Frikkie
29th May 2008, 17:55
Cheaper by the dozen!
Had he been killed, not one of those in the know would have been surprised, for David Frank Atkinson has had a brush with death more times than one would wish to recall. Indeed, scores of the bullets that were fired at him and his Alouette, either in the air or on the ground, might have been inscribed with the message “cheaper by the dozen".
On one occasion he had to transport troops to a spot where two of the enemy were reported to be in hideout. Instead of two, they ran into 18 and managed to kill 13 of them. At about dusk that night he returned to the spot to pick up some of the bodies for indentification purposes. He landed right on target in thick bush and remained in the chopper, waiting for his own troops to pick up the bodies. Without him knowing it, he had landed six feet from an enemy trooper who had apparently been hiding there when the night-bird almost dropped on top of him. Believing that he had been spotted, the man emptied his RPD machine gun at the chopper, damaging the engine, the gearbox and the gun on board, while 22 shots spattered through the cockpit. All in all he fired 40 shots into the plane, dropped his gun and disappeared into the bush.
Any one out of at least two dozen of those shots might have killed Atkinson or have maimed him for life; yet he escaped unscathed, whilst his flight engineer got shot through both feet.
With his wounded mate on board their crippled plane, he upped out of the bush and flew back to their refuelling station some seven miles away. After about five miles the chopper spluttered, cut out and was dumped in the bush.
The heavily-built pilot shouldered his mate with the bleeding feet and ran the rest of the distance back to the station. The following day, piloting another Alouette he was back in the firing line.
He had been in 16 major contacts in the course of which 49 of the enemy were killed and many more wounded and captured. “On each occasion,” the official citation reads, “Lieutenant Atkinson displayed the greatest courage, determination and skill. His aggression and example have indeed been exemplary.”
Frikkie Potgieter
President
SA Forces Club
http://www.samagte.co.za/phpbbs
Had he been killed, not one of those in the know would have been surprised, for David Frank Atkinson has had a brush with death more times than one would wish to recall. Indeed, scores of the bullets that were fired at him and his Alouette, either in the air or on the ground, might have been inscribed with the message “cheaper by the dozen".
On one occasion he had to transport troops to a spot where two of the enemy were reported to be in hideout. Instead of two, they ran into 18 and managed to kill 13 of them. At about dusk that night he returned to the spot to pick up some of the bodies for indentification purposes. He landed right on target in thick bush and remained in the chopper, waiting for his own troops to pick up the bodies. Without him knowing it, he had landed six feet from an enemy trooper who had apparently been hiding there when the night-bird almost dropped on top of him. Believing that he had been spotted, the man emptied his RPD machine gun at the chopper, damaging the engine, the gearbox and the gun on board, while 22 shots spattered through the cockpit. All in all he fired 40 shots into the plane, dropped his gun and disappeared into the bush.
Any one out of at least two dozen of those shots might have killed Atkinson or have maimed him for life; yet he escaped unscathed, whilst his flight engineer got shot through both feet.
With his wounded mate on board their crippled plane, he upped out of the bush and flew back to their refuelling station some seven miles away. After about five miles the chopper spluttered, cut out and was dumped in the bush.
The heavily-built pilot shouldered his mate with the bleeding feet and ran the rest of the distance back to the station. The following day, piloting another Alouette he was back in the firing line.
He had been in 16 major contacts in the course of which 49 of the enemy were killed and many more wounded and captured. “On each occasion,” the official citation reads, “Lieutenant Atkinson displayed the greatest courage, determination and skill. His aggression and example have indeed been exemplary.”
Frikkie Potgieter
President
SA Forces Club
http://www.samagte.co.za/phpbbs