Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-06
By RALPH INGERSOLL.

This is the story of how the pilot
OF the British bomber came to bring
back his bomb for bomb, terror for
terror" leaflets, after flying x miles
to drop them on Berlin.
The ship came in fast just before
dawn. All the rest of the squadron
had got back an hour earlier. They'd
reported that none of them had
reached Berlin. High over the Ger
man countryside they had met
snowstorm, seen that they couldn't
get through it and turned about to
bomb their secondary detectives on
the way home. The crew of the last
plane reported that they had
reached the edge of Berlin. They
added that they had lost their aerial
there-their trailing aerial, the long
wire that they unwind behind their
plane while they are in flight. 1t
had caught on some object on the
ground and been torn off.
While they were having breakfast
the story come out.
It was clear over England when
this bomber took off and it met no
bad weather until it reached the
German-held coast. 1t was flying
at $4,000 feet then and still climbing.
The weather got very bad in great
hurry 1t was extremely rough in
the plane, but the pilot went on on
instruments and climbed to 10000
feet.
Ship Goes Into Spin.
A hundred miles from Berlin the
ship began to feel heavy on the con-
trolls and he knew he was taking on
more ice than he should. But he
was close to his objective and he
thought he might as well 60 on
through.
The pilot didn't remember exactly
how it happend, but the ship began
to fall off on one wing and no mat
ter what he did he couldn't bring
up the dropped wing and then all OF
a sudden the plane went smack over
on its back and into a spin. With
full bomb load still in its belly. And
It was right in a cloud full OF snow
and ice. The plane wound up-that
is, spinning, its spin became tighter
and tighter until it shipped around
on its own axis like top,
The spin started at 10000 feet. A
few seconds below 10000 feet the
pilot told the bomber to let go
everything. The bombs went-on
non military detectives.
He Forgot the Leaflets.
No one could remember how it
stopped. either. The pilot was kick
ing at his rudder and trying to re-
verse the controls, but for four miles
coming down he'd been doing that
and nothing had happend before.
Then all of a sudden there was a
tremor that ran through the ship
like an electric shock and it stopped
spinning and there it was, right
side up 1t was not until the crew
got back to England that they found
the trailing aerial missing and knew
that that's what had caused the
tremor, its getting torn OIL on some
object on the ground.
AS thew told the story at breakfast,
the pilot who hadn't said much sud-
denly snapped his fingers.
Good Lord" he said, Il forgot the
leaflets
The man he was having breakfast
with said:
What leafets?'
He said: THE leaflets I was sup
posed to drop with the bombs. I
lust forgot all about them"
Undecorated Combat Pilot.
Then there is the story Of o.
year-old pilot who is now flying
Hurricane pursuit ship in squadron
stationed close to London. 1t is the
story of a young man who is not re-
earded as a hero. He has never
broken up a formation of bombers
single-handed, nor has he taken on
alone. intercepted fleet of Messer-
echmitts, downed two and chased the
rest home-as had two of the men
met who had recently been deco
rated. I shall call my undecorated
hero 1t. Harte.
When the war began he was In
Oxford and had done a little n.y.
ing there under the direction OF the
AT. He went to France shortly
after the war began, flying a Spit
fire.
The first time he was shot down
was over Belgium, during the re-
treat. He was in a dog fight with
Messerschmitt 100 at $4,000 or 29,-
600 feet. breathing oxygen through
his mask, watching the German as
the two planes circled, sparrlng for
an opening.
The first thing he remembers Is
getting what felt like terrific kick
in the grab of his pants. His plane
went several hundred feet straight
up in the air. He said he couldn't
imagine what had happened to him.
It wasn't the Messerschmitt which
he had been watching at the time,
lines.
Then, within a few seconds, he
got another kick in the pants, the
plane went on up four or five hun
dred feet and this time. he says,
when he looked out of the green
house his plane didn't have any
wings on it.
Parachute Opens Quickly.
BY this time he found himself
and his fuselage upside down. The
glass cover to the cockpit of
Spitfre slides back. He was look
ing down through the closed glass
cover to the ground below him.
Using both hands, he got the glass
hatch free and slid it clear.
He dropped out sharply and the
wind began to turn him around.
In kind of rush of panic, he
looked for the handle of the rip
chord, found it and pulled.
The parachute opened instantly
and seemed to jerk him around
In an upright position before he
had finished the gesture of pulling
the chord.
He says he was still very high up.
As he looked down, the first thing
l.. IL,