BRITISH AIRMEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1941, Page 5

BRITISH AIRMEN

REMARKABLE ADVENTURES IN ALBANIA ESCAPE FROM BLAZING PLANE. FIRED ON BY ITALIANS WHILE PARACHUTING. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY'. January 3. The pilot and the observer of a British bomber which was. last seen in flames over the enemy lines in south Albania 12 days ago have just returned to their base, says the Air Ministry news service. The pilot told of how he gave the order to the crew to jump out. The observer did so. but the air gunner had been killed. Describing his own experience, the pilot said: "Part of my parachute harness, which I discovered afterward had been struck by bullets, was caught round my leg. and as the parachute opened, it jerked my leg up behind my neck and broke it. Italian fighters came after me and put 20 bullets through my parachute—we counted the holes later. “The observer came down in a village further away in the valley. After halt an hour Greek soldiers found me and bandaged me as best they could and found n stretcher. For four days they carried me cheerfully over the mountains, often through deep streams and along mountain tracks with precipitous edges. It was a long and slow journey,”