AMAZING ESCAPES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 April 1942, Page 4

AMAZING ESCAPES

HARDY SHIP’S COOK. BOMBED AND BLOWN UP. Diving overboard from a burning ship which had been bombed by Japanese aircraft, Frank Tillyer, a redbearded cook, was picked up by a small boat loaded with explosives. The second ship was blown up, but again Tillyer lived to tell the tale, states a Sydney exchange. Tillyer has now arrived in Sydney after a fortnight’s journey, in cattle trucks, lorries and trains, from an Australian port, where he and others had been landed. He was dressed in an cld battered khaki boiler suit, which he had worn throughout his adventures. The only thing he saved was his fountain pen. Tillyer said that he was in the galley between decks when bombs fell. His ship was hit four times. The burning hull was rocked by near-misses from the Japanese bombers flying at 27,000 ft., and the decks were later raked by machine-gun fire. Tillyer made for the deck and dived overboard, as the ship’s boats had been lowered and most of them, riddled with bullets, were useless.

He swam toward a Mnall ship near by, but his mates made away in the other direction. They knew that the small ship was loaded with high explosives. Not so Tillyer, who miraculously escaped when the ship blew up. 'Many men diving overboard were killed or badly burned by burning oil which covered the sea in large patches. Asked if he had any plans, Tillyer was quick to reply: “Get another ship, of course, and get back on the job.”