MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
In his book "Spitfire Into Battle" GC Duncan Smith describes an interesting incident in Italy. The engineering officer of 111 Squadron was not a pilot and had never soloed an aircraft, but he knew that there were four damaged Spitfires at the forward airfield at Anzio that needed to come back to their base at Lago. So, without asking anyone he climbed in a Spitfire, took off, and headed for Anzio. Smith took off and chased after him, intending to get him to turn around, fly back to Lago, and bail out. But the engineer made it to Anzio and landed successfully, ironically just after the 601 Squadron Commander landing and hit a shell hole, flipping it on its back.
Smith landed and asked the engineer officer if he was trying to commit suicide. The engineer replied that he wanted to get those four Spitfires back home, So Smith let him fix them. Then the engineer was court martialed, but not convicted.
My friend Ward Duncan was chief of maintenance of the 9th PRS in India. He squeezed into the cockpit of P-38's along with the pilot on a few occasions to troubleshoot problems that were beyond the capability of pilots. This was not back in the radio compartment, either; they would slide over to the side and let him use the controls. And the 9th had acquired an ex-Dutch B-25 to use as a hack; the Dutch had specified a fuel quantity that was so small as to make the airplane useless for combat. But with a fuel tank in the bomb bay, it was a useful transport. Coming back from one trip the rest of the guys on board went back and started playing cards. Ward climbed in the pilot's seat and flew the airplane all the way back to their home field. He was on final before one of the pilots decided he'd better go forward and give him a hand.
Smith landed and asked the engineer officer if he was trying to commit suicide. The engineer replied that he wanted to get those four Spitfires back home, So Smith let him fix them. Then the engineer was court martialed, but not convicted.
My friend Ward Duncan was chief of maintenance of the 9th PRS in India. He squeezed into the cockpit of P-38's along with the pilot on a few occasions to troubleshoot problems that were beyond the capability of pilots. This was not back in the radio compartment, either; they would slide over to the side and let him use the controls. And the 9th had acquired an ex-Dutch B-25 to use as a hack; the Dutch had specified a fuel quantity that was so small as to make the airplane useless for combat. But with a fuel tank in the bomb bay, it was a useful transport. Coming back from one trip the rest of the guys on board went back and started playing cards. Ward climbed in the pilot's seat and flew the airplane all the way back to their home field. He was on final before one of the pilots decided he'd better go forward and give him a hand.
