XV431's short flight to Hill 60 resulted in a witchhunt of epic proportions I believe given that I witnessed the event and also knew several people involved. I understand that, with the passage of time, the fabled "holes in the cheese" subsequently became a Flight Safety film and rightly so.
The uncontained engine failure that resulted in a short trip to Holland was another matter. The sight of the nose leg embedded in the farmers outbuilding roof was surreal at times.
The engines arrived in a small copse. The nice man from the Dutch interior classed this copse as prime timber....whereas primeval would have been more accurate. We recovered both engines, but felt it prudent to stop when we also found .303 ammunition, clothing and webbing.
There were two other highlights to this recovery. One was a horse ( deceased) which our boss ( the cleverest man on Bruggen, a rather singular view as he was known collectively by all including the grown ups after his nickname which reflected the habits of a small caged bird..."all twxxter and s$%t ) decided the deceased was prime evidence...and thus there the deceased lay, decomposing gently for several aromatic days....then, it rained,,,, and the deceased started to float until logic finally intervened.
We also found that the RAF and the local Dutch police had a mutual understanding and natural empathy for what some misguided souls would call "corruption", in contrast to the more polite term of "working in harmony" shall we say.
Finally, whatever the merits / demerits of the type,
the outstanding feature has to be
the most
promotional film of all time. Only those who were compelled to watch it will understand this sentiment