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It was the rainy season in Palestine. Pilot Lockwood was a South African in the RAF and flying a liberator loaded with Depth Charges and Pyrotechnics. He was attempting to take off from St Jeans airfield but crashed on take off into the surrounding flooded fields. The water was only 3 feet deep and the crew were able to walk away from the plane but the aircraft and its deadly load was stuck with no way of moving it until the flood water receded. It stayed there for 8 or 9 weeks untouched and became known as ‘Lockwoods Folly.’

When the fields had finally dried my unit (I was a driver with 123MU) was able to unload the depth charges and pyrotechnics. The problem was that over time the explosives had expanded and seeped out and crystallized on the drums. One touch of it in this state and it would have exploded. We had to wet it with stirrup pumps, unload them a few at a time and keep them wet whilst we transported them into the desert where we safely detonated them. We left several very deep cone shaped holes in the desert, we don’t know where the sand went! Once unloaded the Liberator was recovered and flew again.

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