大象传媒

This story is submitted by Helen Hughes of the People's War team in Wales on behalf of Eddie Gurmin and is added to the site with his permission.

From Dishforth I went up to Middleton St. George which was a brand new drome which is now Teeside airport鈥hey were just building it then. We went up there on Whitleys and I was flying with Chris Cheshire, who was the brother of Leonard Cheshire VC鈥e was my skipper. I did 23 trips on Whitleys and then they were bringing out the first of Halifaxs and they were forming a second Halifax squadron at Middleton St. George. It was similar to the Lancaster鈥� we went on to the Halifaxs鈥n those days you had to do 30 trips over Germany and then you were taken off. We were briefed on 12th August 鈥e were briefed for Berlin. When we got to the outer defences of Berlin we found the petrol consumption had gone for a real burton. We didn鈥檛 have enough petrol left to get back to England鈥e thought we鈥檇 try to get into the North Sea somewhere. We hadn鈥檛 dropped a bomb then, so we decided to drop the bombs on the secondary target which was Hamburg. So we did a deviation 鈥ropped the bombs on Hamburg 鈥�.I was on the wireless that night. The observer dropped the bombs. He gave me the thumbs up the bombs had gone. I sent a message back to Middleton St. George saying 鈥渙peration completed鈥� I got a message back from them saying 鈥渕essage received and understood鈥� and just then there was one Hell of a bang. So I was on the wireless and had two switches, one for the wireless and one for the intercom. I was still on the wireless and I thought I鈥檇 better find out what鈥檚 happening here. So I pulled my plug out of the wireless, pushed it into the intercom just in time to hear Cheshire saying 鈥淛ump for it boys鈥� and I couldn鈥檛 believe my ears. I said 鈥淲hat do you mean鈥ale out?鈥� and he said 鈥淵es, and bloody quick鈥�. We鈥檇 had this bump - he had the stick and moved the stick and just had nothing at all there. When we baled out we realised we鈥檇 had a direct hit with an ack ack shell in the fuselage. The whole of the fuselage had gone. All that was left was two wings and four engines. The rear gunner, of course, he鈥檇 fallen 15000 feet, he was dead. At the same time we were attacked by a night fighter and he killed the front gunner鈥s I say luckily I was on the wireless that night. Five of us managed to bale out鈥nd of the five who managed to bale out four have since died, including Chris Cheshire ..so I鈥檓 the only one left. We jumped out at 15000 feet 鈥� of course when I hit the deck it was one o鈥檆lock in the morning and I didn鈥檛 know where the rest of the crew were鈥hey could have been ten feet away or ten miles away. I was hanging up there and the plane crashed below me. So I got out of my parachute. I actually fell into a bog and I couldn鈥檛 get out of this bog. Everytime I tried to move out of it I was sinking in the bog. And that night another plane from our squadron was shot down and the whole seven of the crew baled out safely and five of them dropped into these bogs and drowned鈥o there was only two survived. Five of them drowned in the bogs that I was actually in. Anyway in the moonlight I thought I could see a bit of a path so I took a deep breath and ran like hell towards this path鈥� I managed to get onto this little path and get out of these bogs. I was walking down the road and I was whistling 鈥淭here鈥檒l Always be an England鈥� thinking there may be some of my mates around鈥o I鈥檓 whistling this and suddenly a Luftwaffe officer and ten squaddies came round the corner and grabbed me and took me to this Ack ack post that had actually shot us down.

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