大象传媒

This story was given to meby former Squadron Leader Mervyn Davies of 57 Squadron.

February 20/21,1944, Target Stuttgart

Though death became commonplace on bomber fields, sometimes there was an added poignancy. Such was the case when Flying Officer E.J. Murray, RAAF, set off down the runway, Stuttgart bound, on his first operation. Taking off with a full bomb load was the only excercise that could not be practised during training and the runways were scarcely long enough for a 29 ton Lancaster at the best of times. Murray's aircraft swung and as it careened across the Stickney Road the unudercarriage collapsed. The bomb load exploded immediately, with a blast that broke windows in Skegness, fifteen miles away. Amazingly, the rear gunner was taken almost unhurt from his turret, one of the few parts of the pane found intact.

I was watching take-off from the balcony of the watchtower and witnessed this tragic accident. The explosion was terrible. An ear-shattering roar gave birth to a vast, brightly-lit cloud of manycolours, with trails of white-hot metal showing into the sky, the shards of mangled metal turning to cherry red as they arched and darkening as they began to float to earth. During my tour of operations I saw many of what we mistakenly thought were "scarecrows" but I never saw anything as awesome as this exlposion. It is etched on my memory and I still often think of that rear gunner and the horror of his experience at the very start of his first operational trip. Added to that terrifying experience, the psychological effect must have been devasting when he began to relaise that he was the onlysurvivor and that there was no trace of his other closely-bonded flying companions. In spite of all this, that gallant young man continued to fly.

June 21/22, 1944 Target Wesseling

A Ju 88 armed with conventional cannon, found 630's 'G-George' and attacked from below. The mid upper gunner scored hits and the assilant disappeared into the clouds, on fire. The Lancaster dropped 5,000 feet before the combined efforts of the pilot and engineer managed to regain some measure of control. The engines still ran well but there was no aileron control and the rudders answered sloppily. The pilot. 'Blue' Rackley, decided to jettison the bombs and return home. Turning the aircraft round was a long, hard process, despite the combined efforts of pilot, engineer and bomb aimer and as it was completed one side of the ruddr control gave way. Sheer brute force brought the rudder bar back to a central position, where it was tied with a piece of rope, though how the rope came to be there , no-one knew. 630 Squadron's 'G-George' crossed the coast near Ipswich, the crew preparing to bale out, for it was obvious that there was insufficient control to undertake a landing. There was a huge hole in the fusselage and the rear gunner was assisted past this . It was then discovered that his parachute was so damaged by cannon fire as to be useless. Without hesitation, the bomb-aimer volunterred to take him on his own chute. They were tied together and dropped through the hatch, but the makeshift lashings failed and the poor gunner fell to his death, the fate he had so narrowly missed when his previous crew had been killed in that tragic first take off attempt back in February. Shaken, but safe, the bomb aimer landed, followed by the rest of the crew. Flying Officer Rackley was the last to leave, having tried in vain to set the plane on a course that would carry her clear across England before she crashed. It was not to be, for as he swung on his parachute the aircraftmade ever closer circles towards him before it crashed, As he landed, his chute caught on the engine of an express train! Fortunately, the harness released, but he was quite badly injured and was picked up by the guard of a goods train.

The rear gunner, this unlikely, unnamed unsung hero was a young man known to his friends as Taffy Davies and my heart bleeds for him whenever I think about his unfortunate death, particularly the way in which he died. His survival from the horror of the first trip experience was surely a miracle and perhaps he was living on borrowed time, but just as surely, he did not deserve to die in the way he did. I sincerely hope that Taffy has some family members who still remember him and that his memory is honoured and cherished.

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