CHAPTER TWELVE

EMERGENCY LANDING

 

In mid-January 1943 I went to the R.A.F. maintenance station at Fayid in the Suez Canal zone to collect our Wimpy which had been on a major overhaul. Major overhauls which were scheduled every 500 hours were carried out at maintenance units. Theoretically the aeroplane would come off a 500-hour in first-class condition. The air test I carried out on flying back to base at Shallufa revealed no problems.

The next day, January 21, the Wimpy was loaded with two 1000lb mines called cucumbers (due to their shape). I was briefed to drop the mines that night in the Corinth Canal in the south of Greece which was carrying a great deal of German shipping. The canal had steep sides 100 feet high. The Germans had anti-aircraft guns on both banks. Laying mines required flying at no more than 50 feet which was below the top of the canal walls. If the mines were dropped any higher than 50 feet above the water they would be liable to disintegrate on impact with the surface. The anti-aircraft guns could put down a curtain of fire through which the aeroplane would have to fly. Decidedly a risky sortie. A crew had tried it the night before and had been lost. I felt a good deal of apprehension about making another attempt to mine the canal.

Fate seemed to intervene again. We took off an hour before dusk. Half an hour later over the Sinai desert my starboard engine caught fire. My training told me the emergency drill to carry out - throttle back, turn off the petrol supply to that engine and punch the fire extinguisher button. A fire extinguisher was located in the engine nacelle. Fortunately this put the fire out but with only one engine operating it was impossible to carry a load of 2000lb in mines all the way to Greece. In fact it was not possible to keep the aeroplane airborne in order to return to base. There was no alternative to a forced landing. There was still sufficient twilight to see a relatively smooth piece of desert. I ordered the bomb doors to be opened and the mines to be jettisoned to avoid a risk of their exploding in a crash landing. I intended making a belly landing but when I got close to the surface I could see the desert ahead was relatively smooth so I put down the undercarriage and came in to a reasonably smooth landing.

Soon after vacating the aeroplane we were able to hail a passing army gharry (truck) which took us back to the Canal zone. We were then able to telephone the squadron for a vehicle to come to pick us up .It was well into the night by the time we got back to base.The S.O.S. we had sent out when the engine caught fire had alerted base that we were in trouble. But there was no indication until our telephone call whether we had crashed, baled out or forced landed safely. The C.O. was glad to see us show up. But the armament officer was in a flap. He wanted to locate the mines, even wanting the navigator and me to return to the vicinity of the forced landing to help him to try to locate the jettisoned mines. Our commanding officer would not hear of that so the armament officer went off with some of the ground staff guided by a chart on which Johnnie Devine had pinpointed where the mines should be. The armament officer was a “penguin”- aircrew derisory term for administrative staff. The term penguin was derived from the expression “bags of flap and no fly.” Like the penguin, administration officers did not, of course, fly but they were inclined to flap like the penguin flaps its stubby wings. Flap was air force slang for getting agitated. To his gratification the armament officer did locate our mines so his “books” tallied. And he arranged a guard for the aeroplane until it could be recovered.

Middle East Command decided not to attempt aerial mining of the Corinth Canal again, it being considered too risky. We were glad of that. The inquiry into the cause of the fire revealed that when a cylinder had been replaced on the engine the bolts had been only thumb tightened instead of being spanner tightened. The cyclinder had worked loose and dropped off after the aeroplane had been flying for a short time. Raw petrol flowed into the engine, causing the fire.The error had not been detected by a warrant officer who checked the maintenance work and who was responsible for declaring the aeroplane serviceable. He was court martialed. I felt sorry for him but in a way blessed him because his omission saved me from the Corinth Canal .