(Continued from Pare (0)
Goebel canic up from the bambing compertinent. His face blackened with smoke, carrying the shreds of his parachute. Another parachute In the fusel- BC was on fire. It was no good giving the order to bate out, with at least two of his crew unable to jump.
With frozen Angers that were already being attacked by frost-tille, Denton set a rough course that would take them back towards friendly wrritory
if the aircraft kept goin.
Drowned
Goebel went back to see how the rest of the crew were far- ing. He found Kneebone still at his seat. All his maps and charts had been sucked out of the aircraft, but he was working out a fresh course for Holland that would take them clear of the flak batteries of the bigger German towns. Hartshorn, the flight engineer, was with him.
The wireless operator's scat Inmediately behind. Kneebone was empty and there was no sign of Thompson. Goebel as- sumed that he find gone aft.
Gobel went forward again to report to Denton. The rush of alf was so great that he had hold on with both hands to avoid being blown off his feet. He bent down to shout into Denton's eur. but the rear of three motors at full power drowned all other sound.
run
He
too
rear.
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JULY 15. 1961.
The canal
before
and after
the raid
LEFT: The whole area of the Dortmund- Eme Canal WAS cratered by the bomba of previous reide, but the Germans had made this vital waterway usable again.. RIGHT: The scene after the raid of January 1, 1945. An Imments additional number* of craters; and the canal bas been breacheil so that its water drains tut forming a big area of mud and floyd..
saved one man
ERNEST POTTS Trapped in a turret.
arsuined that they must be under fighter attack. They had much to contend with up front to worry, much about the
But Thompson knew what was happening in the rear. He had already made the safety of the two men there his personal responsiblilly,
Cauldron
The rescue of Potts was his
HAYDN PRICE Tried to bale out.
Ammunition was exploding all round him. His clothes were alight but he ignored Holding on for a moment to the them het melat of the burning turrel, he leaned out over the edge of the hole to force is shoulders under the dead weight of Petts body before trying to Bft him clear.
Polts' clothes, too, were light. He was unconscious.
then went back
to rescue another
as he did su. Only a man ot unique courage would have at- timpted it.
His action won him perhaps the most glowing panegyrle in the long and eloquent history
him and prevent him stumbling manoeuvred the turret back into the Lancaster diagonally across of V.C. awards. "fils couruge," forward. But one downward the fore and aft position and the two. lurch, such as the aircraft had drew back the sliding door. already suffered when
Denton
"Come on, Tall," said a volee,
better
come ut of there."
collapsed over the controla "You'd would precipitate both men into
space.
It was Thompson if he hadn't He would never have known recognised his vulce.
Potts was now suspended over hin shoulder, head and legs dangling. Thompson steadied him as best he could with one Standing once again among hand, but he needed the other the flames. Thompson half- to transfer his hold from the dragged, half-carrled Price clear turret to the fuselage wall fur of the turret and set him down balance. If Potts' body was not next to Potts. Then he helped
beat evenly distributed across his im
burning shoulders, or he staggered for clothing.
moment under the gunner's would slip forward through the he must, get through to the men Sun, Thompson felt that his weight, either or both of them duty was not done. Somehow hole.
out his
up front to tell them of the
of balance did not fall him, the aircraft. Their only chance But his strength and cense the order be given to abandon state of the two gunners, lest
Soon he was able to swing Potts lay in a crash-landing. round to the back of the turret, clear of the hole and the fire.
Backwards
In
Crashing into the ground the middle of the first field, the Lancaster ploughed through the hedge and the fldge of carth on which 1L stood, smoshing breaking what remained of the nose and
in two where fuselage was weakened by the hole. Petrat poured from broken fuel pipes, but somehow didn't catch fire.
Staggered
the
Was
Denton it his head against
He then saw for the first time the control column as they land- ed, but managed to climb clear.
the damage to the fuselage. All
Polts, who had recovered con- able to stagger the other crew members were out, including sciousness.
Thompson was the first man Denton
sow. So pitiable He laid Potts down carefully,
his condition that Denton didn't and at once began to beat out
recognise him. His hands and the flames n
For the second time he began clothes the gunner's
facu were blackened and his clothes with his bare hands. the perilous climb past the hole.
were in shreds. But It was doubly dimcult now be Thompson had no thought for his own injuries and was calling cause of his burned hands and been almost completely burned legs. His fingers too were frost-
for help for Potta nd Price.
He called cheerily to off and his legs had suffered, bliten. Hunched
Denton: against the la face and the
ceverely burned,
hands too were fuselage wall, progressing pain- "Good landing, skipper!"
fully slowly in the teeth of the
Goebel went off to get help
Kneebone gale, he clung on as much with while Denton,
and He bent down again and litted his elbows and knees and body Hartshorn made for a nearby
to a safer resting-place.
cottage, taking the injured men as with his hands. he looked aft
with them. It was obvious that again, through the flames surrounding Several times he was forced. Polls and Thompson were เก the rear turret, Haydn Price, to
shape, and altogther, flattened bad
Denton gave the them both an injection of mor fuselage. Not until he was well phía. past the hole did he dare to The little Dutch cottage Bled drop down to the fuselage floor, in case he was blown backwards as he did so.
With the alreraft a trim- first tusk, But to reach Polls past the rap in the floor of the involved the perilous passage
fuselage.
no cons
uf
med tall-heavy for the bombing
and with righting It, Denton sat rigidly with bis shoulders braced ugainst the backrest of his sent, pushing forward on the control column with all his atrength to control the nose-up tendency and prevent the altcruft from stalling. At the same time, he had to apply hard right rudder to balance the uneven pull of three engines.
Looking for handholds and footholds in the side of fuselage, moving with the care- deliberation of tho melt fui climber, he clung to the side of the fuselage and inched his way aft until he was directly over the hole. There would be no chance for him if he fell
Immediately aft of the hole wes the mid-upper turret, flames Nelding up underneath it like a cauldron.
One more grab at a protru- ding stanchion of metal, onc more foothold in the ribbing of the fuselage shell, and he jumped down past the hole. Almost 'at once he was envÊ--
The gaping hole in the floor of the fuselage, and the fire round both turrets were still unichown to Denton or Gochel ог any of the others in the front.
They took the explosions of Ammunition which they heard periodically to be answering fire from their own turrels, and loped in flames.
707th Heaven
FAMILY IN FLIGHT... You're coming with Mummy and
me to visit your Granny, Daddy said.. In a great big
Rolls-Royce 707. So I told my school-friends. I'm going to
fly Air-India ( stuck-up shing! said one ). I shall sit
on a seat of purest gossamer, with millions of jewel
all around me (you're ugly! said anther) and be served
1
with big helpings of jelly on gold plates (piggy) said another}.
And I shall be escorted on and off the plane like the
•
Slowly Thompson dragged the gunner's arms and legs clear of the turret controls and manoeuvred his richt shoulder until he could hurch it into rotta' midriff to take his weight. When he looked down the stared straight past the jagged edge of the broken fuselage at a drop of 0,000ft.
Suspended
pas-
الم
Thompson's
Patte Then
trousers
Alone
had
stop
Working as rapidly as sible because of the flames Bek- the other Welsh gunner, was against the framework of ing around him, and yet at cer- still there. talk moments with ponderous deliberation In case he fell,' he
Potts from dually freed encumbrances in the turret and felt the gunner's weight coming on to his shoulder. The next seconds would be critical.
The ley gale blowing through the fuselage helped to steady
queen of all the world. And my luggage will be
carried by handsame princes (éig head! shouted
my best friend) I don't care. I shall fly like this.
AIR-INDIA
In association with noso and qaNTAS 15
All this time Thompson had Then, the hole nt lost. been working alone. Ho had negotiated, he stumbled forward gone aft immediately, after the land shouted to the men in front explosion, and beyond the fact that Potts ond Price lay in that some severe damage had capacitated in the rear. been zustained In the nose of the aircraft as well, he had no idea
with sympathetic villagers. Sce- ing the pathetic state of Potts and Thompson, most uf the women wept.
The Spitres had reported the Lancaster's position, and дл ambulance with two doctors arrived within a few minutes. They were taken to a hospital in Eindhoven. Appalled nt Thompson's
Potts quickly lapsed into condition, what was happening up
Kneebone and unconsciousness again, and died Hartshorn protected him from next day. All that Thompson exposure to the toy had done for him had been in wind a best they could.
vain. Price was badly burned Meanwhile Denton was still about the head, but was well struggling to keep the Lancaster enough to be down home to But be turned his back on going until they reached the hospital in England ten days the front of the aircraft and Allied laes. Approaching the later, where he recovered.
made his way als to Price Rhine, they were down to and the rear turret...
5,000ft.
iront. For all hu know, the endor to bale out might have been given. The rest of the
night have already gone.
Crow
When the aircraft was first. hit and the inter-com went dead Price had quickly: realised that the fuselago was on fire. Cut off from the rest of the crew, he had decided to fate out-
further
Hit again
Progress..
Thompson was terribly badly burned
and was too ill to be
flown home, bat with regular in- Jections of a new drog called penicillin ho made surprisingly good progress and seemed to be out of danger.
Goebel, standing next to Den- ton on the look-out, polated to a rash of anti-aircraft fire on The hydraulics were punc- the starboard side, and Dentor tured, but ing emergency" the Immediately took evasive action. turret could be operated manu- But almost at once the starboard His burns, however, were too ally. All he had to do was dura inner motor failed. - They had extensive for real recovery, and the turret to one eldo and open been hii, ogain..
although he was as gallant the sliding door behind him, remove his helmet, and the con rapidly. Then, to the south of ing, inquiring every day
They began to lose height patient as he had been an air- man, cheerful and uncomplain- nections to his electrically-beated
after sult, and fall out backwards peared out of the mist, flying managing to raise a smile,
Arnhem, three, F.W.190s ap the rest of his crew and always into space.
straight at thera.
after
για
Jailed three weeks later from
dedicated afforts to save him.
All this took some time, but Fortunately the German pneumonia in spite of the most at length he had manoeuvred fighters didn't stop. A Canadian the turret into position, released Spitfire squadron all the connections, and grasped them. his parachuto release. Then he had opened the sliding door.
was
For hlo splendid endurance and courage to getting the air- craft back safely, Harry Denton Seeing the damaged Lan was awarded the D.F.C. George caster struggling bome on two Thompson Was posthumously Immediately there had been a engines, the Spitfire pilots tremendous blow-back of flames Broke off the engagement and awarded the Victoria Cross. from outside the aircraft. The escorted the bomber in, flying Only a man of great strength whole rear fuselage was trailing alongside at first, then opening and will power could have lifted smoke, and fire. In the few up and slipping on ahead to a grown man. from jammed seconds in which he had the lead it into the Spitiko base. and blazing turret, standing at- aliding door open, all his hair But the Lancaster was almost most directly over a goping hole was singed oft and both
finished now. Denton, till were severely burned.
coaxing it along, pulling back on the stick, frozen siiff by the ley gale, was in a state of exhaustion. He knew that he had no more than o minutę ar
Tapping
ears
WAS of
He had slammed the door shut so in which to put the pinne again, but the cat in the turret dawn, and he looked around for was becoming extremo, and he
a likely feld," I know that the fire round the tur-
Suddenly one of the Spitfire ret inside
the fuselage was pliots swooped down in front of
the Lancaster equally fierce. Now he knew he
ani pulled up had
alternadva
steeply no
before some apparent but to bale out, even though it meant ently as some kind of warning. obstruction dead ahead; appar dropping backwards through the Then Denton saw the danger. flumes,
The crippled Lancaster flying straight · for a line high-tension cables.
With the Inst of his strength he dragged back on the control column and tho
Lancaster staggered clear. Turning to avolet a village, Denton mado for a patchwork of fluids to his As he grabbed the sliding left. None of the folds looked door he heard a tapping from much larger than a paddock. inside the fuselage. Incredibly, Donton those two fields with a there must be someone thero, lie' hedge between them and aimed
He bent down to draw back the sliding door again: He didn't know that his seal-type para- chute was already blackened and burned. It to Baled out there was littlo chance that It would function properly..
TARGET
PIE
LOB
AR
B
[18017 many
words of Tour lott
GE - KIOTS CLEA
From LAS Hisers ta the squKTO making
the worAK
-Day Da Beed
ERIN "CRO") harga. Tetdary sad Khars must be as "leset-goe (ten letter word in the 19wy do pruunity to TODAY'SETAROJA 145 wiede
For Mom
“TRITEJÁVE SOLUZION Ivory om ondula rios POK
said the citation, "has seldom been equalled and never passed."
sure
Pago
Such a man was George Thompson the former grocer's boy. Seldom equalled. Never surpassed.
COPYRIGHT:
Beaverbrook Newspapori
· 1961
NEXT WEEK: 'The bridges must be destroyed'
--(London Express Servico). '
FORD
Falcon
THE FALCON SIX "compact" engine. Ninety
bome power, and exceptional economy.....
FRONT & REAR SUSPENSION. Swept-back ball joint t front and "Variable-Rate" off-centre mounted leaf springs at ress, Elves quiet comfortable stability.
SAFE BRAKES, Require linde pedal effort.... exceptionally smooth,
WELDED INTEGRAL, BODY
for high strength/weight ratla.
Completely sealed and insulated.
EPFICIENT COOLING mran high ce sistance to fade.
The "TOP VALUE” Compact Car.
Western Cars Ltd.
26-28. KING'S ROAD
TEL:773931