1961-12-02 — Page 9

Page

BOMBING OFFENSIVE

THE HEROES SPEAK

When

THE CHINA MAIL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1981.

W! Page 7

THIS is the Gim

they

didn't

come back.

THE

HE Lancaster bomber in the Imperial War Museum is as extinct as a dinosaur. Yet most of the men who flew in them and survived are still in their prime.

One former navigator, Noble Frankland, for example, is at 39 the museum's director. He was also with the late Sir Charles Webster-author of the official history The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany which has renewed interest and controversy over the war in the air.

Only one sentence in the four-volume history derives directly from his own experience, Dr Frankiand will now Bay.

of

This states that at the end of the mass assaults on Berlin early in 1944 the morale Bomber Command, which had suffered appalling losses, was unbroken. That had been the first impression of Flying Off-

to the law of average we were killed three you had to say it as joke. To discuss the war in the mess was a breach of etiquette.

weeks ago," but

cer "Bunny" Frankland when COMFORT

he joined his squadron in Lin- colnshire.

But worse was to come. Be- fore Frankland and his crew flew their Arst sortie

squadron

load

ordered was

the

10

100

Nuremberg. He had helped the bombers with win- dow" the tinsel

strips drop- ped to confuse enemy radar and next morning the realisa- tion began that Bomber Com- Inand had that night been mauled. More than bombers had been destroyed.

Now, for the first time. Frankland began to miss fami- liar faces in the mess and notice empty chairs at break- fast. He was, he recalls, "very upset" but followed the tradi- tion that losses should general- ly be spoken of frivolously.

You could remark, he says, "I've calculated that according

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"But he loved talking about the technicalities of Aying and was absorbed in the mechanies

the engines,

woering fiving kit. The same thing happened the following night.

"In the air he was a different

Twice he had flown as a pas- man. He was superbly confi-

score was now dent and, whatever happened, senger. The never baited an eyelid. Sitting even. behind him at the navigator's During Pyle's absence with table was quite an experience." his cold, one Eddie Hearne had Another New Zealander taken his place. Later Hearne's Frankland's crew was equally Normandy and he

Lancaster was shot down over was thought transformed in the air. Warrant Officer "Boss" Bosson had been a farmer and his favourite sub-

on

In

killed,

Sunz weeks later he returned to the airfield at Skellingthorpe He

jects of conversation the ground were chickens and eggs, with a remarkable story.

had baled out and his parachute

So

"BUNNY" FRANKLAND:

One of the co-authors of the controversial official history, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, he is now director of the Imperial War Museum! But he, too, knew what it was like to fly night after night into Germany. This is his story.....

Frankland felt a great lene- lincas and sense of loss. Since then he has only seen one of them.

White working On The Strategle Air Offensive Against Germany, Frankland spent a short time in America at the Institute for Advanced Studles at Princeton,

On his last day, lunching at a hotel he handed his hat to & cloakroom atten- dant and their eyes met. "Don't I know you?" said the man, Then, "I know, I was your mid upper gunder

Looking Back 17 years, Dr. Like the other crews, Frank Noble Frankland; now in the land's underwent their adven-

front rank of historians, sums tures. Once they took off with up. with a characteristic a lull bomb load and both star modesty, have the most both engine failed. They had sincere admiration for the men bron 'rather anxious" and it who, having lived through ang had later been raid that to lead tour of operations against Ger

leaded Lancaster on two many, which most of us did it

2

engines was a remarkable feat.

'ANXIOUS'

And there was the time Gor-

He was the wireless operator, had caught in a tall lealy tree, don Pyle had had to be Iwered: on his second tour of operations, As he began disentangling him out of the bomber on a rope, to and "in the air he steadied us with comforting remarks like: self he looked down and saw effect a minor repair without On the below on the ground German which they would have been Flak never gets you'." ground he often seemed trueu- Boldiers, Eddie Hearne unable to land. fent and might not bother

And once, over Belgium, "we stayed in his tree all that day open a door for a woman visi- und all the following night. hit something, probably another and turned upside Next morning he looked down bomber,

So down." "Yet," says Frankland, "In and saw American soldiers. the aircraft, if I dropped my climbed down

he

When the crew had completed their tour they were parted. penell he would not only pick home.

to

to

it up but sharpen it for me.

Before they began operations, Frankland's Lancaster was sent on practice flights across Eng- land. After two years' training had he had thought that he mastered the navigator's job but he was now introduced to new and secret equipment and tech- occupied his iques which thoughts,

The technicalities in the afr the talk on and the bluff ground"Why did they build 1.incoln Cathedral at the end of the runway?" was typical helped to discourage morbid

Like thousand of other young men committed to the brooding.

bombing offensive, Frankland In Apr Dr Frankland re- drew comfort and sense of calls. During the next four security from his POW. "Each tour

off on iset

Our

Crew was a tightly-knit social months he was to take part elique. If you had to fly with in the decisive destruction of system, railway another crew you felt extremely the French uncomfortable."

which hamstrung the German Looking back, Dr Frankland armies facing the Allied inva- and sion, and was to penetrate DS realises that fact, he the six other men in his Lan- Iar into Germany as Munich.

caster had no common interests. He himself had been reading history at Trinity College, Ox- ford, and. If he lived, might STARTLED hope for academic career. But for the war he and the others would never have met, yet the bond was strong.

between them

Frankland's job, as naviga- tor, was to guide the Lancaster within sight of the target, then

The plot was Murray Milne, 2 New Zealand applegrower, hand over responsibility to the "who was 28 and, we thought bomb-aimer. This was Gordon old man." Dr Frank- Pyle, an Australian

a very

and

Carrie

BLACK MARKET

IN

BABIES-

MAN ACCUSES

500 SOLD EACH_YEAR

IN CALIFORNIA

WANT to buy a baby? It's easy in California,

according to Joseph H. Reid, executive director of the Child Welfare League of America, who estimates that 500 children a year are sold on the black market here and 100 of them exported to other States.

Average price for a child is 3,000 dollars (£1,070) and a few doctors, attomeys and social workers are responsible for the traffic, says Mr Held,

Mr Reid, who testified before sheep-a State hearing, called for laws

social agencies.

land describes him with affee- farmer who was "a very, very allowing adoption only through tion: "He was rather bald and cool customer." Lying prone in flak and had wings of hair sticking out the nose, with the

a fighters all ahout him and the and fires below, he would aim drop the bombs,

Pyle missed two of his crew's 34 sorlies by catching cold and they teased him unmerci- fully.

ICON

at his temples, rather like distinguished conductor."

PRI

WINKMIRROR

DIFFICULT

To back his plea he gave this composite picture of a woman seeking adoption in California for ber unborn child:

In most cases she has come to

When she applies she is re- ferred to an attorney, who offers to take care of her expenses and often gives her 500 dollars (£178) ut so besides,

THE CONTRACT

The woman is controlled by fear. If she decides to back cut at any time, threats are made that parents will be told or that the contract she signs means the must repay everything.

If the woman is married and as another child, the threat is an unfit mother and lcse her legitimate child,

"We used to tell him hea new town to avoid parental hade that she will be declared couldn't call him

himself an opera and community censure. In the "On the ground he could be tional type because he had not new town she usually eceks help а difficult character. He was down a full tour." obstinate and would in con- A few nights after they had from a cab driver or chemist, offering ight versation disagree on principle been taken off operations; Frank Or else she may answer an ad- because, I think, he was afraid land was helping to interrogate vertisement he might be committed to some returning crews when he was housekeeping for an expectant English folly.

see Pyle arrive mother."

THE ENG GAMBOLS .

THERE'S BILL THYNE, THE

BUYEL FROM GAPS.

HERES A CHANCE TO

GET ACQUAINTED

MY NAME'S GAMBOL ..ER.

WAITING FOR YOUR ??

WIFE?

startled to

by Barry Appleby

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OW! I SEE YOU'VE ALREADY MET

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IN A BIKINI?

WEATHER

Reid told the Inquiry that in of potential parents for every California there are three sets available child.

(London Express Service).

we survived, went back for a Thelt second or even a third. spirit was amazing. They were dedicated men."

London Express Service)

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