The Promises to Those Who Overcome

Image credit: Cranston Fine Arts

In the 2nd World War, my father was a navigator on Stirling Bombers under the Royal Air Force and his squadron made many raids over Germany - including to bomb Peenemunde - to disrupt German secret weapon development of the V1 and V2 rockets which the Germans were sending over to destroy London.

The German anti-aircraft guns shot up flak to bring the bombers down and the planes were hit often and damaged. So they had to limp home to Britain and often crashed on the runways, or even the beaches. My father’s crew crashed ten of these giant 4-engined British bombers.  

One crash was particularly spectacular. As they limped back one night to their aerodrome, two engines cut out. Now you can land a Stirling bomber on three engines, but not two. The plane nosedived, hit the tarmac at 95mph, bounced on the 12 foot high tyres, slid along the tarmac and went right through a hangar – in one door and out the other without knocking (losing the wings and tail). The fuselage careered on until a broken down crane with chains and ropes dangling caught the remains of the plane and stopped it 25 yards form a bomb dumb… where bombs were stored!

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