A Night to Remember --part 13 .......... Losing height, Ron struggles to hold the Lancaster on one engine
THE engineer looks puzzled and runs his eyes over the controls and instruments and I think I catch a glimpse of a shrug of his shoulders. Is it getting darker?... I think it is ... “The fire’s going out skip.” “Thank God for that, engineer, I think I can stop corkscrewing now, pilot to gunners, shout as soon as you spot a fighter, and tell me which direction to corkscrew!” “Rear OK skip” “Mid-upper OK”.
We’ve lost a lot of height over that and we are now down to 10,000 ft and all on our own, well below the bomber stream and won’t be able to maintain that on just one engine. My left leg is aching with the pressure required to keep the aircraft straight against the uneven thrust of the one outboard engine. I become conscious of the sweat on my back and a dryness in my mouth and a growing determination to get this lot back. Please God, I don’t want to end up in a prison camp.
“Pilot to engineer, as soon as the fire has cooled down we will have a go at starting the starboard inner, meanwhile let’s see if we can get this port inner wound up, we’re losing too much height like this.” “OK skipper”. “Pilot to navigator let me have a new heading for home as soon as you can, we are down to 10,000 ft now so there will probably be a different wind, you will have to take a guess on where we are now”. “Navigator to pilot, hold onto 297 compass while I work something out”. “Roger navigator”. “Engineer to pilot, starting up port inner now”. “Roger engineer”.
The big propeller by my left hand window slowly begins to turn as it becomes unfeathered, a couple of blue flashes from the exhaust and she winds up to 1,200 revs to warm up before opening up to cruising power. Everything appears OK and I get the thumbs up from the engineer. Another hurdle over.
“Engineer to pilot, we seem to be losing a lot of fuel from number one starboard tank, I think it must have been holed. I’m switching all engines to that tank.” “OK engineer, have we lost much?” “Three or four hundred gallons I’d guess”. Christ! we’d better start leaning out or we shall never get back, I don’t fancy a swim in the North Sea after all this.”
“OK skipper, I think we can have a go at starting up the starboard Inner.” “OK turn on the fuel to that side but if the fire starts up again shut it down straight away.” “Roger”. Everybody has their fingers crossed as the propeller out of the right hand window begins to turn and the engine slowly comes to life and as it comes up to cruising power a blessed relief is given to my left leg as the thrust becomes more even and I can trim it out. Another blessed relief is enjoyed by all when the starboard outer remains dark.