sidevalve, so we are now full square back into the Bombing Campaign, to the many doomed flights that entailed, and to the fate of those who managed successfully to survive the death throws of their stricken aircraft and were now having to seek help to evade capture and the life (or death) of a POW.
Interesting that the Germans saw fit to publish their "very important warnings to the population" both in French and in English. No doubt this was as much to dissuade evading aircrew from compromising civilians in occupied countries as it was to dissuade the corresponding civilians themselves. That it was so notably unsuccessful in either regard is tribute to the duty and training of allied aircrew to escape and evade, and to the moral courage of civilians facing certain death and reprisal against loved ones in assisting them to do so. We in the UK must give special thanks that we were not faced with such agonising decisions, or with such stark warnings from the "Field Commander".
Bob Grimes is another who exudes moral courage. Any pilot will relate to his constant revisiting of that last flight, over 60 years before the Washington Post story of 2004 that you link us to. Should he have turned back once the fault was seen and diagnosed, knowing that it would only worsen its effect with further climb? Did he not do so faced with a hard line command policy equivalent to Bomber Command's label of LMF? Did he do enough to ensure that everyone (including those injured in the attack on the aircraft) could abandon it before he did? The ball turret gunner survived though, and that alone is of some solace to him (being the most vulnerable position of all). There is no easy answer to any of these questions, certainly not from a generation spared such daily dilemmas. I imagine the constant anguish that gave Bob Grimes throughout his life was far more telling than the bullet lodged in his leg and extracted surreptitiously and without anaesthetic. Brave people all. Respect!
Last edited by Chugalug2; 16th Jul 2017 at 17:53.