THE LOST NIGHT BOMBER

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 170, 12 April 1919, Page 7

THE LOST NIGHT BOMBER

« JOURNEY DESCRIBED BY ONE OP THE CREW. . The loss of the new Il'andley Page night bombing machino which was captured by the Germans on. its first flight to France, and on which they modelled tho Gotlia, is described in tho following account given by a member of the crew: "Wo left England at 11.30 a.m. on January 1, IUI7. When over -Jig Channel wo ran into very foggy weather, and Kimo down to a lower altitude to find tho coast, but failed. The fog went right down to the sea'. We roso clear of it at 5000 ft., but ran into what was apparently a thunderstorm. This must have made our compass defective. Wo decided that we had better return to England, but the weather appeared to bo growing worse, and we turned and made for Prance, steering a little west of south in hope, of clearing the fog farther inland.

"When we knew we must be over land wo came down to n low altitude to find a landing. Flying at about 150 ft., wo noticed a church steeple, and mado for it as representing some village where we could got information as to cur whereabouts. and landed in a field near by. Not a soul wus to be seen. Wd waited for ten minutes, or so, but no one came, so the pilot anil the observer set off walking, and found some French children. They were un;jblo then to ascertain the fact that the place, as wo afterwards learned, was '.ailed Chalandry, While the party , was distributed some German soldiers who had seeu the machino arrive rushed out and captured the remainder before they had time to tire the machine or even to lealise that tkev were in territory occupied by the enemy."