1961-06-24 — Page 7

THE CHINA MAIL,

THESE ARE THE MEN WHO FLEW WITH A V.C.

THE LANCASTER CREW AT A BRIEFING. Left to right: Frank Higgins (navigator), Maurice Toft (bomb-aimer), Hugh Johnson (rear-gunner), "Sandy" Sundelands (radio operator), Tony Millin (captain). On the right: Norman Jackson at Buckingham Palace. He received his V.C. from King George V1 on the same day as Group Captain Cheshire. Jackson (extreme right) now lives at Hampton, Middlesex.

(Continued from l'age 6)

Now to jettison the escape hutch. He pulled the lever, and the violence of the down- draught knocked him backwards the so that he almost fell off table, Recovering his balance, he reached upwards and secured

a hold with both hands, one on

each side of the hatch,

He levered his body up on his hamis nnd wrists until he was

able

his elbows out to swing

and rest, his wright on thom. Now, with his head beut into the lipstream. He peered out. ve the fuselage and down below kin and slightly aft to The wing.

The les culd blast of the 200- mlle-an-hour slipstream struck tim like a blow, penetrating his clothing so that he felt naked, freezing his throat and nostrils so that his lungs cried out,

SO CLOSE

For a moment he gasped for Above blm a celing of breath. store danced like myriads of tuy lanterns, incredibly close, white the great bowl of space to lie below him, dark and limitless and unfathomable. Recovering his breath, he focused again on the wing.

:תניויו

The fire in the engine was still burning fiercely. He climbed clear of the hatch, still holding on tighily, his body curled back along the top of the fuselage, wrestling with the slipstream.

With the fingers of his left hand still curled tightly over the Tin of the hatch, he began to Work his body into position prior

The

bomber

him by the

of his

Whichever way he attempted it, there would be a full second in which he had no grip at ull.

There was no sense in hesita- ting, Throwing his weight hard forward, he let go.

drags cords

parachute

Now he could see that this was only half the problem, and the vagy half at that. Throwing his body forward and down and grabbing the air intake had been one thing. But how was he going to get impetus for an upward grab at the hatch?

The wind struck him a fearful

Once he let go of the alr blow and as he buried himself

he slipped. Precious Intake he would have nothing forward

wing swept by to grin. The sinstream would inches of the

him off the wing underneath him. He ducked his sweep head and snatched desperately at instantly. He wondered if he He felt his might manage to get a foothold air intake, the

metal. finger-nails tearing on

in the air intake and climb up Then he felt the opening of the

from there. we intake and bir fingers slotted into it ke a clamp, The tug tore ut his armpits but his grip held.

Stretched out full length on

PRECARIOUS

But changing his grip would the wing, his hand level with the involve preenrtoas moments. leading edge, he could almost And if he felt forward of the touch the flames escaping front wing, what would happen to his

There was a small parachute"? the engine.

Almost certainly it opening in the cowling on this would be blown back towards the to dropping on to the wing. side, and through it he could fail. Even if his free-falling weight dragged it forward again Retaining his grip, he lowered fee the Dre raging. his body slowly down the sido Strengthening his trip with it would be torn to shreds by

the propellers. uf the fuselage towards the wing. Buffeted in the slip stream, he dare not let go of the hatch,

His feet touched metal and he stood firmly on the wing. Still his only hold was the lip of the hatch. In a moment he would have to transfer his grip from the hatch to the wing and he looked for likely hold

HE SLIPPED

and the

is left hand, he relaxed his right slowly and then let go. Satisfied. he brought it back slowly towards the extinguisher. He eased the extinguisher out of his harness, lifted it up against the slipstream, and knocked the nozzle off on the wing.

tap One sharp

and begun hissing. Then the Jet flowed, Ho thrust it at once into the

the opening in cowling. The fire began dle down.

It

The jet went on spewing into

Just ahead of bim, at the the engine. The Vire had leading edge of the wing stopped. He was winning. between the fuselage bluzlog gine, was the air In a moment of two the jet Jalake. If he could get a grip would be spent and he would be on that he would be ideally free to cling back. placed to deal with the engine, He would have to push hard forward against the slipstream, Jet go above, fall flat on the wing, and grab>,

But how

**

wag

11s right ankle was useless,

and face had both His hands been severely burned. His right eye seemed to be closed, and his back had stiffened.

He began to wonder how far the was from civilisation, and whether he would ever be found,

A GRUNT

of

1

forest. Ho tried to move, but made out the shape of a collage dered how for the coitego waa hospital, and mado a good found he

planed by adjacent to the path. He knock- from the town.

recovery, although his hands branches and bracken. Both his ed on the door with his elbow. The farmer was gone a long would never cgain be of more ankles seemed to be broken, and He waited a minute, and knockod time. When he came back ho than limited use. At his pre-

he was scratched and torn.

of Attor again. Then he heard the sound brought the Gestapo.

war trade

ho was He lay still again, seeking a of a window opening upstairs, At once the treatment finished. But a man with such

switched lower plane of conselousness, but He strained to look up.

from tendommens to faith in himself would d his wounds and injuries began a "Vass iss dass?”

cruelty. The town was a long another niche. He found it soon R.A.F." klia random insistent throb. His Ieft

power

way away. They made him walk-as salcaman and traveller. Jeg arhed from the shell enunciation had gone, and tho there, limping painfully on a

When, after the war, Jackson's like a runt, badly sprained bakle, dragging splinters, and stabs of pain shot tettors counded

told, it brought the through his, ankle.

He cleared his throat and tried a broken one after him, helped story was award of spoke by a civilian policeman.

the V.C. "I'd be itc again, This time clearly. "R.A.F.”

After roughi first aid in the eared to crawl out on to "Churchill gangster!" called local hospital he was parades balcony now," he once said. "I

volec. the

Then the window through the streets, where ho was young and cocky and I do anything. banged down G5 though the was greeted by Jeer and stone- thought I could

ended. encounter hnd

But throwing. Too far gone to care, But I did no more than anyone within a minute he could hear he guessed that only his pitiable clae would do."

the door in front condition saved him from rough He has never lost this modesty, the bolts of

and never refera to his wartime of um being shot back, and a handling of worse,

German middle-aged

stood głowering fiercely above him.

"Terror leger!" The farmer At daybreak he struggled to spat the words at him, and he his jenees, elbowed his way clear inched in spite of himself ot of the bushes, and crawled post- the

and expectation of kicks

But fully forward. Soon he reached

as he did so the pulled a mercifully sort mat of grass. farmer was suddenly Ahead of bim there seemed to from his gaze like a puppet, and be a forest path. ·Supporting two girls took his place.

They were the former's himself on elbows and knees, he dragged himself forward.

daughters, and they bent kindly Fear by the blow-back of

of capture had gone. The to question him, then helped Acmes frem the blazing wing. very word had lost its meaning. him into the cottage and fed were fraying and smouldering Alt he looked for was succour him on to a couch.

The farmer Su003 above him.

the lines from some fellow human being. watched sullenly. The girls

and getting deeper

envered would snap and his last tenunus He was

him with blankets, hoid on life would be gone. dreper into the forest, but he dressed his burns, and gave him gave no thought to turning back. hat drinks. The farmor dis- Progress won as painfully as appeared. this could not be surrendered, This could be only

a brief Ile cermed to have crawlod for respilo. Soon the farmer would many hours when at last he return with the police. He won-

IIe saw the tail unlt of the Lancaster shoot past, then felt his body caught and held though in a net. Now he was being dregged along at 200 miles. an hour, the tall turret only a few yards in front of him, utterly unattainable.

FRAYING

The rigging liner, lignited by the explosich in the engine and searched

What was happening inside the aircraft?

Below the hutch, Higging and

Toft were working desperately

10

free the parochule, canopy and push it a br the match before baling out themselves. the burning At any moment Lancaster might blow up.

"He must have had it," shouted Toft. "Yet he might Suddenly he felt the plane be si alt right. We've got to back to port. He clung an get this out," grimly, wondering what they were dolor. Then he knew. The fighter had found Hem speed, diving and lurching to again.

the left. As in some fantastic aerial trapeze act. Jackson was drugged zound and down in an ever-steepening curve.

He heard the stutters of machine-gun fire and felt stabs of pain in his back and legs.

the fre moment The next extinguisher was torn from his grasp and the engine burst into a mass of flame which all but enveloped him.

He felt his fingers relaxing their grip on the air intake and he was powerless to tighten it. le tried to regain his grip with his right hand but the muscles would not answer. For a moment Els body slid backwards along All his plans for this operation the wing. Then an inexorable hnd concerned getting out on to force grabbed him roughly and the wing and holding on.

Aung im backwards into space.

was he going to manage it?

BERLIN

WEDDING

LAOS.etc. etc......

London BrustIA, DIETION

The

Lancaster was

losing

Then suddenly the aircraft seemed to put on a tremendous spurt and leave him hopelessly behind. For several seconds he dropped like a stone.

Then there was a flopping above kim and A jerk and tugging at his waist and crm- later be pits, and a moment was pirouetting giddily down- wards in the siteni darītness.

The re in the rigging Ines had spread to the canopy, which was smouldering above him, a sword of Damocles ready to cut him adrift,

NEAT HOLES

He grasped the rigging lines with both hands, and began to drag the linea down towards him, squeezing them as he did so, leaving them charred but retain- ing some of their strength,

As he pulled the canopy down the air spilled out, and he felt himself falling more sharply.

The canopy was pock-marked with neatly rounded holes, clean brown at the edges, like cigarette burre in a bondker chief. Bu the smouldering ceemed to have stopped. Не released the rigging lines slowly, and was relieved to see the

but

canopy blilow alightly and check the velocity of his foll.

The pain in his bacle ond legs was revert, but no far the feeling had not returned to his hands on which the skin had shrivelled and contracted in the heat of the fames. He looked down at them abstractedly, hemused but vaguely compre- hending. Above him, torn strands of the rigging, fluttered nildily and the wind screeched through the singed canopy, Ho could expect a heavy fall.

The schlo zwinging motion of the docent soothed him and acted as a noporific. For a tumo e tried to control the paru- chulte's stations, but he only merceded in twisting the lines. Ife gave it up and relaxed. lle had no idea of his raio of fall, but quossed that it must dangerously rapid. When at last he saw the dark shadows of earth below him ho WRA estonished at the evictness of their apprunch.

Blo

He hit the ground awkwardly and with a forritte, condit. Ila lny quite stir for a long time, winded and barely conscious. Then to realised he had fallen among bushea and scrub. apparently on the edge of a

blows.

Three weeks later the news exploit. But, in fact, there is reached England that Jackson only one other recorded case of and four other members of the anyone climbing out on to a Crow were prisoners. Tony wing of a modern bomber in Miffin and Hugh Johnson fight to extinguish a fire, and were hilled. They had left that, too, wan a V.C.

About the size of his furally, the aircraft safely and there

Was

his 01.0 no good was no clue as to what had Jacko"

word. So was Alma. Baby happened to them.

six years old, is the youngest of six,

The award of the D.F.C. wo Ian, now Mifflin,

carlier, recommended

he WOS come through after reported missing.

Jackson spent the next 10 in à German P.O.W. months

Copyright Beaverbrook Newspapers

1961

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