Escape report SPG 3316/1562 (incomplete and common to that of Ramsden).
The Lancaster takes off from Bourn around 22:00. After dropping his bombs on the target, he was first hit by the Flak (according to Kenny), then by a Ju88 fighter. The latter's shots strongly damaged the fuselage and reached the rear turret, killing the rear gunner, F / S Thomas William Newport McGrath, 29. The pilot, the New Zealand F / S Herbert Alexander Pond, leads the aircraft from 5000 to 2700m and a new attack reaches the inner left engine, which catches fire. The pilot feathered this engine and descended to an altitude of about 600m, but since the altimeter was not working or no longer working properly, the Lancaster was now too close to the ground and it was too late to jump. The plane struck an electric pylon before crashing into fire.
The bomber, F / O Victor Charles Peters, 26, is killed in the crash. Thomas McGrath and Victor Peters both rest in the municipal cemetery of Florennes, south of Charleroi in Belgium.
Mechanic Ernest Gillman reports that radio operator Joseph Kenny , navigator James Rainsford (this sheet, who was not part of Herbert Pond's regular crew) and back gunner Oscar Ramsden are being cut. Gillman says that with the help of the pilot Pond, Joseph Kenny and Oscar Ramsden, he clears James Rainsford of the debris, before the survivors leave the place.
The pilot, Herbert Pond went alone and did not follow the same route as the other escapees. Helped by various people, it will pass through Bouillon, Sedan, Reims and Fismes to be supported by the Possum network. He was evacuated from Mont de Dhuisel, near Fismes by plane Lysander on September 13, 1943, along with Sgt EG Gardiner (SPG 3315/1403) and the Belgian agent Pierre GEELEN, wanted by the Gestapo. Herbert Pond and the others arrived in Tangmere, England on the 14th (Pond escape report: SPG 3315/1402; de Gardiner, SPG 3315/1403).
Source: Comete Line
