RAMBLING ON IN MY OWN INIMITABLE STYLE.
We carried on with our training, a trip to Fredericia, to test German radar, and another to Flensburg, Delivery of a Lancaster to Elsham Wold, a couple of trips to Tours in France. (but can’t remember why) .. Various diversion raids, three of these counted as ops, but were very uneventful. The the rumour still persisted that we were being trained to eventually go with the squadron to the Far East, as it was considered the war in Europe would soon be over, and the Australians and New Zealanders were, quite rightly, feeling a bit neglected. It was felt that sending a large number of aircraft would help to rectify this situation.
During this period, we took off with the rest of the squadron just before dusk , and sometime after crossing the coast I noticed a Lancaster not too far below us, flying back to base. Whether I could see that he had one prop feathered, or not, I can’t remember, but if I didn’t I certainly found out the next day We heard that a Lancaster had crashed on the top of a hangar, all killed except the rear gunner who was unharmed and on parade in the morning, and the flight engineer was our flight engineer leader.
Evidently on landing with one engine dead , the aircraft had ‘undershot’ . The skipper ordered ‘full power’ and pulled the stick back with the result that it possibly stalled ,and then span round landing on top of the hangar. I think trim again reared it’s ugly head, plus giving full power to only three engines, or maybe pushing the throttles ‘through the gate’ (emergency power) would cause the aircraft to turn. Perhaps Reg would be good enough to explain to us what happens when you apply full power on three engines when nearly stalled out.
This was followed by instructions that all crews should practice three engine landings and we were told it was better to overshoot, than undershoot, that is, it was better to hit something at the end of the runway when the aircraft was travelling at a lower speed Hmmm. It provided a bit ot entertainment over the next few days, watching the antics of some of the pilots as they tended to come in too fast., trying to force the aircraft down while still flying., resulting in a few spectacular bounces and then applying full braking. Luckily Lancasters were fitted with an early form of A.B.S think it was called something like Dunlop Retardex? At times it seemed as if some of the pilots were intent on hitting something at the end of the runway.
Below is a picture of the Lancaster that crashed on the hangar. I did post it to this thread sometime ago, but it may have been removed by Photobucket, you may remember remove a pic from Photobucket and message appears on the post ‘picture removed by Photobucket’. I have also enhanced it slightly, but should point out it was taken with a five bob ( 5/-_or five shillings) Brownie box camera just peeping out of my battledress. (until V.J day it was an offence to be found with a radio or camera)
If you remember some time ago I removed photographs from Photobucket which were then replaced with a notice ’ Removed by Photo bucket’ . I intended to replace them, but not in chronological order. So experimented with the photo below. I then thought possibly I could insert this in it’s original position. I inserted the photo below in it’s original position using edit See post # 64..
Any of you academics could advise . Should we say ’an R.A.F, or a R.A.F ?’ Vowel A before and acronym ?