Evening star., 1943-07-21
Five Saved From Sea
By Rescue Plane as
Bomber Sinks
Hy a staff Correspondent of The Star.

mand OF q fighter escort group the
other day, It. Col. Gordon II. Austin
Of washington saw five men on a
rubber life raft, tossing on the
Mediterranean.
They were the crew Of crashed
bomber. Col. Austin, with several
of his flyers, got in touch with the
air sea rescue service, then, swoop-
ing low, kept encouraging the men
to hold out until help came.
Once ashore, the rescued were
Intercepted" q routine procedure
with men returning from a mission.
The five men were 1t. Paul
Mathews, Weymouth, Mass; 1t.
j. A. Davis, Syracuse. N. Y: Sergt.
John Maturas, Chicago: Sergt. T. D.
Descissio, Duluth. and Sergt K. E.
Chard, winchendon, Mass.
It. Mathews told the following
story:
"'Our right engine is gone and
well have to feather It, said the
pilot, and he spoke without alarm.
But when I unfastened my atten-
ton from the spectacle outside and
saw the oil pressure flop to zero, my
heart Topped with it. 1t was fair
ly certain indication that a piece of
flak had found our oil system, which
assumption was promptly corrobo-
rated BY a report from the rear that
the engine was throwing out black
smoke.
In Range Of Flax.
I'VE were just leaving the Sicilian
coast behind US, but the enemy bat
teries still had our range and the
black puffs we're breaking in close
with their 'womp, womp'. and fire.
quent spatters of hail against the
fuselage. We feathered up on the
right, and I took control while the
pilot proceeded to contact the flyers
on the emergency channel:
1--WE have an engine shot out.
Come down and cover us up please.
Our speed was fast falling of and
We saw the last flight Of our forma-
ton overtake us and pull steadily
ahead out of sight. We were ex-
pecting each minute to see the en-
emy vultures come swooping down
for this dead meat. What we saw
instead were angels from Heaven, q
hight of our P-40 escorts had an
swered our call and came In to fly
formation with US.
They waved their assurance across
the narrow space and I grinned
back, thinking, Those are the pref
test planes and bravest pilots in
the whole damned air force
Presently a call came from the
turret: We're standing by to throw
over the guns, SIR and the order
was given to do SO. Piece by piece,
every article of loose equipment in
the ship was jettisoned-guns. am
munition and radio sets. Still we
continued to loose air speed and
altitude at an increasing rate, which
already foreboded the unpleasant
prospect of crash landing at sea.
Stand by for Crash.
Our good engine ran hot and
was soon In the red although the
pilot was sparing it in the hope that
It would draw enough at minimum
altitude to get us over dry land
When at last we availed ourselves
OF everything our failing engine had,
she was staggering heavily at $50
m.ph. and using up the last 1000
feet of altitude.
The crew was already forward
and now they received their formal
instructions and took their positions
In perfect calmness aod order
Sergt. DeSiscio, engineer gunner,
took his place behind the co-pilot's
seat with the emergency escape
hatch in one hand and the fire ex-
tinguisher in the other. Sergt.
Chard, radio-gunner, was in a SIM
tlar position behind the pilot.
LIT. Davis, navigator bombardier,
was backed against the forward
bulkhead of the navigator's COM
partment in position to release the
life raft. The turret gunner, Sgt.
Maturas, braced himself standing
beneath the open navigator's hatch.
Everything was in readiness and as
I slid my seat back the pilot turned
and said to me with a grim sort of
smile:
Just then with start 1 noticed
that he was still in his parachute.
I grabbed the controls and held her
OF while he extricated himself from
the harness. He had barely resumed
the controls when he gave me the
signal to cut the switches. What
happened between then and the final
impact happened In less time than
1t takes to tell.
When the switches were cut the
resistance of one prop exerted such
q powerful torque that the strength
Of both of us was not enough to
overcome it, with the result that we
struck slightly crabwise with the
left very low. Twice the tail section
smacked the waves with a resound-
ing 'rump, rump-an endless mo-
ment in which I knew that we had
done all we could do and the rest
was for us to witness and not to
direct, Then the final shattering
impact. 1t was as If the earth sud-
denly had stopped turning All was
bright, then cleaning, then dark. ~
neiu 0y safety belt.
II brushed my helmet back over
my eyes and sprang up. My safety
belt arrested me. I fumbled fran
tically with the catch which was on
left handed, finally released it, then
the hatch, and floated out"
Here the narrative was taken up
by 1t. Davis who said:
The impact and the rush of
water through the broken bottom
threw me tail over teacups, and for
moment was lost as to what was
up, down or sidewise. Then a gleam
of light through the dark water
showed me the open hatch and 1
made for it, clawing everything 1
could get a purchase on. Matura
had me by the ankles trying to ex-
pedite my exit, but my knees were
buckled and his efforts only served
to bind me In the narrow aperture.
In moment, however. I was able
to boost myself out, and he fol-
lowed me. Presently Chard bobbed
up with his dripping helmet still on
y - 4