ALMOST SHOT TO BITS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 March 1943, Page 4

ALMOST SHOT TO BITS

BUT ABLE TO JOURNEY HOME BRITISH BOMBER’S ADVENTURE OVER COLOGNE. UNDER FIRE WITH ALL LIGHTS ON. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) RUGBY, March 10. A remarkable story of the almost unbelievable damage sustained by a Halifax of a Canadian bomber squadron, Which took part in the last raid on Cologne, illustrates the ability of British aircraft and air crews to stand up to punishment and survive. The Halifax returned safetly to its base after flying helplessly over Cologne with all its lights on. One propeller was completely shot off, the four engines all stopped at once and the machine was thrown on its back. Three of the engines picked up. One barely worked, another had been hit and damaged and the third had its cowling shot off. The wings and fuselage of the plane were shot full of holes. The astrodome was shot away. The bomb doors would not close. A parachute which broke loose and rolled against the control panel , turned on all the lights. The Flight Engineer almost fell through the shat- • tered astrodome when the Halifax turned upside down. He hung head down in the slipstream, and was only kept from falling because his shoulders were too broad to go through the . cowling. The door of the rear turret ; got jammed and the gunner was ; trapped. When the pilot gave the ! order to bale out, he hacked his way . out with an axe, to find that the pilot had cancelled the order. While he : was hacking at the doors, the aircraft ■ had dived 14,000 feet. The navigator . was almost out of the escape hatch ■ when the bilot regained control and ; set a course for home.