大象传媒

Pilot, F/O Bradley
Navigator, John Edmunds
Flight Engineer, F/Sgt Richards
Wireless Operator, F/Sgt Jock Veitch
Front Gunner, F/Sgt Les Vedmore
Bomb Aimer, F/Sgt Bob Corbett

It was 1943, WW2. I was an air-gunner and my role was that of the rear gunner on a Wellington bomber, sat at the tail of the aircraft. This was a twin-engine plane. As rear gunner, I was responsible for 4 guns which were to be used in the air to fend off attacks from enemy fighters. I would also use them from air to ground targets. Before we were able to reach our target, one of the engines failed. At this point we were above the sea heading towards Italy. I could hear on the intercom that there was a problem with one of the engines. The pilot and the engineer were talking. The engineer said that he was unable to rectify the fault. He told the pilot that we would have to fly on just one engine. We had no alternative but to turn back to base in Quastina in Palastine, which was about 150 miles back. We circled the aerodrome and eventually got permission to land, despite the fact we had a load of bombs on board.

Our pilot was really keen and rather than dropping the bombs at sea before landing, he wanted to hang on to them for use on another day. So we made our way towards the aerodrome with 5 bombs on board. This was very unusual to try to land a plane with bombs on board as if we hit the runway too fast or hard the bombs would become dislodged and explode. As we approached the aerodrome, i looking down from the rear turret and could see the fire engines and ambulances rushing out to the end of the runway where we were landing. It seemed obvious to me that they thought we were going to crash. This was one of the most worrying times.

The pilot made a very good safe landing without any casualties.

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