MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
I've started reading the book "the Last Escaper" by "Cooler King" Peter Tunstall. He described his last flight before becoming the most irritating POW the Germans ever had. One night in 1940 they took off from Hemswell in their Hampden, with the objective of bombing the synthetic oil plant at Leipzig, 600 miles away. They flew the whole way at about 1000 ft AGL, peering through the clouds where possible to try to figure out where they were. Somewhere around the time they should have gotten to Leipzig they spotted some large buildings that should be of some value, bombed them, and headed home. When nothing familiar appeared to aid their navigation on the way home the pilot, Tunstall, feared they had overshot England and were heading out into the Atlantic, so he turned back. They found an open stretch of beach and landed successfully. The Irish rear gunner insisted they were in Ireland. They started searching for some indication of just where they were and found a small hut with a light on, empty of people but with a magazine visible on a table that had a cover title in Dutch. Shortly thereafter half the cast of "Hogan's Heroes" showed up, and, of course, it was the wrong half.
Imagine flying over 600 miles in the dark at night at 1000 ft AGL! I would not do that even in the daytime, and with assurances that no one would shoot at me.
Imagine flying over 600 miles in the dark at night at 1000 ft AGL! I would not do that even in the daytime, and with assurances that no one would shoot at me.
