大象传媒

My Great Uncle's was the mid-upper gunner on Lancaster bombers in the second world war, and has many interesting and frightening stories to tell. One astounds me completely, and this is it. His Lancaster was hit by flak as they made their bombing run over Berlin. This set much of the structure of the aircraft on fire, illuminating them to any enemy night-fighters. What made the situation even more dangerous was that their bomb load was still on board. The release mechanism was jammed due to the heat, and the flames were creeping ever closer to the bomb bay. My great Uncle was the mid-upper gunner, and all this was happening directly below him. Seeing that if the bombs were left for much longer, the aircraft would blow up, he jumped down onto the red hot glowing struts below him (the walkway had already melted). He then proceeded to stamp on each bomb in turn, and eventually released all of them, while the other crew members succeeded in putting out the fire. Unfortunatley, his feet were very badly burned, as were his lower legs. John was not decorated for this, and the crew was split up following the event, as some were suffering from shock. He was killed later in the war after being shot down over Holland following a raid on Hamburg, and is buried in a graveyard near Amsterdam.

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