with their caps. When- they were lilted by a wave they scanned the horizon for a ship. When they fefftnto a trough they baled furiously/ -Xt»ii; actions became mechanical. /, t.. , • The rations wfeiCh should .have, been with them were.underneath the dinghy and could not be'reached, • There was nothing to drink, and the/S»lt spray increased their thirst. But a shower came, and the four leaned- their heads back and opened tljgU mouths to the rain. Towards dawm theX>* a Hudson. Their spirite" it flew away without tnem. They went on baling, -numbed 'bx, Cpld. Then a German plane jcpXne over. They even waved to htofe A ■ _ At last a Blenheim parsed about 200 yards away. The rear gunner tried to fire a Very light,, but his fingers were so cold that he cojd .not, manage it until the plane was;'out qC sight. But they had teen seen, fhe Blenheim came back, flying, -round and round in narrowing circles, -and away on the horizon the exhausted men ffiw a tiny speck. It was a trawler coming in answer to the-signal of the Blenheim, but the dinghy was gradually losing the air in :it' and the men were making bets: Would the _ trawler ~ get there before it sank?'One te.t was that the trawler would take three hours, but she arrived within one, Helped On Board When she came alongside the men made an effort to grasp the ladder which the crew had thrown down to them, but they were too weafc. With help, three managed to toil up the ladder, but the fourth had to be roped and hoisted. ... Once on deck whisky was poured down their throats and cigarettes put between their lips. They were given warm clothing and set by a Are. And for the rest of the way,” the rear gunner said, “we did nothing but dnnk pints and pints of scalding hot tea.” What the rear gunner did not say. but what the others did, wasthis: “He pulled each one of us on to the dinghy. We all owe our lives to him. For eight hours he kept up our spirits with his cheerfulness and good humour.