大象传媒

This story or rather two stories, involves the same air crew named above. The first story began in June 1942 when as members of a Wellington bomber crew we were based at Harwell, Berkshire (an Operational Training Unit), eventually to be part of Middle East Bomber Command.The training involved working as a crew and carrying out flights from Harwell to various locations around Britain. I should mention that at this period of the war,things looked bleak for the Allies. Rommel and his Afrika Corps had driven the 8th. Army back across the Egyptian border as far as El Alamein (scene of the famous victory later).As Rommel swept through Libya and Tripolitania capturing Benghazi,and Tobruk, the situation at Malta and the Meditteranean generally became perilous,with Italian subs harrying shipping,plus Axis bombers from Sicily even more so now that they controlled the North African ports including Tripoli. This posed a serious threat to supplies and to the ability of aircraft to reach Egypt via the established route England, Gibraltar,Malta,Cairo, refuelling being necessary at Gibraltar and Malta. With the possibility of Malta not receiving adequate supplies of fuel,an alternative route envisaged Gibraltar to the Gold Coast (now Ghana) on the west coast of Africa.Then North-West to Nigeria (Mardugari),a further flight to The Sudan (Khartoum),finally North to Cairo, some six thousand miles as against half that mileage of the original route. This led to Rolls - Royce Merlin engines on Wellingtons being upgraded with extra fuel tanks installed as well. At any rate this coincided with our crew being one of the first to fly the 'new' aircraft, on a flight involving four directions, East from Harwell to a point in the North Sea,then North to a position opposite Whitby,turning East again, and finally South back to Harwell,about 1000 miles altogether.
Unfortunately while on the second 'leg'and almost at the Whitby position, at an altitude of 8000 feet,smoke began emitting from the port engine that quickly burst into flames. The captain )Norman Millson)proposed putting the aircraft into a steep dive, hoping the resultant increase in airflow would extinguish the flames. While the rest of the crew braced themselves(and prayed),we screamed down,leveling out at roughly two thousand feet.Norman pulled out of the dive but the engine was still burning, bits of cowling and other debris breaking off. We were still over the sea a couple of miles from the coast and town of Whitby,so with no time to bail out, the Captain gave the order to prepare for 'ditching'. Luckily the sea was dead calm, but no calmer than Norman as he swung into what wind there was,gently descending, easing back the throttle until,almost nonchalantly, he made an almost perfect three-point landing with just the slightest of judders. I am prepared to say that even at this distance in time (62years)I consider this a great feat of airmanship,remembering that if he had not got it right we could have plunged into the water equal to hitting a brick wall at 100m.p.h.In retrospect too, I believe that the geodetic construction of the Wellington by the great Barnes Wallis (Of Dambusters fame)helped prevent the aircraft breaking up.Upon landing on the waves, it was my job to locate the dinghy release which self-inflated the craft.While we all piled in I cut the attached rope, and as we gently floated away, poor old "N for Nuts" entered a watery grave.Within the dinghy was a Very Pistol that when fired exploded a cartridge high into the atmosphere producing a satisfying loud bang and a brilliant light that could be seen for miles. As we were, as I mentioned only a mile or so from Whitby, it was a bit unnecessary as a small fishing vessel already in the vicinity hurried alongside helping us aboard and securing the dinghy aft.Remarkably,no one sustained even a scratch ,though later after being taken to RAF Thornaby Coastal Command Station a few miles up the coast, we were medically examined , declared fit,but ordered to spend a night in the sick bay. After a good night's rest plus a satisfying breakfast,railway warrants issued. So, back to Harwell where later, we were quizzed by Rolls-Royce representatives as to the origin of the engine fire but were not able to shed any light.I believe that some modifications to later Merlin engines ensued, but ironically the long route was not required,as at this time Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, and The Royal Navy successfully broke the siege of Malta ,a large convoy including some petrol tankers entered Valletta harbour,enabling our aircraft to re-fuel,and subsequently flying to Cairo.
P.S. Landing a land plane on the water,and using a dinghy made by P.B.Cow and Company entitled us to receive membership of The Goldfish Club,to which we added that of The Caterpillar Club for bailing out in the Western Desert using Irvin parachutes (The Irvin Parachute Company).This episode I have already related in my Journal.Phil Green

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