Air crash
I volunteered to fly, and was accepted for aircrew, and started my first tour. Not long after, about three months after, I had the misfortune to be involved in a crash in which three of our crew were killed. We overshot the runway, at night. The captain was distracted, because the Germans were bombing the flare path on which he was trying to land. We overshot, and went into the cliffs. I ended up in an army hospital.
I regained consciousness having been pulled out from the wreck by my mate from Cairns, Bob Draper, DFM. I remember waking up in hospital stark bollock naked, and frozen cold. About twenty four hours, they declared me fit. I had a twisted left ankle and I left there on crutches and I got three weeks survivor's leave and went straight to Edinburgh.
I remember in vivid detail the approach. The actual landing was perfect, a beautiful landing but it was about a thousand metres too far down the runway thus a thousand metres closer to the cliffs. When the captain realised how far down the track he was he opened the throttles and attempted to take off and got up about 10 or 15 feet and then we hit the cliff. The lights went out and I went out.
The Short Sunderland
Short Sunderland flying boat. Short, because it was made by Short Brothers of Rochester down the Thames, in Kent. Beautiful. Magnificent aircraft, built like a battle ship, take a lot of punishment, as was meted out to them.
On one occasion, the inner port propeller came loose and due to its rotational direction, travelled outwards, and took the other propeller off. So, there's a guy flying with no propellers on the port side, and two on the starboard side. He flew that aircraft 600 miles back to England.
The crew started ditching, as they were losing height. They ended up throwing out, first guns, bombs, ammunition. Excuse me. Finally, the cooking utensils, the floorboards, the bunks, anything they could break loose, they would throw overboard to lighten the weight. He flew that aircraft back to Plymouth, and was immediately awarded a DSO. Job well done.
Flight crews
Our crew? Well, we had seven NCOs, and five officers, two flight engineers, a rigger, two wireless operator air gunners, an armourer air gunner, and a general hand gunner. Every night of the war, two of the non-commissioned crew slept on board the aircraft as duty hands armed with a nine millimetre Sten gun to, supposedly, defend the aircraft.
What we really did was cook ourselves good food, and have a few beers. My position in the crew was armourer air gunner, so I was responsible for the depth charges, bombs, hydraulic gun turrets, anything to do with armament was me. In addition to that I was a qualified air gunner so I took my turn in the turrets as did the other boys. Because of the endurance, 13 hours, it was impossible to sit in the tail turret all the time.
You're very cramped up, and hunched up, and the cold would seep into your knees. I remember always having cold knees. So, we used to rotate. Tail gunner would come up to the mid-upper gunner. The mid-upper gunner would go to the nose gunner. The nose gunner would go to the tail gun position. We would rotate like that the total trip. I never felt sleepy. I don't think any of the crew did. I think it was the fact that you knew what you were doing. I think that kept you awake, I think.
Under attack
One Sunday afternoon, about 5:00, down off Bilbao, north Spanish coast, we encountered an Italian U-boat, on the surface. He chose to fight it out. So, we attacked him, and dropped our depths on him, or very close to him. He, in turn, shot everything at us, but luckily he didn't hit us. We were only credited with a possible kill, not a confirmed kill, but I think he got a good shaking up.
We were frequently attacked by aircraft, Junker JU88s, and also Arado 196, a German naval fighter, single engine plane, which had 20 millimetre cannons firing forward. They used to give us a nice old touch up.
Bob Draper and I engaged two of them. Bob shot, he was in the tail turret, he shot one down into the sea. The other one was seen to hit the water, actually hit the water and bounce off, and resume flying in a very erratic manner. Next day, we were told that we got him, because he failed to make home.
On patrol
Keeping a sharp lookout for enemy aircraft, and anything else, submarines, of course, naturally. Depending on what position, in the aircraft, you would be expected to cover different areas.
The tail gunner, for instance, would protect the aircraft from the stern. The mid-upper would have a rotation of 360 degrees. So, he would be looking around constantly going around, and around. The nose gunner would be looking ahead.
When you saw something, you would report it to the captain. Using binoculars, when appropriate, daytime only, of course. Constant scanning the horizon, looking for the periscope, or the entire conning tower.
Yes. And of course, at the same time, looking out for aircraft. They would appear very rapidly, because of the closing speeds between the two aircraft. If they're coming towards you, we'd be doing 150, 180 knots. They'd be doing a similar, or a higher speed. You get the relative closing speed is rapid.
Rations
A two burner kerosene primer stove on which we could grill, stew, cook, and a little oven. You could make scones, if you felt like it, cook beef, stew, carrots, broccoli, sweet turnip, carrots, onions all in together, and stir it all up, and plenty of it.
Much of the meat was horse meat, which I found quite pleasing, quite appetising, a little bit sweeter than beef. Bacon, we got a fair ration of bacon, and we got a very good ration of eggs, more so than the civilian population.
End of the war
I was in Brisbane, luckily, that day. My sister, and I with other company, we went to the old Bellevue Hotel. There we partied, until about two or three am.
I can remember a competition where you would buy stamps, lick them, put them on a coin, and try and put them on the ceiling. Depending on which side they hit, they'd stick, or they'd fall back again. That's how we passed some of the evening away, with a load of grog. Impossible to get a taxi. We walked home, about seven K. We got home in daylight. End of the war.
