Political instability and fear

Heroes Remember

Political instability and fear

Transcript

Mahatma Gandhi was becoming very popular and his people were called the Congress Party. They didn't like Brits very much and we were Brits as far as anybody was concerned, we were British. And so when they refueled us, fueled us up what we were going to do was a raid over Naninyang or somewhere like that and we put too much water with the gas and we got to eight hundred feet and it got very quiet. So we came down in a paddy field. You know the nose you saw out there, it went under like that, there's a navigation table right there and there's an ax down there. So the navigation table, everything is flying around, so the navigation table hit me right across there and the axe hit me right here so I don't remember getting out of the aircraft at all. We had decided that if the natives were not friendly, we'd get a few of them and then save one for ourselves. Wasn't necessary... the head man was a nice little guy, couldn't do enough for ya.

Description

Mr. Campbell describes feeling uneasy due to the anti-British sentiments prevalent in India. When his aircraft is forced to crash land he and his crew mates decide to take drastic measures if threatened by the locals.

William Campbell

William Campbell was born on March 14, 1920 in Almont, Ontario. His father was a First World War veteran, and his brother had enlisted when World War Two broke out. Mr. Campbell enlisted in the Haldeman Rifles, but after not being called up he switched to the Air Force. After training in Canada, he went to England and joined a Blenheim crew. Mr. Campbell was deployed to Middle East Command, where he took part in successful bombing raids against Rommel's fuel and ammunition stores. He was then sent to the Far East to participate in the bombing runs to Burma and China. Mr. Campbell was fortunate to survive a crash landing after an engine failure. While still stationed in India he also instructed American pilots in low-level bombing techniques.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 1:46
Person Interviewed:: William Campbell
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Battle/Campaign:: Burma
Branch:: Air Force
Units/Ship:: 159 Squadron
Rank:: Sergeant
Occupation:: Navigator

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Date modified:: 2019-04-03