大象传媒

This is my 5th true war story. Our RAF Unit at Lydda in Palestine is moving out, after 2 years in Iraq and 1 year in Lydda, to Egypt, which will make 4 years away from England. This story has worried me ever since it happened and that was a long time ago. Several of us carrying our kit bags etc were about 15 yards from a four engine Liberator Bomber that we were about to board, when I noticed some parachute harnesses and said to my mate 鈥渨hat are they doing on the grass?鈥�

An officer standing next to them barked, 鈥� you ten put them harnesses on鈥�
I said 鈥渨hat is the reason for putting them on sir鈥�?
鈥淭here are ten, put them on,鈥� he said
Again I spoke out and said 鈥渢here are no parachutes in the plane Sir, so why do we have to put them on鈥�?
鈥淏ecause I鈥檓 telling you to, 鈥� he shouted like a bulldog.

So right or wrong, you do as you are told even though you know you are right and that he was wrong. I was an L.A.C (Leading Aircraft Man) and you would lose every time you queried an officer鈥檚 word. (The same sort of thing happened to me in Bassrah in Iraq when a corporal left 5 of us 10 minutes in 145 F heat, and we agreed to carry on working to get the job done in that heat. The corporal comes back and says, 鈥淚鈥檓 in charge鈥�. And I said you moved away for 10 minutes, but I got jankers for 7 days).

Anyway, the ten of us put the harnesses on as the best we could, and climbed into the plane with some funny looks from the other lads, but we just said 鈥渙rders鈥�. There is only a small place between cockpit and bomb bay, but with the kit bags and cases heaped near the locked doors, there was just room to sit on the floor, about 25 of us and 2 nurses. Five of us dangled our legs into the bomb bay to make a bit more room. We were now on the runway and picking up speed, the four engines of the Liberator were deafening, and we would be airborne any second. All of a sudden there was a loud bang and then another one: and the worst time to have trouble is during take off or landing! But we were now

airborne so we thought things were maybe okay. Then there was a tapping on my back and a lad shouted in my ear 鈥淒id I know where the emergency hydraulic system was?鈥� (He would have known that I was a Rigger and part of my work was hydraulics). I nodded to him because of the noise that I knew where it was. He then said the pilot had asked him to ask a Rigger to get it going as the explosion we heard was in the engine room and had destroyed the hydraulics. I told the lad I would give him the thumbs up when I had got the hydraulics system going again because even shouting would not be heard above the engines. The pilot would be very worried because the flaps, bomb doors, gun-turrets, and the wheel (undercarriage) are totally useless without hydraulics, and as things stood at the moment that would mean a crash landing: Now that is something to worry about. I only had to move about 5 yards to reach the big doors, but the kit bags and cases were stacked up in front of that area and the lads soon moved those for me. The next move was very lucky because tools were very scarce with all of us, but I kept my American screwdriver and a pair of pincers always in my pocket, so they would not get lost.

So there I was in front of two 7 feet high wooden doors with holes on both close together and joined together with strong rough wire, so I was lucky to have my pincers with me. I cut through the wires and was through the doors. There was a corridor to the right and about six strides? And I was up to the emergency system which is similar to a large wall clock about 3 feet by 2 feet but gradually sloping forward because it will turn underneath the floor boards to reach the pilot and co-pilot and hand pump.

The system was covered all over with rough wire, so my pincers came out again to cut the wire away. There was a key under the wire, but now clear, so I opened the door, and connected the outlet to the system, and then connected the pipes, which ran into one to the reservoir. I checked the whole thing was clean and then released the fluid in the reservoir into the pipes and into the cockpit, hoping it will wark. I rushed to the doors and put my thumb up to the lad near the cockpit, and he advised the pilot and co-pilot, and in a few seconds the lad put a thumb up, so the emergency system was working and we could land safely.

We did land safely and the pilot told us he was not in a fit state to take a fresh plane up, so we would have another Pilot in the new plane to take us to Egypt. We understood his position, the bumps on takeoff, because the hydraulics system was blown up by something, Engines don鈥檛 explode and Hydraulics cannot explode, there is only types of fluid flowing through the system. He would be worried of a crash landing. The pilot told the four of us to have a beer each from the back of the plane. I had a small camera, and someone took a photograph of the four of us near the plane with the harnesses on (in case anyone thought we were joking.) The explosion made a hole nine inches by two inches, and right through the engines outer cover. I still have the photograph of the four of us after the landing with our harnesses on in front of the plane. We were quickly onto another plane, and we all said, that the way we were forced to put on just the harnesses could not have been an official R.A.F order because we would have had instructions much earlier with an explanation why we were putting them on without parachutes.

The officer was very nasty when he forced us to put the harnesses on, and we were the only ten with them on, and the other fifteen were not approached at all, and that was a very odd thing to do, and that has really been on my mind for 60 years.

We landed in Egypt safely in the new plane but we never heard any more about our lucky escape from a crash landing and many casualties in Palestine. I have my own thoughts on what happened, and if I am correct, they did not have full knowledge of the hydraulics, they obviously did not know there was a separate system for the undercarriage (wheels). We were lucky, because the two bumps we heard, would be the wheels dropping down, just as we were off the ground but three seconds earlier we would have been on the ground running at 90 M.P.H and the dangling wheels could have caused a fatal somersault.

Because of my very good drawings and writing, I was advised when finishing the 17-wheel course to take an exam to become a leading Aircraftsman (L.A.C), and I passed that before going abroad.

After four years abroad in the Middle East and now back in England, I was put on a Corporals course and because of my good reports I could go higher. I persuaded them I was not going to stay in the R.A.F and they said I was silly. I did not tell them the real reason, which was, we were not treated very well in all the two years in Iraq. In everything, wash, food, hygiene and existence even. Some of our friends did not make it and we owe something to them.

Jim Grigor
Boston
Lincs

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.