DARING & SKILL
EXHIBITED BY BRITISH AIRMEN
SOME REMARKABLE ' FEATS LONG HOMEWARD FLIGHT IN CRIPPLED PLANE. AWARDS SPLENDIDLY EARNED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 26. A I’omtifkablo flight has been made by a pilot of the Coastal Command who, for three hours, brought his aircraft with a broken rudder back over the North Sea and made a -safe landing at the base. The aircraft was on a reconnaissance patrol toward the coast of Norway when the tail was damaged in a fight with a Dornier. Bullets wrecked the hinge of one of the double rudders as the British aircraft was diving to attack the Dornier close to the sea. The flapping rudder made the aircraft practically uncontrollable, and the pilot pulled out of the dive, only a few feet above the water.
Limping away, he made a good target, but the Dornier had taken its own share of the punishment, and flew off badly damaged. After the fight the British pilot was unable to keep his machine flying straight. It vibrated violently from end to end, and developed a corkscrew motion. He pulled open the emergency hatch above his head, and the navigator and wireless operator opened the cabin door. All three had their parachutes and lifejackets ready. STEERING BY ENGINES. Steering by the. varying revolutions of the two engines, and manipulating the ailerons and the remaining half rudder, the pilot coaxed the aircraft back towards the base on the British east coast. Very soon it was dark. The pilot decided that the chances of making a safe landing were so small as to be negligible, and he prepared the crew to ‘bail out” by parachute as soon as they saw they were over land. After nearly two hours the wireless operator, who had been unable to establish contact with the base, succeeded in doing so. He asked for the aircraft’s position, and in a few moments the answer came back. The crew was astonished to learn that they were oyer the Irish Sea, halfway between the Cumberland coast and the Isle of Man. With the wireless again in operation, they “homed” back to the east coast. When the damaged tail was inspected it. was found that in addition to a broken wing, a fracture had started across the main tail of the plane, and crept two-thirds of the way across. DEFIANT PHOTOGRAPHER. Another brilliant R.A.F. feat revealed is that of a sergeant-pilot who with an observer zig-zagged over German defences, taking photographs for 2J hours, and stopping only when the supply of film ran out. He circled over enemy airfields and over a big railhead for half an hour. The photographs show many miles of German roads bare of traffic, and miles of railway without a single train. An award of the Distinguished Flying Cross to Squadron Leader Farquhar, who on February 3 shot down an aeroplane after he had been recommended for distinction, was announced today. Described as having led his squadron with magnificent dash and courage on several occasions, Farquhar engaged an enemy-aircraft while on patrol early this month. The enemy aircraft took cover in clouds, but was followed and shot down by the British pilot, who put both engines of the enemy plane out of action, though using but little ammunition. His squadron was engaged in the German Firth of Forth raid in October, and also in that action which resulted in the shooting down of the first raider to fall on British soil. Last Thursday the squadron brought down the raider which landed near St. Abb’s Head (Scotland), and he landed his own aircraft near the enemy in an endeavour to prevent them from burning their bomber.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19400228.2.45
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 February 1940, Page 5
Word count
Tapeke kupu
611DARING & SKILL Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 February 1940, Page 5
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Wairarapa Times-Age. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.