Bryn Evans - Airmens Incredible Escapes: Accounts of Survival in the Second World War

Airmens Incredible Escapes

By the same author and in print with Pen & Sword Books:

With the East Surreys in Tunisia, Sicily and Italy 19421945: Fighting for Every River and Mountain (2012)

The Decisive Campaigns of the Desert Air Force 19421945 (2014)

Air Battle for Burma: Allied Pilots Fight for Supremacy (2016)

Accounts of Survival in the Second World War

Bryn Evans

First published in Great Britain in 2020 by

Pen & Sword Aviation

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Bryn Evans 2020

ISBN 978 1 52676 172 9

eISBN 978 1 52676 173 6

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52676 174 3

The right of Bryn Evans to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Dedication

In memory of all those Allied airmen of the Second World War, on whom fortune did not smile, who were unable to make an incredible escape.

There is no certainty of victory in war, even when the equipment and numerical strength that cause victory exist. Victory and superiority in war come from luck and chance.

Ibn Khaldn, fourteenth-century Arab historian

Friendly fire is just another enemy

Flight Lieutenant Paul Richey DFC

Hurricane of No. 1 Squadron RAF being refuelled at Vassincourt, France

Baling out at 200 feet is not recommended!

Three Fairey Battles of No. 218 Squadron RAF, based at Auberives-sur-Suippes, on patrol over northern France. On 11 May 1940 Battle K9325 HA-D (on far right of the formation) went missing in an attack on German troops near St Vith

Wreckage of a Fairey Battle shot down in May 1940 by the Wehrmacht in northern France

Flight from the German Blitzkrieg on land and sea

Sergeant Ricky Dyson back row extreme right

Secret flight to a Moroccan River to save Britain and France?

Flight Lieutenant Julius A. Cohen DFC (Virtual War Memorial, www.vwma.org.au/explore/people )

Down the gangplank, and across Africa

Wreckage of an RAF aircraft at Takoradi airport, 12 December 1942

The nightly Mail Run comes to an end

Wing Commander R.J. Wells, CO of No. 108 Squadron RAF, addresses crews of Wellington bombers at RAF Fayid, Egypt 1941

The Audacious Augsburg Raid

Squadron Leader John Nettleton VC (seated second from left) and his crew, after the ill- fated raid on 17 April by No. 44 Squadron RAF to Augsburg. Nettletons Lancaster was the sole aircraft to return

Lancaster Mk 1 bombers of No. 44 Squadron RAF, 1942

Falling into the jungles of New Guinea death seems certain, quick or slow

Lieutenant Colonel Gene Rehrer, 39th Pursuit Squadron, USAAF

Wounded badly in both legs, drowning in the North Sea or swim for your life!

Flight Lieutenant Eric Maher, 1942

On the Dutch coast, the crashed Wellington of Flight Lieutenant Eric Maher, shot down on 8 June 1942 during a raid on Essen

Training flight collision Dont crash into the town!

Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm C. Sponenburgh, No. 80 Squadron, USAAF, 1942

Sponenburghs rescue by rowing boat, 2 July 1942

Surviving flying training in Bomber Command and that first operation to join a select brotherhood

Squadron Leader W.W. Bill McRae DFC AFC, 19132019

First operation as Second Pilot, ditched in the sea can there be a second chance?

Flight Lieutenant J.V. Jim Comans DFC

Baling out on the Bengal coast mangrove swamps, wild jungle, crocodiles, snakes, Japanese troops, the wild life of Burma is awaiting

Flying Officer D.J. Barney Barnett (extreme left), No. 136 Squadron RAF, January 1944, Burma

Flying through the Alps, while running on empty!

Flying Officer Albert Hollings, No. 207 Squadron RAF, 1943

The Battle of Berlin escape from the Big City

Flight Lieutenant Albert Hollings (kneeling right) with his crew at RAF Spilsby, 1943

Evading the Gestapo, climbing the Pyrenees in winter reaching Gibraltar is the only hope

Flying Officer Herbert A. Penny, No. 35 Squadron RAF, 1943

Salerno survival in the air, on the beachhead, and behind German lines

Pilot Officer Alan Peart, No. 81 Squadron RAF, 1943

Flying blind in the blackout catastrophe beckons

Flight Lieutenant Vern Scantletons Stirling with collision cavity, November 1943

The jungle is the only refuge

Flying Officer Allan Liedl (front right) with Catalina crew, No. 11 Squadron RAAF, February 1944

Flying Officer Allan Liedl (standing at back) with Catalina No. A24-34 Some Chicken

A baptism of fire in the Big Week for B-Beer

Visit of the Queen and Princess Elizabeth to No. 622 Squadron RAF on 5 July 1944 Flying Officer Bryan Good (behind Princess Elizabeth in an officers peaked cap, partially obscured)

The Queen and Princess Elizabeth speak with airmen of No. 622 Squadron RAF on 5 July 1944 Flying Officer Bryan Good (behind Princess Elizabeth in an officers peaked cap, partially obscured)

Crew of Lancaster B-Beer, No. 622 Squadron RAF left to right: Don Harvey, rear gunner; Charles Pulman, mid-upper gunner; Ray Francis, flight engineer; Bill Atkins, wireless operator, Bryan Good, bomb aimer/front gunner; Dave West, navigator; Ray Trenouth, pilot

Ferry pilot for a B-17 Flying Fortress or would it be a flying death-trap?

Flight Lieutenant Vern Scantleton, No. 214 Squadron RAF, 1944

A single Spitfire against 24 Japanese Oscar fighters? Can there be only one ending?

Flight Lieutenant Alan Peart DFC, Anzac Day, Hamilton New Zealand, April 2006

Shot down in Germany, shot in the neck and assumed to be dead, what next?

Flight Sergeant Lloyd Leah, No. 460 Squadron RAF, 1944

Blasted into the night sky over Stuttgart Can I walk to Switzerland?

Keith Campbell, 2016

Halifax LV-833 P-Peter of Flight Sergeant Keith Campbell, No. 466 Squadron RAF, 1944

Surviving the Arnhem disaster 13 days in no mans land

Flying Officer Fred Dyer, No. 233 Squadron RAF, 1943/44

Dumped in a ditch, semi-conscious, one arm hanging half-severed night is falling, and so is oblivion

Flight Sergeant Harry Howard (front row extreme left, cross-legged), No. 463 Squadron RAF, 1944

Surviving those first few demanding operations then an unimaginable and unforeseeable disaster