A CHANNEL STORY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 114, 29 August 1941, Page 51

A CHANNEL STORY

HE monoplane droned over the darkening sea, flying at about 1600 feet, very close to the cloud ceiling. Ten minutes later the pilot saw a submarine two miles ahead of him going in a north-westerly direction. He pulled heavily on the wheel and shot the monoplane up into the cloud base immediately above him. He throttled his engines.in the dark fog of the cloud and slowed. his machine as much as he dared; the submarine must not hear him or it’ would: dive

-- out of reach. The pilot turned to the crew, his young face crimson with excitement. " Submarine," he yelled, " up on the surface about two miles dead ahead of us!" In spite of throttled engines the machine climbed to nearly 2000 feet. She gained speed quickly and breaking from the clouds dived 40 degrees from the horizontal. The pilot looked frenziedly for the submarine. He saw her well over to his left like ‘a thin pencil on the grey corrugated sea. ' He selected a stick of four of his small . bombs ‘and turned.on the firing switch. The ‘submarine loomed up ahead of him ‘almost.bow on, a good position for ‘attack. He looked desperately for identi- > fication marks. He dared not bomb till ‘he could see something to distinguish enemy from friend. British submarines had ‘their identification marks on their. hydrovanes. For an instant the pore for; ward hydrovane was bare of foam showing plain grey paint. Enemy! He needn't worry now. His hand moved from the throttles. to the firing switch and the first-stick of bombs fell away a¢ the swept 40 feet above the low ' grey hull. | ot "One of the bombs landed near the. conning tower and a stick-like object, mast or periscope fell sideways. Damaged, but not seriously, There was no time to be lost or she would dive out of reach, He swung his body brutally. onthe. eontrols and forced the 2% into. @ dive again. He selected four more small bombs and one big one @nd: jabbed the bomb switch viciously, A. thunderous explosion as the big delay action bomb burst and a great column of water shot up beside her, The pilot watched fascinated-the bow rose clean out of the water, grey and dripping like the nose of a monstrous evil reptile. It looked wholly repulsive like some foul dragon with a jet of brown liquid gushing from its nose, The pilot guessed that it was holed. He pressed the bomb switch for the last time and all his remaining bombs left the machine. Slowly the bow slid down into the sea. There were now only six feet left above the water. Now there were three feet only. Now the tip. Now it was. gone. (Adapted from: " Landfall" by Nevil Shute)