Quote from: Bob Molloy on November 27, 2011, 01:05:37 AM
Sad to hear about Colin whom I only knew during his schoolboy years, and also about Tony's stroke. My best wishes for a full recovery.
Tony was my boss at Uubvley at one stage. He was an amiable pipe-smoking character with a ready smile who had a slight limp that might have been a war injury.
At the age of 19 he was a tail-gunner in a Lancaster bomber, a role that in those days had an average life span of about four trips.
In many instances the other six crew members would survive the trip but the Tail End Charlie as he was known would be missing together with his turret, sometimes literally shot off the aircraft by night fighters.
Tail gunner was possibly the most dangerous and least comfortable post in a comfortless aircraft, sitting for up to eight hours in below zero temperatures in a cramped little nacelle with the only protection from flak and night fighters a thin perspex wrap-around screen.
Tony never talked about the war and seemed to avoid the ex-service gatherings run by other ex-pats. I wish him well.
To Bob Molloy I remember this story many years ago Tail Gunners.....................................................................
Flight Sergeant Nicholas Stephen Alkemade (1923–1987) was a tail gunner for a Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster bomber during World War II who survived a fall of 18,000 feet (5500 m) without a parachute after his plane was shot down over Germany.
On the night of March 24, 1944, 21-year-old Alkemade was a member of No. 115 Squadron RAF and his Lancaster II, "S for Sugar", was flying to the east of Schmallenberg, Germany on its return from a 300-bomber raid on Berlin, when it was attacked by a Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 night-fighter, caught fire and began to spiral out of control. Because his parachute was destroyed by the fire, Alkemade opted to jump from the aircraft without one, preferring to die by impact rather than fire. He fell 18,000 feet (5500 m) to the ground below.
His fall was broken by pine trees and a soft snow cover on the ground. He was able to move his arms and legs and suffered only a sprained leg. The Lancaster crashed in flames, killing the pilot — Jack Newman — and three other members of the seven-man crew. They are buried in Hanover War Cemetery.
Alkemade was subsequently captured and interviewed by the Gestapo, who were initially suspicious of his claim to have fallen without a parachute until the wreckage of the aircraft was examined. He was then a celebrated POW before being repatriated in May 1945. (Reportedly, the orderly Germans were so impressed that Alkemade had bailed out without a parachute and lived that they gave him a certificate testifying to the fact.) He worked in the chemical industry after the war and died on June 22, 1987............................................................................ image04