Angas 'Gus' Hughes - Shot down

Transcript

We were shot down on our thirty-second. At Cowes, we were on our way to Cowes. There were six of us survived, and one was killed. I don't know what happened to him, because I went out the front, and they ... The hatch in the front, and the others, apart from the engineer and the pilot went out the back of the plane, on the door at the back.

Well the hatch got caught as the plane jiggled around a bit, and I'd had to push like, put the hatch out, I had to kick it out actually, and as I went down through the hatch I must have hit my head on the front of it and going down I don't remember at all, but I remember seeing where the plane crashed, and then I eventually hit the ground, and that was near a little creek.

That was at night and then three nights after, or three day afterwards I got caught. I got down to the Rhine, and I was caught on the Rhine. We had a little compass, that was always in, like a button on the uniform, and then we had a parcel of very condensed food etcetera. I had chocolate and then we had a little water bag and little tablets to purify any water and also we had foreign money, money and silk maps.

I had a good idea where I was, with the map too, and these maps were made of silk, and if they went into water it would all go. It just vanished, it disappears.