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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer on behalf of Pilot Officer John A. Martin DFC (retired) Larne, N. Ireland and been added to the site with his permission. Mr Martin understands the site’s terms and conditions.

During our flights to the Far East we flew into Dumdum and we ‘slipped crews’. We flew into Dumdum and there was a crew resting there, who picked up your plane and your crew caught the next one. Ace Anning who had DSO, DFC and bar, was the pilot with whom we slipped crews on this occasion at Dumdum. He took on our aircraft the next morning and took off for Singapore. That was the last we heard of him. He went down in the drink somewhere, never heard of him again. Although there were faults turned up on aircraft on occasions, there weren’t many lost like that. We couldn’t understand what had happened. Ace and I were great mates. It was a big shock to realise that he was lost like that. At that time of the year there were monsoons and you generally tried to go below the monsoon or fly above it. We could only reckon that he had hit the sea while trying to fly below the monsoon. Unfortunately word had got back to our base that it was our crew who had gone down, because of the chopping and changing of aircraft crews and my wife received news that I was missing. When I returned back home I found an awful situation, my wife was very distressed.

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