THOMPSON, V.C.
THE CHINA MAIL,
SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1981.
THE ERRAND BOY WHO WANTED SOMETHING A BIT MORE EXCITING
**
DRAMA IN A BLAZING TURRET-ON
THE EDGE
OF A DROP
TO DEATH
HEROES OF THE BOMBERS DART FOUR
"I'M browned off," wrote L.A.C. George Thompson, 22-year-old son of a Kinross ploughman, seizing the chance of a short break in his ground wireless duties to write a letter home. It was January 1, 1943, and he thought he had never spent 11 duller New Year's Day.
"It's not that I want to do any of that heroic stuff," he went on, "but this job isn't very exciting."
Twelve months' oversons ser- vice in Iraq, Persia and the Per- satisfcd sian Gulf had not George Thompson's desire for adventure, and soon after writ- ing this letter he applied for Transfer to nying duties,
Two years later, on another New Year's Day, "that herole stuff" was to win him the award of the V.C..
Helping hand
Thompson had left school at 14 to become a grocer's osalst ont, and had later qualified as a certificated
Tall, big Krocer boned, and Immensely strung, he had a brusque downrightness of speech which was accentuated by a strong Scots acceni,
But his runged exterior was softened by the gentle manner of the typical Highlander.
Quiet, obliging, and conscien- tious, he was a youth who saw nothing menial in the service of his fellow men. Serving in the shop at Kinross, or driving the delivery van to outlying farms,. he was always ready to help others.
As a buy he had loved tinker- ing with wireless sets, and many a time on his rounds he traced and repaired some minor fault for a lonely couple whose radio was their only contact with the outside world. He ran their crrands for them, filled in their ration books, posted their letters, and look their wireless batteries
Lost in an ecctesy of living ..........
Hoge genus live Hic,
With great big roses
Aad furs...
And cars, waiting.
by RALPH BARKER
Inlo Kinross to be charged. He was the perfect errand boy.
Thumpson's application for aircrew training was successful, and in the Inte autumn of 1044 he reported for duty with his crew At No. 9 Squadron, Bardney, Lincolnshire.
His pot was a 23-year-old farmer from New Zealand, Harry Denton, quiet and shy, studious and tectotal, not n good mixer soclally, but keen on a good crew spirit.
The dance
Year's Eve
And so to New 1945 and the rhythmic thurap of "Paper Doll escoping into the crisi night air from The All Ranks dance of the blacked-out Nasti, Inside, the atmosphere was smoky but electrie. Hundreds of young people jostled on the tiny floor or fought for drinks at the Inadequate bar. With vic- lory almost in sight after more than five years, there had never been so exciting a prospect as
the Now Year of 1945,
150 he couldn't keep the urgency out of his voice. They were running out of runway. Then at last she came off.
now, but for 70 men of the Lan- casters the night had gone sour. No sense in flying on a daylight ruid without a clear head. One by one they allpped away to bed, Whether it Was Lee atin Around five o'clock next unmelted on the wings, the lack murning the flerce Jet of en of wind, or carburettor Jeing. electric torch shono full in the, is uncertain, but the second face by the duty crew woke aircraft had the same trouble. even the heaviest sleepers, and It crashed at the end of the after a hurried breakfast the runway and burst into flames. crews reported to briefing. It A third aircraft had the some was freezing hurd and the experience and crashed, but the bricing hut was white with crew escaped. frost. There they learned the target the Dortmund Eins Селді.
They picked up their, flying clothing from their lockers in the crew room and drove out to dispersal. All 10 Lancasters, too, were white with hour frost. The crews piled into their nircraft, seeking warmth. Be cause of frost and fog few of then bud flown in the past fort night, and the seats and controls had a moment's unfamiliarity fur gach of them. Then they set tled in and were at home again.
Desperate
A fine start to New Year's Day.
The target
Three hours later the remain- ing crews, with 90 more from other squadrons.
·
Clinging to the wall,
he inched his way past
the jagged halo in the
floor of the plane.
"Strady."
That was easy to say, thought Denton, as, he watched several of the aircraft ahead of him suffering direct hits from the
Unconscious
DRAWING 'BY - OLIPĪRAMY
IN-
12
The wireless seat was the warmest in the plane, and Thompsun Was not wearing gloves, which in any case, would have impeded his operation of the marae kry.
his bombsight in the bombing Denton would close the bomb cleared the smoke in the cockpit that the rear fisseloge must have compartment, calling instrue- doors, re-trim the alreraft, and and blew out the many candles been badly hit He feared at tions to Denton on the inter- turn away from the target area. of flume in the fuselage almost once for the safely of the two com.
Kneebone was back at the in one.
Welsh gunners, Ernic. Potts, in "Three degrees starboard." navigation table, working out.
the mid-upper turret, and Haydn the course to steer for home,
Kneebone. In the navigation Price in the rear. With
scal such small corrections waiting ilke Denton for the
behind the pilot, WAD were nearing it was Impossible for Denton to signal from Goebel. But it never
sitting in a sea of flame one the target. Ten thousand feet
make below them, crystal clear in the
much use of them for come.
minute and in an Aretla gale frosty air, ley the great man thickening.
the next. evasive action, and the flok was Instead came the stupefying
The run up to the concussion made waterways of North-West target was
and choos from o Germany, especially impurtent of the time Goebel used only 8 mm shells.
so good that most direct hit by a salvo of two
But a few flickers of flame to the German now that their
from burning hydraulic of railways had been bombed into
around a single word?--
the damaged turrets survived and gained a hold.
He was not wearing a pari- chaos. And in the distance,
Denton, blasted back to con- chute. either the wireless running obliquely across
their
nor- track, lay the greatest, of them
sciousness by the icy wind, sur- operator's, parachute was all, the Dortmund-Ems' Canel.
veyed a scene of appalling de- mally stowed beside him in the The first shelt blew a gaping vastation.
fuselage. Kneebone sat now in the nose. Before turning on to the run-
He was dying Into the teath "Attentura please. Attention way, each aircraft was sprayed compartment, searching for his murderous barrage of flak that hole five or six feet square in
When of the fuselage just of the gale as unprotected as in cleared, and he peered down the please. The following crews with glycol to remove the rime, pinpoint, the
was now pouring upwards from the floor River Gianc nt
the banks of the canal as forward of the mid-upper turret an aerial chair at a fairground. fuselage catching a brief glimpse will report to the Operations and with glycol Room...
still dripping
Ladbergen.
though some hidden ammun- and set fire to the whole rear All his trimming knobs hung of Potts slumped in his blazing Here, from the wings Denton turned
where
aqueduct on dump да
had alrendy. been section of the aircraft. The front slack and useless, the hydraulles turret, he made his way aff at his Lancaster
cacrled the waters of the canal breached. Black puffs ut smoke cockpit inte wind and
instantly with were gone, the bomb-doors were once towards the river, was a target from 88 mm. roared down-the runway as the
shells darkened smoke, the rear fuselage, was a still open, the port faner engine and the fire. fitst aircraft of.
especially vulnorable to bomb- the sky. Bending into 13 100 sea of flumes..
was on fire, the inter-com was Ted Kneebone, the navigator. three months it had been scri- bombing run seemed intermin- after the left to the solar plexus, saveral thousand feet.
ing, and twice in the previous mph gate as they were, the Then, almost instantaneously, dead. The Lancaster had lost neat and quick in his move- ments and at his work, aat ously breached. watching the airspeed indicator, the Germans had repaired it, But with ant-like persistence calling out the speeds to
and now the canal
was full agris, ready to carry its trafie of coal and raw materials to the factories of the Rubr.
Then the Tannoy blared
The orchestra faded
out unevenly. The girls who were dancing with flying men clutch ed the lapels of their jackets. Germany wasn't beaten yet.
For 10 Lancaster crews the party, perhaps 1945 itself, was
over.
The take-off was med for just before dawn. That meant an early call at 5 am. The band storted again and the party went on, more flercely than ever
And men, delectible meu, walling i
What did she need with the time?
it was a horrid, precise and completely unnecetury
detail.
It wasn's Temtinive...
But one man,
Who had the supefuly manlike ability,
Tu cafcuists, sometimes, that the thing a woman says:
* she doesn'a scan is the ous thing the Jors,
Brought her a Rolex watch...
the
pilot: 100... 110... 129... 130... At 140 she should come unstuck.
Ing along the runway.
But at 145 they were still roar
it wasn't feminine to know
the time
-until she had a Rolex
He was different from all the bikers,
And at
He came out of a cloud af admirers who all looked
the same,
With something new,
A Rolex watche
And suddenly It was a better iden than why the
others and had.
It was more personal than mink—and very beautiful.
It was mori feminine that cars--even though li wan -
précision perfect,
It was completely ħara.
And she loved lí -
ROLEX.
A landmade in die bessey of Time memtuermà AÐ
Deware of counterfeits — buy only from Authorized Retailers.
over
able.
filled
came the knock-out right to the
Trapped
the
At last the crew fell a slight Jawa second hit by heavy flak as the first thousand- which shattered the nose com- bump
left the bomb-bay, partment, set fire to an engine, pounder
large holes in followed in quick succession by and blew 11 more as the rest of the stick pilot's canopy. of 12, spaced 12 yards apart. fell away. Denton pushed forward hard on the control columa, correcting the tendency to climb as the load changed. The target identifled, Denton In a moment Goebel would settled
down on his bombing check that all the bombs had run. Ron Goebel, the serious gone by looking into the bomb- minded bomb-aimer, ilke his bay. Then he would give the skipper a teetotaler, crouched at signal "Bombs
Barrage
gone," and
Denton, slumped forward un- consefous and the aircraft dived out of control.
The explosive force of a 200- mph gale ripping through the shattered nose and canopy
from JEAN
At Jackie's
a
New York.
lovely
burn" was caused by a sudden
faulty tap.
A
MRS VERE HARMS of water spurting out of
WORTH, Lord I was not allowed to see the Rothermere's daughter- fatal facial.
beauty expert who gave Pat the in-law, was badly burn-
The Dache spokesman told ed during her brief but me that the whole inatter was in the hands of their insurance merry midsummer visit company. to New York.
Like
many D woman of fashion she wanted to try out Jackie Kennedy's fabled hair- dresser's shop, Lily Dache, in midtown Manhattan.
Ankl the Venetian glasa chandeliers and the baby pink walls of the lushest of plush beauty salons tragedy struck- hot and hard.
Flown home
During facial, treatment (£ without tips) à stream of steaming water hit Pat Harms- woruya very lovely naked right shoulder.
Now she has own home to her London
house in Chester
Square but she will most pro-
Pat is a brave and beautiful girl with big brown eyes and
Nearest
the smoke and dust
the gaplog ble
There was no time, to ellphon his parachute or to search for gloves to protect a hands, Polts was in Imminent
danger of being badly burned or ipf struggling in a semi-conscious And unknown to Denton there state out of his turrot and fall- was the gaping hole in the In to his death, fuselage, almost Immediately Meanwhile, Denton had found above which sat the mid-upper that all the essential instru gunner, trapped in his blazing furrel. The rear turret too was on are and the gunner trapped.
Thompson, sitting in the wire- less sent to the rear of the for- ward compartment, had been the nearest to the men up front to the first explosion, and he know
ments seemed to be working and the aircraft answered to the controls. He feathered the damaged engine and pressed
fire-extinguisher button and the Are stopped.
(Continned on Page 7)
the
Newslet
CAMPBELL
hairdresser:
shoulder is burned
4
Vidal, at 35, can turn out hit plays, stuffed with a wild' wit and shrewd understanding of the weakness of men of power.
His political comedy, The Best Man, laughed at the American political circus with a toud, long laugh. While it was playing lo capacky on Broadway, Gore himself was running for politi- cal office.
He did not get elected, but he,
die-hard
a mind ns nimble and Imber as as a Democrat, ran a tough and
a trampoline artist, She has brilliant race In
д
not allowed the unhappy acct- Republican area-a race that
that would
He revealed that TV turned wrlie a roundelay down his big hit piny Vilt To echo through the centuries. A Small Planet because it was
wwwth.
an anti-war play and some big have come to Amerlen" he wig in the industry had decided sold, "to redeem the folly of one that the play might "offend of our isars. I have come hero
people who were in favour of to uck you to give us Alaska
ware!
Tops off TV:
LEXEI
ADZHUBEI
dent to dull her passion for this has made him well-beloved 'In' A Nikita Khrushchov's son-
back."
Over the champagne and the caylar there was a roar of good-humoured laughter.
"Humph," said an American novelist friend of mine, "Alexsi, wo will awap you Cuba." city where she has many young the highest of Democrat circles, in-law, is hero in our midit. · Alexei blushed and every-
including the dinner table in
In Moscow last winter I had body shuffled uneasily in thele the White HouBC,
Gore has a melancholy beauty dynamic,
thought him to be the most chairs.
exciting and free- and great grace of movement.
As Nanne would have said, spirited soul close to the Krem-
"Angels were passing over the He is, perhaps, the most in- teresting
lin. Now after an evening with dinner table... the mont eligible him here my anap suspicions After dinner Alext bachelor.
sang to on the American are conarmed.
in a beautiful deep literary scene today.
while He was invited to New York voice
his interproter
friends.
Pri was actress Beverley Brookn before she married the doshing curly-headed Vere. She told me she has never lost her love for the are lights. Although it is diffet for her to act in London, she would love to come to Broodway.
鹪
Us
bars
best
Happily for England she has and
He never went to university by NBC television to do an played the plano, His two children to keep her in the grandfather,
was brought up by his earnest debate on the freedom number is the Volga Dost Song,
Benator heart of London town.
Gore. of the Preas, but he made more Ho tolt mo
wanted that ho There was a time when he was friends through the warmth of very much to explore - Green- expected to become Brgat his personality off the chilly wich Villago and to see "the novelist, that time passed and television screen than he ever existorsionalista,”. he turned to play."and script," could in the debater's stance. writing.
Now he has shown sabre-Uko courage in challenging the tele vialan Sugarchy, Belie A Federal Communications Cam-
Tops on TV:
bably, she tolls have to MORE VIDAL, the dandy undergo a difficult skin grafting darling of the stylist mission he said that it is operation in their next weeka,
- However, he is staying in a very non-Greenwich villagoy. hotel; the Westbury, society's favourite haunt, the Brown's Hotel of New York, shadowy, gyom Very quiet, very expensive,
Like a squire
Lily Bache any that such an Cognoscenti has thrawn taboo to write about divorte or Alexel báo, the lusty animal very molect, where womp sooldent has never happened in spirited slap at television-suicide for TV, while he has charm of around and plak- wear more than one tow their wado before' and that a medium that could make been told that he can rind out faced a quo tie pearls or comb their hair int
tre Warmworth's small water him millions.
ell he wants on "under and make you femi KRAT RODORIS pobije, vad man bucetu
trine a viallien, syik 'n ship add
Bad B
-Chondow. Beproze Kerelasje”