Squadron Leader Barry Douetil : BBC1 Tomorrow Evening

[CoffmanStarter]

For those interested ...

Antiques Roadshow 20:00 Hrs 20th April 2014.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/04/18/article-2607895-1D2CBA1600000578-476_634x385.jpg

Image Credit : As Shown

Apparently S/L Douetil's son takes along his late fathers RAF WWII Logbooks to the Roadshow, where we hear of how his father survived falling out his Lancaster without a parachute from 20,000 feet.

More on the story here ...

Including more images of interest and copies of S/L Douetil's logbook.

DailyMail : Squadron Leader B Douetil (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2607895/Incredible-story-Lancaster-pilot-bailed-Germany-life-saved-searchlight-helped-parachute-wasnt-strapped-on.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490)

[NutLoose]

Thanks the WW1 edition last week was superb, especially at the end when they were able to inform the family being filmed that their lost were buried there, even the cast of the show struggled to keep going on more than one occasion..

[CoffmanStarter]

Very interesting piece ... and what a remarkable story :D

Mind you a Lancaster instrument panel as a Bed Headboard ... :eek:

[goudie]

Mind you a Lancaster instrument panel as a Bed Headboard ...

Well if you're in bed with 'I'm Mandy, Fly Me' essential equipment surely!

[Xenophon]

Believe he was with 625 Squadron based at Kelstern, Lincolnshire

[Danny42C]

Thought that the "Antiques Roadshow" on Sunday, while always interesting, didn't take us any further than the Daily Mail article.

Never was in a Lanc, and know nothing about them, but the "Instrument Panel" looks pretty fishy to me. Long ago on the "WWII Pilot's Brevet" Thread, Chugalug and I unmasked a construct purporting to be a panel from a Stearman cockpit, obviously from the same stable as this (which might do very well as a headboard).

Clearly you start with a piece of plywood to shape, cut out the holes and look around for what you can find. They got the Sperry panel all right, and managed a matched set of rev. counters, but ran out of luck with the boost gauges (two of a kind was the best they could do).

I'm rather surprised that our younger readers didn't pick up on a 21-year old Squadron Leader. Not all that unusual in those days (the trick was to stay alive), but impossible to imagine now.

All in all, the luckiest devil (then) alive. There was another similar tale of a chap minus parachute who went through a German convent roof onto a bed below (fortunately unoccupied). The combined cushioning effect of the mattress plus collapsing bed broke his fall and got him off scot free.

What would be this "strap" or "cord" which tethered S/Ldr Douetil to his paracute pack ? Wouldn't that be a nuisance when he moved around the aircraft with the pack stowed ? And I didn't know that the big glasshouse on a Lanc was jettisonable (although it clearly should have been designed to be, for I believe the huge main spar made hurried exit very difficult in full flying kit).

D.

[Bill4a]

He looks rather like a Wing Commander in the photo! Don't forget Leonard Cheshire was a Group Captain at 21.