Page
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1955
Seven were saved-but
it cost the lives of 17
T
HE dinghy had already shipped three or four inches
of water. The six. inen survivors of the Wellington which had come. down in the Bay of Biscay sat three on either side, baling out continually.
A few minutes before they had been flying on night, patrol in search of U-boats. Then there had been the alarm as sparks started Hying from the starboard engine
the
WITH APPALLED WONDER,
THE CREW IN THE DINGHY WATCHED THE DEATH
THROES OF A GREAT PLANE...
by RALPH BARKER
SOS as the aircraft steadily that the men
could not reach it.
lost height....the ditching Whitley dropped bag of on the choppy sea.
supplies, which they retrieved. They were pleased to find in the bag a Very pistol and several cartridges,
Triggs, the pilot, and Badham, the navigator, were Australians. With them in the dinghy now were Walker, the second pilot; Cartwright,
the radio operator; Devonshire and McLean, the gunners.
At first the men used their cupped hands to bale out the dinghy; then, as more and more
in the dinghy sinking on to a fourth wave. A Next the tremendous rear reached them as the Sunderland pilot used full motor to clear yet another surging, turgid swell-top. It was too late. The por
por float seemed to bury itself in the swell and drag the rest of the aircraft set course for home, but a few found with it in a sweat swing. ring and swelled up until the ing are, piling the starboard side of the Sunderland up on top of
in a
a grotesque the port side
The port side of the illusion. aircraft sank beneath the sea. and the starboard wing groped 50 feet upwards to the sky.
"God Almighty," breathed Triggs..
The Whitley and Beaufighters minutes before eight o'clock that evening the men in the dinghy
sighted a Sunderland,
Triggs fred of a Very cart- ridge and the Sunderland water slopped in over the side acknowledged the signal and they each removed a shoe and turned in their direction. kept
ent baling .with a steady They watched anxiously while rhythm.
They were sick continually it circled the dinghy,
Triggs wanted to simal until they had nothing left bring up, but still they retched pilot and tell him that
and choked.
Their plight
to
WHEN "dawn come it brought Wa fuller realisation of their plight.
mountainous
of
They
The seas were and visibility was down to half But this part of the a mile. Bay WAE always a scene activity, day and night. were only about 80 miles off the Brest peninsula,
the- right in Path of the anti-U-boat patrols. They were certain to see air craft, and sooner or later aircraft would see ther
Thuring
The
ar
landing look-
extreme,
the there was a 12-foot sea running and that attempting a ed dangerous in the but all
he could do was gaze upwards dumbly. If he tied to signal with his arms he would probably be misunderstood, per-
box even noticed.
Sinking...
HEY
watched in deathly Sunderland silence as the began its landing run.
It slithered ac7053 the first wave, but the swell was deep and the Sunderland had
lost little speed. I bounced into the they next wave, bounded on, morning
and sighted a dozen alreraft, but struck the third wave-top with Lone of them saw the dinghy, Its tail down and its nose in the
Then,
at half-past two, Whitley with 1 Beaußghter "Engines!" screamed Triggs. escort arrived, obviously carry- "Engines!" ing out a thorough search.
The Whiley dropped a spare dinghy, but it fell so far upwind
gir
It burst
She spoke he saw that the
tip of the starboard wing was missing, add in the next moment there was a screaming sound as of an engine racing, and the starboard inner motor streaked. fire and then burst into dames. The men in the dinghy watched with appalled "wonder ay the great Sunderland, enormous in
like
a huge its death-throes,
righted itself for a animal, "second, and then nosed forward with its tail pointing to the sky.
began to pile into it a bulge appeared in the pneumatic outer dinghy burst.
From the air they had secu dinghy that the Whitley had the.
dropped some hours earlier. The pilot of the Sunderland told his men to try to reach that dinghy, One of them, Watson, a beach life-saver from Sydney, fought against the tumultuous seas and reached the dinghy exhausted. He was unable to carry out a plan to paddle the dinghy back to the others. One by one the remaining 11. men Sunderland drowned turbulent sea.
of in
the
the
Rougher still
00
Like
C huge animal the Sunderland righted itself for a
second
Drawa
by ROBB
{EXPLOITS of the GOLDFISH CLUB
Sit tight said Triggs Per haps they wouldn't be seen But as he watched he was con- vinced that they had been seen already.
When
BUT
'DUT now they saw a German motor-Lamch, protected by fighter umbrella, bearing down on them fast.
17
The Beaufighters escorting the British motor-launches dived on the F.W. 190s. One W. 190 pulled up suddenly with smoke pouring from the cockpit.
-The first British motor Inench was now alongside. the by one the
and one
New and the Sunder-
survivor
were taken
motor
oard The German launch hovered in the distance, Awaiting its chance. It was 0745 when one of the escorting Hudsons signalled "Operation completed."
The Hudson's signal was pre- mature. As the four motor- launches assumed a close dia- mond formation and got under way on a northerly course for home, back came the F.W. 1909 to attack them.
Smoke trail
LL four motor launches putting down a curtain of fire opened are simultaneously, through which the F.W .190s had bullets from the fighters to fly, Canon and machine-gun lashed
the sea around the launches,
"We've got him! We've got The German fighters were him" The almen now low over the sea and excitedly
shouted The hurtling towards the dinghies
as one of the FW. 190s swerved and at 400 miles an hour.
pulled up. its "D-e-s-t-r-o-y-e-r o-n w-a-y." day's without food or water, and they were almost overhead they shaklly, soke pouting fram he "Destroyer shouted Devon- although everyone protested that momentary picture of helmeted it, and then both aircraft broke
broke of in formation, and a shire. "Can you imagine that he did not feel hungry. Trige Hun pilots waving to them.
second fighter rapidly overtook A destroyer laid on for us!"
decided that they ought to eat. Waving to them!
off the action and hurtled on The men in Suddenly
the Their first meal consisted of the dinghy were too astounded their way. they saw
towards Brest, The Whitley climbing swiftly for blacuit,
a malted milk tablet,
damaged F.W. 190 staggered on the clouds with 1 roar one small square of chocolate and relieved to wave back,
uncertainly in the wake of its engines. Seconds later three and a mouthful of water. It..
fellow, leaving a trail of smoke German Arado Agthers swept wasn't until after the meal that 'I feel fine'
mark its path. past the dinghy and gave chase. they bega to feel hungry. The Whitley disappeared into the clouds.
saw
There was a muffled explosion in the distance, and as they WHEN night fell the wind gazed northwards they
increased
and
the sea columns of black, smoke rising roughened, and waves began to from the sea.
into break
the Wellington's No one in the dinghy spoke, dinghy again, keeping all sik Each man was trying to con- men baling incessantly.
vince himself that the Whitley Next morning the water was crew might have escaped, and ll rough, and the dinghy each man knew in his heart that tossed precariously
the they hadn't an earthly. switchback seas. Sometimes, lifted to the top of the swell, they caught a glimpse of the Whitley dinghy, too fleeting for,
recognition None
felt or the krew hungry or thirsty, and the thought the dinghy rations was unappetising. The dampness from their clothes had seeped into their bones, and they felt clammy and wretched.
It was the time of sunset, and the evening sky, dark and lowering, reflected the blazing
his full
aircraft.
Unknown to Triggs and Crew, the men in the Sunder- land, numbering 12 in all, had clambered out quickly on to the wing, where they fought to
The delay until the sound of the engines reached them was indate their dinghies. Only one agony, The Sunderland was dinghy inflated, and as they
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In the course of the day two Whitleys arrive on the scene, Ore circled at 200 feet and started signalling.
STRIKE
First meal
THE light began to fade with a. misty cheerlesstore in her settled down for their second full night in the dinghy
When morning came, visi
visibility was little more than a mile. Even so, shortly after dawn they recognised a Ju 88 heading out into the Atlantic. It was the only aircraft they saw all day.
They had now been in the dinghy for more than three
CYCLE
IN BRITAIN
By JOHN MCKENNA .
London.
"but this
their
to
Two minutes later en FW. Condor and a Ju 88 were And in the distance,
GGS and his crew resumed agated and envious, but still
3 At constituting latent threat,
waited
"I don't want to depress any- one," said Backam, sort of weather is liable to cling. the hard labour of paddling frustra to the Bay for days. As long to reach the other dinghy, as we've got a wind anywhere six o'clock, after five hours al
the German motor- between south-east and north- most continuous paddling at launch and the threa Arades, west we might as well try to the rate of 200 yards an hour, use it."
and' .hundred
eighty ing distance of the Whitley miles?" said Triggs.
dinghy. They saw one head at a "People have drifted more only in the dinghy and looked than that," said Badham,
in vain for others." "With the wind where it is northerly we shall drift in a
direction anyway. We may, as well give the wind what assist- ance we can.
the They broke
telescopic mast in brand und
the flag between the two stubs. Triggs the first-aid kit and opened made
makeshift stays and sheets out of bandages. The gen anchor was streamed to help them steer a straight course.
Celebration!
they at last arrived within hail- boury like the jealous nelga-
"Hallo Triggs. right?"
there," called "Are you all
of a lottery winner. The Conder shadowed them of some five distance of miles, but the Ju 88, after two feint attacks, suddenly burst
NEXT WEEK
The epla of
each
Sergeant Tottle
"I feel fine, thanks." One volce, saying 1
Nothing about felt fine. anyone else. Triggs and. his crew gazed other dumbly. For a most exactly four days they had been ignorant of the tragedy that had occurred right of their eyes.
in front
through the cloud above them and dived into the attack with guns firing.
"Dive-bombing!" yelled
Triggs
"- whether
straight
the Ju 88 carried bombs Or nol they would never know, for in that moment the German pilot fooked over his shoulder, like jockey who fears being overtaken,
the
into
and มนุ gazed Dose of a Bear-
Walle Cartwright and fighter approaching from abeam.
McLean
aboard.
steadied the two He pulled straight out of his
190. friends in a dash for Brest.
ABOUT midday they all el diaphathund and Bacham dive as bullets dipped into his empty again, and they tried hauled the Sunderland survivor fuselage, and followed his F.W. to quieten their hunger with a malted-milk táblet. The day dragged on and there was siga of any change in the
weather.
до
at about two knots. In the
anc
them
Watson's weak and exhausted The Condor shadowed condition was all too apparent for three hours, but they soon. They stripped him
gave left the German motor-launch him a thorough rub down to the Arados behind and stimulate his circulaiton, clothed
of the voyage
க
and
rest
the
End
Wa3
They rested little that night, but they
drifted northwards, him in a sleeping-sult from the uneventful. They arrived. off helped by the improvised sail, and and gave him a meal that
containers that had been Land's
at three o'clock afternoon and
entered morning they had a meal similar consisting of malted-milk Newlyn Harbour at 1729, five to the one they had on the tables, two biscuits, some sweet and a half days after their
chocolate and half a tin of take-off from Chivenor. him a cigarette and told him to rest
"Nin the train is bad result.
To newspapers to read war year, as a yardstick of the Previous day, and at dusk. Trige tornato juice. Then they gave
and for the first time since the The sea was moderate now. ditching they had a good night's sleep.
standards of 1938, the last pre-
opened a tin of tomato juice individual prosperity. As afrom the emergency. pock and
the arguments they handed it round. enough," groused a typical adduce, while understandable Londoner, "but no trains to enough from a purely human "Big night back in Barnstaple 's Friday night," he said read no newspapers in "viewpoint are unrealistic, In remember?
Have a swig and As ordinary Londoners always brief, said thoughtful economists, pretend it's beer."
At midday next day they saw do, he was taking philosophically bigger pay-packets are demanded the technicians' strike which had on occasion not because they are a Beaufighter, the Arst aircraft paralysed the national press for strictly necessary to meet rising sighted for two and a half days. threatened stoppage by railway wants to keep his end up on the gling its wings in greeting. This all but four weeks and the costs, but because the worker It few straight overhead, wag-
-social scale,
siging H a second Beaufighter,
engine-drivers and firemen,
From farther up the national Ladder,
though, from the economists' point of view, it was
':
sent
other
Balance sheet
WHEN the analysis of the in- cident came to be written the Director-General of Aircraft Safety struck a balance sheet."
Fighters back UDSONS and Beaufighters side the lows of the Sunderland He had to enter on the; debit appeared over the dinghy with 11 of its crew, the Whitley at dawn. Triggs, sure that the with its cow of six, and Trigg's German fighters would be bark Wellington. Three aircraft and at dawn too, tried to warn the 17 men circling aircraft in an elaborate pantomime, but he was by no means certain that they under-,
b-e
destroyed.
rescue
Beaufighter report and searching an area near by, ap- peared quickly on the scene. The It seems to work like this: La first Beaufighter began signalling not so easy to be philosopliteal 1938, let's say a bank clerk livedoia-u-u e-etaciTre T ETE Britain, it seemed to many of better than a miner. Since then
Then he turned the page over them, was approaching the peak muters wages have shot up too-t-h-e-r d--sar dinghy," stood. One of the Beaufighters. Six aircrew from the Wellington
and wrote down the credit side.. of another strike, cycle. For, meet cost of living demands. Say to pontact the said e as circled and began signalling. broadly speaking, labour stop have bank clerks. But there though they had been asked to
One aircrew from the Stunder- pages tend to come in batches in suit has been a levelling out of paddle to New York. He waved
Irind. One "I-t w-o-n-t
Ju 88 probably
·I-O-A-g this country.
living standards, and the bank his arras repeatedly at -o-w. They chanted to destroyed. One F.W. 190 dam-
the clerk finds that he is now on Beaufighter to indicate that sen gether. "It won't be long now aged and probably
Two hundred hours flying ex- the same social plane as the an attempt was beyond them. As if to remind them that perience of - atr-sea”- Out came the usual spate of miner..
This aircraft climbed to 1,000 their elation Was · premature, economics
catch-phrases ke But the bank clerk is not in-feet and get course
curso for base.. three Aradb fighters circled operations. And lastly, and “wages chasing prices."- No less clined to take the view that the The second Beaufighter now some frue than before, but some miner had to get bigger
incircled
distance to the north. Perhaps most significant of all, them and
did not realise the signi- the maintenance of a high state morile through having economists thought, not the sole creases because of his lower signaling. They spelt out the care of this at fast isn't the snatched an entire crew from reason for the wage demands starting point. His view is that message together as before.
it which so often bring strikkes in since his skill has not decreased "Contact other dinghy, one in- destroyer!" Triggs shouted sud within the grasp of the enemy their wake
They stiu denly. since 1938, and the miner's skill jured man aboard" The malaise, they maintained.
has not increased, his
did not understand that the da- them out of salary susceptible of solution bry
dinghy rocked wildly as they economic formula and, in fact, strately to maintain his superior the dinghy.
In the afternoon they spotted craned their necks to sec. status. seemed more lice a job for
So said the economiste, the wards them from the east
But the "destroyer?... was four ale craft racing down to-
motor-launch. psychologist than an economist or politician, de perio
problem was largely a human what the devil
There's two more are they?"
launches As they saw it, the trouble one and not necessarily the said Triggs
just behindi" shouted Walker. was this: Too many Britons want fault of any economic maladjust- "FW. 1905," said Devonshire, Three more," corrected. Mc- to use the economic and lying. ment.
"What do we do now?"
Lesti
began
They
Steam
after 124 hours at sea.
ist to straight ⠀⠀at the
went deeper than that, was 100 should have gone up-ctammen. /fured man. wws the sole occupent north, he could see a ship. The
MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN
TINY HAVE YOU GOT.
NO WHOT
A FEELIN' SOMEBODY'S
FOLLOWIN US3
DUMB COPS--MUST BE AFTY, OF 'EM GUARDIN OUR HOUSE--THEY DIDN' KNOW ABOUT. THIS FIRE ESCAPE NEXT DOOR.
By Lee Fals and Phil Davis
I TELL YOU
--I HEAR
FOOTSTEPS:
POUNDIN BEHIND US!
P
THAT'S YOUR HEART POUNDIN*? KEEP RUNNIN'}
are
[These extracts from “Down in the Drink," to be published: by Chatto and Windus.]
TALK
ABOUT
MAGIC!
Have you seen
Admiral
AIR CONDITI
AND REFRIGERATORS,