REMARKABLE AIR ADVENTURE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 21 October 1942, Page 6

REMARKABLE AIR ADVENTURE

ATLANTIC FERRY CREW RESCUED

MAROON! D 15 DAI S IN GREENLAND | An airerun new of the HA F. IVn \ ! ! Command, missing for 45 riavs. hawbeen brought back from Greenland in a i United Stales Law flying boat The i I light, disappearance, and rescue com- ! {prise one of the most remarkable air ! adventures of the war (states the -Sun- ; ! day Express”). The crew, who are normally engaged j ; in delivering American-built bombers ! ; across the Atlantic to Britain, consisted j :of J Shaw Webb of Vermont, U S.A.. \ pilot: Pilot Officer Robert Franks, i R A F„ of Slough. Bucks, navigator; and j I Louis A. Cad well, of Uxbridge, wireless | i operator. They had flown a Hudson bomber from Montreal to Newfoundland and ; were wailing to take it to Britain when ! an urgent call came for a survey sortie : over North-west Greenland. This task i was allotted to them with instructions i that, when completed, they should fly j on to Reykjavik the capital of Iceland. The mission was accomplished, and a j report made to base bv wireless. ! But the aircraft never reached Ice- ; land. On the journey across Green- • land the plane encountered dense sleet, ! icing, and an intense electric storm j which threw the compass into eon- J lusion and made wireless communiea- ! tion impossible Astral bearings could ! not be obtained because of low black i clouds, and for hours the Hudson was drifting on guesswork navigation. A FORCED LANDING The plight of the crew became worse when one of the bomber’s tw. engines faltered and finally stopped. Ti e petrol gauges became dangerously lo '. For an hour the bomber flew at 50 ft ’t over the Greenland icecap, while th • captain searched the switchback terrain in vain for a possible place to descend. There was no choice left but to come down on one of the ice-covered sheets of inland water in the hope that the ice would bear. The bomber had been flying for 12 hours —considerably beyond its normal duration power—the surviving engine was seriously over-heated, and fuel was practically exhausted. But the moment the wheels touched the ice they broke through. Almost a miracle happened then. The silent engine came in action again and. by skilful airmanship, the captain was able to lift the aircraft from the water. Then lie tried to land an another stretch of ice-coated water The same thing happened; the ice gave way on impact, but again the pilot took the Hudson into : the air. ) As he was about to alight for the third lime the pilot saw that he was in a bowl surrounded by mountains, the lowest peak 5000 feet high. Looking towards them, he was astonished to see a flagpole on one of the lower slopes. He made for it but had to bring the aircraft down a mile short The bomber had scarcely come to rest when it tilted forward, and. in the captain's words, "with a roar like thunder its nose crashed through the ice." RESCUE BY AMERICANS "We were getting ready to swim for it," the pilot said "when he heard and saw something of a kind which only happens in story-books. Dashing towards us across the wilderness of mountains, ice. and water was a team of dogs—huskies—and behind them a line of men." They were men of an American detachment who had come to establish a post there eight months before, had been marooned from the world since, and were waiting until the coastal ice cleared so that a ship might come through to them. Eskimos came up with the Americans, and it was explained that on the foothills of the mountains was an Eskimo hamlet with fourteen families, supervised by a Dane and his wife, who kept a small store which opened for trade once a week. It was a ten million to one chance that the Hudson crew came down at this spot. There were no other human beings for over 500 miles in any direction. The Americans and Eskimos harnessed the huskies to the task of salvaging the equipment that could be removed. The aircraft crew made their first task the improvisation of a wireless transmitter, and, with parts of their own salvaged set and "bits and pieces" borrowed from the Americans and Eskimos they succeeded. But the faint signals they were able to send out were heard only by bombers Hying the Atlantic to Britain. When they reached England these aircraft reported the mystery signals and gradually the R.A.F. experts were able to locate their source in Greenland. One day a United States Navy Catalina appeared, alighted, and took aboard the Hudson crew.