Originally Posted by
anakid
My Dad was part of this crew, below a copy from his diary.May 10th 1942
SNIP
Then we were taken into a dispersal hut where the two pilots were given first aid. From there, I heard the tanks explode It must have been barely three or four minutes before the Kite was completely “Komati”.
The six members of the crew were;
Sgt. S.E. Alcock (English) Pilot
Sgt. W. Robinson (NZ) second pilot
Sgt. C. Hill (Canada) navigator
Sgt. S.Pratt (NZ) bomb-aimer/rear gunner
Sgt. J.A, Peacock (English) Front gunner
Sgt. A.J. Fyfe (NZ) wireless operator
"Komati" is a word I've never met before. I assume it represents "Ka mate," which means in the Maori language "It is death"; these are the first words of the most famous of all haka, since it performed by the All Blacks. I guess the writer of the account was Sgt Peacock, who was rather in the minority in the crew as an Englishman. If I've got that wrong, and "Komati" is a bit of RAF slang, I'd love to know.