Surviving The Crash

At that time they were knocking us out of the sky right and left I'll tell ya that, that was 1943, ya. So we got hit, knocked out our starboard engine, which was good for me because I, me and the navigator were right over the port engine, port wing. And when we landed the starboard engine went on fire like that, the port engine was still there but all of a sudden I said, "Jeez, I gotta get out of here!" and how am I gonna get out, I couldn’t see anywhere to get out, the navigator, everything was broken here at the back of me and then I look and I says, "I see a house out there." So then I realized there was this great big hole right beside my chair. And one of the propellers broke off from the port engine and went down the side of the plane, they told me all of this later, like this and made this big hole right beside my chair and I still don’t know how I got by there without getting hit, we figured there was only inches from my shoulder, I mean I had to go right in and I'm sitting right beside it. So I went to get up and just kept falling back, because I was supposed to go over in the crash position which was out of my office and up a couple of feet, so to put my back against the pilot, with my one leg on the side of the plane and the bars of my transmitter. So I said, "What the heck’s the matter with me? " So I went to get up again, I just kept falling back and that’s when the pilot yelled, “Get in crash position! We haven't much time!" That's one thing about the Wellington, it will not fly on one engine. It would keep us kind of but it kept going down and down. So I went and sat down and put my arms up like this, on my transmitter, receivers only like this, the transmitter was like this. And I put my arms like this and I never even thought, bang! But naturally I went back, and then forward again and when I went forward again I took my hands off and my face was a hell of a mess. Second degree burns and I couldn’t see very good for two or three weeks.