NigG,
...How it was the bombs didn't detonate, or the fuel go up, is beyond comprehension. Perhaps the designers at Vultee had a hand in it...
This was a result of my coming in fast. I knew that with a full bomb load and almost full fuel load, I had to put it down smoothly, and appear to have done so, although I have no recollection of the event (a common effect of concussion, I'm told).
Once on the ground, medium sized HE Bombs, "safe" with protective caps locked onto the fuzes by the fuzing links, can comfortably survive most frontal impacts. They can be be "dumped" from enormous heights, tens of thousands of feet and, streamlined as they are, probably attain a terminal velocity of 6-700 mph and still not explode, but bury themselves deep in the ground. "Duds" from WWII are still being found far down.
Fuel was a different matter. Nearly all of it was in the wings, and they were knocked off by trees early on. "Jungle" in the Arakan was not Amazonian rainforest, but more like open English woodland. They told me that the wings remained more or less intact, the tanks were self sealing, and of course the pumps were off. The 20 gallon "trap tank" underneath me contained quite enough to cremate us, but as the tank was in the forward part of the fuselage and as that (with the cockpits) didn't break up, we were all right. And of course, we were very lucky indeed. And the VV was "built like the Forth Bridge" - and that helped !
...Seems to me that your decision-making was entirely reasonable, given the paucity of accurate information: it was perfectly 'obvious' that the fuel gauge was faulty; and you had no clear reason to suspect a genuine oil supply failure...
No, I can't exculpate myself as easily as that. I should have assumed the worst scenario from the outset and acted accordingly (shows the danger of jumping to concusions !)
...It was Field Marshal Rommel...
(From Wiki): [his] "consistent decency in the treatment of allied prisoners earned him the respect of many opponents, including Claude Auchinleck, Archibald Wavell, George S. Patton, and Bernard Montgomery".[440]
There were other great gentlemen in those days. This excerpt from my #4277 on p.214 of "Pilot's Brevet" relates to the late, well loved ACM Sir "Gus" Walker. (You may find that whole page amusing ["CAS" is Chief of the Air Staff, btw, by the way], a 4-star Air Chief Marshal).
...There was a heartwarming story, dating from before I got to Strubby, that a little lad of 9 or 10 had lost his right forearm in a tractor accident on some Lincolnshire farm. "Gus" made a point of visiting him in hospital as soon as he came round from surgery, ("Gus" wearing full kit and regalia), to have a chat and show the little chap that all was not lost - as he himself had suffered exactly that same injury...D.
...I think, Danny, with your battle scar, you stand among heroes...
We'll agree to differ. As I said before: "I did what had to be done, and got away with it, and there's no more to be said"....
Danny.