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This story was submitted to the People’s War website by Karolina Kopiecthe behalf of Mr Norman Edwards and Mr Bob Pyett and has been added to the site with their permission. Authors fully understand site's terms and conditions.

Bob Pyett and his fellow crew members soon realised while en route for a second raid on Chemnitz — part of the RAF’s effort to help the Russians, who were advancing on Berlin — that things were starting to ‘go a bit haywire’.
‘Due to overheating, we lost and inboard motor but decided to continue on three engines’, said Bob. ‘This was a joint decision after the pilot had asked each man his opinion.

‘The navigator did his best by cutting a few corners in order to try to keep up with the bomber stream. We were designated to bomb in the second wave.
We did reach the target and bombed successfully — however, this was after the third wave had left for home. Just after leaving the target we were hit by night fighters. Despite a hectic attempt to corkscrew on three engines we were very soon badly damaged and had no option but to abandon.

Burning

As I climbed out of my turret I could see that the wings were burning fiercely, the fuselage was full of smoke and fumes and the ammo in the ducts to the rear turret was going off round my feet.
I decided that my quickest exit was via the entrance almost opposite my turret. I clipped on my ‘chute, opened the door and fastened it back.
‘As I did this the Lancaster, which was now nearly out of control, gave a vicious lurch to one side, almost sending me out head first. I spread out my arms and managed to stay on board but the slipstream caught the unopened ‘chute and sucked it out.
‘While hauling back on the short straps the ripcord caught the side of the door and spilled the ‘chute.
‘I stood in the fuselage with yards of nylon around my feet and amid the exploding ammo, gathering up all this mess in my arms, then hugged it to my chest, sat on the doorstep and threw myself out backwards. WE must have been at around 16,000 or 17,000 feet.
‘The tail plane went past — too close for comfort. The Lane fell away to my left like a flaming torch. A few seconds later I received an almighty jerk which I thought would have me singing tenor for the rest of my life. I was then floating down in perfect silence.
It was a perfect example of how not sticking to the correct procedure almost proved fatal.
Bob came down just a few yards inside Czechoslovakia, where the ground was covered in snow. He soon found himself in police hands, was passed over to the Luftwaffe and — on March 5 — became a prisoner of war.
All the crew had managed to get out of the stricken aircraft, but this involves another remarkable parachute story. The rear gunner was in difficulties because his parachute had been set on fire. By some chance, a previous occupant of the Lancaster had left hiss ‘chute behind — a most unlikely event- so there was a spare. The rear gunner managed to make his way to where it was near he navigator’s position, and made a good use of it.

Freed

At the end of April Bob was freed by General Patton’s troops and returned to the UK, going to Cosford where he took a flight mechanic’s course and got married. Bob joined the RAF in 1943, gained his AG brevet at 12 Air Gunnery School at Bishopscourt in Northern Ireland, and joined 625 Squadron at Kelstern, Lincolnshire, where his first operation was a daylight raid on the Uff Dam in Belgium. Bob was replacing a gunner who had been injured.
He then joined a new crew with a Canadian skipper, Jimmy Alexander, who was only 19 years of age. It was a good crew, he says, and he completed two daylight and 20 night raids with them — until the fateful second trip to Chemnitz.
On demobilisation Bob returned to work on the railways.

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