At
Hornchurch, Gordon Olive, Jack Kennedy’s old flight commander and fellow cadet
of Des Sheen and Pat Hughes, was in a spot of bother. He was leading 65
Squadron on an operation but, within minutes of take-off, his oxygen regulator
caught fire. He had to bale, but did not have enough height. As the cockpit
filled with smoke, he went into a vertical climb until he had reached an
optimum bale-out height. He jumped but the parachute failed to open. He saw
that the small pilot chute had caught in his flying boots. As he plummeted he
managed to untangle it and force the main canopy out. The jerk as it opened
rendered him unconscious. He came too and realised he was floating towards high
tension cables and was in rifle sight of two home guards. As he tried to avoid
the cables the canopy split, the keen home guarders fired and the potato field
below appeared to be rushing to greet him. Happily, the canopy held out, the
home guard were bad shots and the soil was soft. Safely back at Hornchurch,
something suddenly hit him: he had not aired and repacked the chute since
Dunkirk. It had been sitting in his cockpit, forgotten. No wonder it had
failed. A cautionary tale. Interestingly, when the squadron diarist wrote up
the day’s events, he noted that there was nothing of importance to report!
Hornchurch 1939, pilots of 65 Squadron. L-R: unknown, Gordon Olive, Norman Jones (shading eyes) George Proudham, Sam 'Fishy' Saunders, Jack Kennedy, Johnnie Welford and 'Chad' Giddings.
No comments:
Post a Comment