Incredible Quote from a WW2 bomber pilot

[mechanic]

Captain A.K. Hunter of 60 sqn recon posted in Cyrencia 1942.

8th March, flying a Martin Maryland recon light bomber.



"We were cruising at 21,000ft and were turning for home after successfully photographing our target when at 11.00 hours we were attacked from astern by a Me 110.
An incendery shell entered the port side of the aircraft at the bottom gunner/wireless operator's possition. It struck the tough, metal release button of gunner De Villiers' parachute harness, penetrated the webbing and clothing beneath, broke the chain of his identity disks and came to rest on his bare chest.....
The startled gunner, although burning from shell splinters in his hands and face, continued to operate the lower gun - and his WT - untill he was satisfied the fighter had broken off.
After landing safely, De Villiers was pronounced unhurt save for the splinters and a superficial wound to his chest.......Truly, that bullet didnt have his name on it."


A.K. Hunter, Hillrest, Natal, Rep. of S.Africa, 1984


i thought this was worth sharing

[Furball]

In recognition of most conspicuous bravery. This airman was the flight engineer in a Lancaster bomber detailed to attack Schweinfurt on the night of 26th April 1944. Bombs were dropped successfully and the aircraft was climbing out of the target area. Suddenly it was attacked by a fighter at about 20,000 feet. The captain took evading action at once but the enemy secured many hits. A fire started near a petrol tank on the upper surface of the starboard wing, between the fuselage and the inner engine. Sergeant Jackson was thrown to the floor during the engagement. Wounds which he received from shell splinters in the right leg and shoulder were probably sustained at that time. Recovering himself, he remarked that he could deal with the fire on the wing and obtained his captain's permission to try to put out the flames.
Pushing a hand fire-extinguisher into the top of his life-saving jacket and slipping on his parachute pack, Sergeant Jackson jettisoned the escape hatch above the pilot's head. He then started to climb out of the cockpit and back along the top of the fuselage to the starboard wing. Before he could leave the fuselage his parachute pack opened and the whole canopy and rigging lines spilled into the cockpit. Undeterred, Sergeant Jackson continued. The pilot, bomb aimer and navigator gathered the parachute together and held on to the rigging lines, paying them out as the airman crawled aft. Eventually he slipped and, falling from the fuselage to the starboard wing, grasped an air intake on the leading edge of the wing. He succeeded in clinging on but lost the extinguisher, which was blown away.

By this time, the fire had spread rapidly and Sergeant Jackson was involved. His face, hands and clothing were severly burnt. Unable to retain his hold, he was swept through the flames and over the trailing edge of the wing, dragging his parachute behind. When last seen it was only partly inflated and was burning in a number of places.

Realising that the fire could not be controlled, the captain gave the order to abandon aircraft. Four of the remaining members of the crew landed safely. The captain and rear gunner have not been accounted for. Sergeant Jackson was unable to control his descent and landed heavily. He sustained a broken ankle, his right eye was closed through burns and his hands were useless. These injuries, together with the wounds received earlier, reduced him to a pitiable state. At daybreak he crawled to the nearest village, where he was taken prisoner. He bore the intense pain and discomfort of the journey to Dulag Luft with magnificent fortitude. After 10 months in hospital he made a good recovery, though his hands required further treatment and are only of limited use.

This airman's attempt to extinguish the fire and save the aircraft and crew from falling into enemy hands was an act of outstanding gallantry. To venture outside, when travelling at 200 miles an hour, at a great height and in intense cold, was an almost incredible feat. Had he succeeded in subduing the flames, there was little or no prospect of his regaining the cockpit. The spilling of his parachute and the risk of grave damage to its canopy reduced his chances of survival to a minimum. By his ready willingness to face these dangers he set an example of self-sacrifice which will ever be remembered.

 

The Lancaster's captain, Flying Office F. Mifflin, and the rear gunner were killed in the crash, the others spent the rest of the war as prisoners. Sergeant Jackson's astonishing experience did not become known until after the war when the members of the Lancaster's crew were repatriated. Jackson had said nothing about his courage but the navigator, Flight Lieutenant F. Higgins, and the others unaninmously recommended him for a high decoration. Norman Jackson died in March 1994 and is buried in the Percy Road Cemetery, Twickenham, Middlesex.

In July 1941, while returning from one of the attack's on Münster, Sergeant Pilot James Ward of No 75 (NZ) Squadron was a second pilot in a Wellington attacked by an Me 110 over the Zuider Zee. The rear-gunner was wounded, much damage done, the starboard wing set ablaze. The crew were preparing to abandon the aircraft when Ward volunteered to go out on the wing and try to smother the flames with a cockpit cover which had served in the plane as a cushion. Attached to a rope and with the help of the navigator, he climbed through the narrow astro-hatch - far from easy in flying gear, even on the ground - put on his parachute, kicked holes in the Wellington's covering fabric to get foot and hand-holds on the geodetic lattices, and descended three foot to the wing. He then worked his way along to behind the engine, and, despite the fierce slipstream from the propeller, managed while lying down to smother the fire. Isolated from the leaking petrol pipe, this later burnt itself out. Ward, exhausted, regained the astro-hatch with great difficulty: "the hardest of the lot," he wrote, "was getting my right leg in. In the end the navigator reached out and pulled it in." Despite all the damage, the crew got home to a safe landing - perhaps the most remarkable thing, apart from Ward's exploit, being the fact that the pilot had no idea at the time what Ward was doing.  This deed performed by Ward, a 22 year old schoolmaster before the war, earned him the Victoria Cross, and which must surely be unsurpassed for calculated bravery. Sadly, Sergeant Ward was killed on a Hamburg raid only ten weeks later - before he received his Victoria Cross. His aircraft was caught by spotlights and badly damaged. Sergeant Ward remained at the controls while the rest of the crew bailed out and he went down with his plane.

 

[mechanic]

man o man! we dont know how good we all have it these days.

[63tb]

Many more of these incredible stories here -

http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/Moh1.htm

63tb

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MICHAEL, EDWARD S. (Air Mission)

Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Corps, 364th Bomber Squadron, 305th Bomber Group. Place and date: Over Germany, 11 April 1944. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Born: 2 May 1918, Chicago, Ill. G.O. No.: 5, 15 January 1945. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as pilot of a B17 aircraft on a heavy-bombardment mission to Germany, 11 April 1944. The group in which 1st Lt. Michael was flying was attacked by a swarm of fighters. His plane was singled out and the fighters pressed their attacks home recklessly, completely disregarding the Allied fighter escort and their own intense flak. His plane was riddled from nose to tail with exploding cannon shells and knocked out of formation, with a large number of fighters following it down, blasting it with cannon fire as it descended. A cannon shell exploded in the cockpit, wounded the copilot, wrecked the instruments, and blew out the side window. 1st Lt. Michael was seriously and painfully wounded in the right thigh. Hydraulic fluid filmed over the windshield making visibility impossible, and smoke filled the cockpit. The controls failed to respond and 3,000 feet were lost before he succeeded in leveling off. The radio operator informed him that the whole bomb bay was in flames as a result of the explosion of 3 cannon shells, which had ignited the incendiaries. With a full load of incendiaries in the bomb bay and a considerable gas load in the tanks, the danger of fire enveloping the plane and the tanks exploding seemed imminent. When the emergency release lever failed to function, 1st Lt. Michael at once gave the order to bail out and 7 of the crew left the plane. Seeing the bombardier firing the navigator's gun at the enemy planes, 1st Lt. Michael ordered him to bail out as the plane was liable to explode any minute. When the bombardier looked for his parachute he found that it had been riddled with 20mm. fragments and was useless. 1st Lt. Michael, seeing the ruined parachute, realized that if the plane was abandoned the bombardier would perish and decided that the only chance would be a crash landing. Completely disregarding his own painful and profusely bleeding wounds, but thinking only of the safety of the remaining crewmembers, he gallantly evaded the enemy, using violent evasive action despite the battered condition of his plane. After the plane had been under sustained enemy attack for fully 45 minutes, 1st Lt. Michael finally lost the persistent fighters in a cloud bank. Upon emerging, an accurate barrage of flak caused him to come down to treetop level where flak towers poured a continuous rain of fire on the plane. He continued into France, realizing that at any moment a crash landing might have to be attempted, but trying to get as far as possible to increase the escape possibilities if a safe landing could be achieved. 1st Lt. Michael flew the plane until he became exhausted from the loss of blood, which had formed on the floor in pools, and he lost consciousness. The copilot succeeded in reaching England and sighted an RAF field near the coast. 1st Lt. Michael finally regained consciousness and insisted upon taking over the controls to land the plane. The undercarriage was useless; the bomb bay doors were jammed open; the hydraulic system and altimeter were shot out. In addition, there was no airspeed indicator, the ball turret was jammed with the guns pointing downward, and the flaps would not respond. Despite these apparently insurmountable obstacles, he landed the plane without mishap.

[Kev367th]

Some great stuff in a book called "Into the silk".
About the development of the parachute and ejection seat.

An example-
Nicholas Alkemade  -  In March of 1944, Nicholas Alkemade was the tail gunner in a British Lancaster bomber on a night mission to Berlin when his plane was attacked by German fighters. When the captain ordered the crew to bail out, Alkemade looked back into the plane and discovered that his parachute was in flames. He chose to jump without a parachute rather than to stay in the burning plane. He fell 18,000 feet, landing in trees, underbrush, and drifted snow. He twisted his knee and had some cuts, but was otherwise alright.
This guy was one of the luckiest guys alive. After the war he also survived a heavy steel door falling on him and falling into a vat of highly toxic chemicals.

[mechanic]

Originally posted by Kev367th
Some great stuff in a book called "Into the silk".
About the development of the parachute and ejection seat.

An example-
Nicholas Alkemade  -  In March of 1944, Nicholas Alkemade was the tail gunner in a British Lancaster bomber on a night mission to Berlin when his plane was attacked by German fighters. When the captain ordered the crew to bail out, Alkemade looked back into the plane and discovered that his parachute was in flames. He chose to jump without a parachute rather than to stay in the burning plane. He fell 18,000 feet, landing in trees, underbrush, and drifted snow. He twisted his knee and had some cuts, but was otherwise alright.
This guy was one of the luckiest guys alive. After the war he also survived a heavy steel door falling on him and falling into a vat of highly toxic chemicals.

thanks for the links guys, i love these stories

[rogerdee]

the  gunner kev takls about was very lucky but didnt like being a celiberty,  there is  a program on in england  where  his grandson  and  some of  other piolets  are  traing to fly  a hevey bomber.  one  of then in the end will get to fly a  lancaster  one of only two in the world  flying.

  if you see this program watch it  because it has interviews  with some surviving  aircrew members.

  the fighters  got the glory  but the bombers did the work night after night.
  I for one thank god for there bravery i know i could never do it.

rogerdee

[gatso]

From my home town.  He has a road named after him and his widow still lives locally.  On rememberance sunday of this year there was a plaque unveiled on Hannah Parade to commemerate his actions.

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He was 18 years old, and a Sergeant in the 83 Squadron, Royal Air Force during the Second World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 15 September 1940 over Antwerp, Belgium, after a successful attack on German barges, the bomber in which Sergeant Hannah was wireless operator/air gunner, was subjected to intense anti-aircraft fire, starting a fire which spread quickly. The rear-gunner and navigator had to bale out and Sergeant Hannah could have acted likewise, but instead he remained to fight the fire, first with two extinguishersand then with his bare hands. He sustained terrible injuries, but succeeded in putting out the fire and the pilot was able to bring the almost wrecked aircraft back safely.

Youngest recipient of the VC for aerial operations.


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He contracted tuberculosis only a year later in mid/late 1941, brought on no doubt by his weakened condition following the severe burns he sustained during his VC action. This necessitated his eventual discharge, with full disability pension, from the RAF in December 1942; however, unable thereafter to take up a full-time job he found it increasingly difficult to support his wife and three small daughters and his health ultimately gave out. He died on 7 June 1947 at Markfield Sanatorium in Leicester, where he had been lying for four months.

[Edbert1]

Winston Churchill presented a medal to a crewman who had ventured out onto the wing to put out a fire, I don't know if it was one of those stories or not but it was quite similar.

Anyhow, when the young man went upon the stage before the Prime Minister, Dukes Dutchesses and much of Parliament; Winston mentioned that he must feel humbled to be in the company of such great men. When the airman mumbled to the afirmative, Winston then said "Well, then perhaps you can imagine how we all feel to be in your presence."