Amazing War Story (1 Viewer)

[Cardigan600]

Yo Troopers, just having Breakfast an this story came to mind, dont know why lol. About 25-30 years back I was watching a Chat Show, you know the type were they interview all the Celebrities. The show was hosted by the famous Terry Wogan, anyway he says give a big welcome to this ex WW11 veteran (cannot recall his name). So the guy goes on to tell his story, he was in a Lancaster Bomber on a Bombing mission over Germany when the plane was hit by Anti Air Craft fire, so all the crew are baling out, and he is sending a SOS out of their position and that they are going down. He is the last one on the plane and goes for his parachute, but its on fire. He says I went to the open hatchway and thought, you have two choices man, crash with the plane or jump. Not two very good choices when you think about his situation guys. So he jumps out and lands in a Forest of Pine Trees which break his fall he just bounces through all the Trees, his injuries cuts and bruises. The Germans capture him and were going to shoot him as a spy. He is telling them I am RAF the plane was shot down, so the Germans said where is your Parachute, he tells them he had to jump without one lol. By the time the Germans had picked themselves up off the floor from laughing, can you imagine it German saying "Hey Fritz got a right comedian here must be a Scouser lol, jumping out of a plane with no Parachute, and he is standing here telling us the story. Anyway by some miracle they believed him, and he spent the rest of the war as a POW. Now was God with this guy on that day Troopers or what. AMAZING STORY.
Bernard.

 

[jazzeum]

He was lucky times two: for surviving the jump and not getting shot. Amazing indeed.

 

[Spitfrnd]

He was lucky times two: for surviving the jump and not getting shot. Amazing indeed.

That is a great story but why were they going to shot him as a spy in the first place? Wasn't he in his flight suit?

 

[Cardigan600]

That is a great story but why were they going to shot him as a spy in the first place? Wasn't he in his flight suit?

Yo Spit lol, expect better from you Trooper, your usually not that slow lol. Flight suit yes BUT NO PARACHUTE !HELLO!. would you have believed him. Put yourself on stable duties for an extra week.
Bernard.

 

[jazzeum]

Yo Spit lol, expect better from you Trooper, your usually not that slow lol. Flight suit yes BUT NO PARACHUTE !HELLO!. would you have believed him. Put yourself on stable duties for an extra week.
Bernard.

So what do I get Bernard?

 

[Evzone]

Bernard is spot on, allegedly it happened on 25 March 1944.

RAF Sgt. Nicholas Alkemade said, "Jesus Christ, I'm alive!" Lighting a cigarette, he checked his watch for the time. Just three hours earlier he had been in the blazing tail of an RAF Lancaster bomber that had been hit after dropping its load on Berlin. The captain ordered the crew to bail out, but a fire in the fuselage made it impossible for Alkemade to reach his parachute. He had to make an instant decision--a roasting hell or an unconscious fall? He pushed open the plane's door and somersaulted backward into the night.
Alkemade jumped at 18,000 ft. without a parachute. He said he had no sensation of falling, that it was "like being at rest on an airy cloud." The last thing he remembered was looking down at his feet, seeing stars, and thinking, "Must be falling headfirst." Plummeting at about 120 mph, he landed in a fir forest, where the thickly interlaced branches broke his fall and an 18-in. layer of snow cushioned his final landing. Found by a German patrol, he was taken prisoner and given a thorough investigation by understandably disbelieving German interrogators. But his story was proved true. Alkemade suffered burned legs, a twisted right knee, splinters in his thigh, a stained back, a scalp wound, and burns on his face and hands--all sustained before his 3 1/2-mile jump.

Sgt Alkemade Was A Member Of 115 Squadron. He Died In 1987.
His Grandson Featured Recently On The Channel 4 Programme On A Trainee Bomber Crew.

The Luftwaffe investigated Alkamade's story, verified it and presented him with an official document stating it to be true. ( they originally thought he had buried his chute)

Other notable free fallers........ I.M. Chisov who was a Russian airman whose Ilyushin IL-4 bomber was attacked by German fighters in January of 1942. Falling nearly 22,000 feet, he hit the edge of a snow-covered ravine and rolled to the bottom. He was badly hurt but survived.

Alan Magee, a gunner on a B-17 with the 303rd Bomb Group of the U.S. 8th Air Force, was on a mission to St. Nazaire, France in January of 1943, when his bomber was set aflame by enemy fire. He was thrown from the plane before he had a chance to put on his parachute. He fell 20,000 feet and crashed through the skylight of the St. Nazaire train station. His arm was badly injured, but he recovered from that and other injuries

 

[Spitfrnd]

Yo Spit lol, expect better from you Trooper, your usually not that slow lol. Flight suit yes BUT NO PARACHUTE !HELLO!. would you have believed him. Put yourself on stable duties for an extra week.
Bernard.

Sorry I am still not buying it Benard. You do not need to have a parachute to not be a spy, LOL. He could have parachuted in some time previously. Besides by the rules of war, if he had a uniform, he is a POW. As for stable duties, I am always on those.

 

[DCN1898]

I seem to remember a Reader's Digest story from the 1970's about a B-24 tail gunner that was faced with the same situation. He was a little too big to sit comfortably in the turret with his chute on. The chute was on a peg near the rear turret. The chute was burning along with the plane, he decided to jump without it and wound up a POW with a broken leg.