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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 5, 2019 21:02:08 GMT 12
Yuck!
DIET OF SNAILS
NEW ZEALANDER'S DESERT FARE
LONDON. Dec. 9.
A New Zealand sergeant-observer, aged 20, of Kakahi, sustained himself on snails for six days while walking 100 miles to his base after baling out in the Western Desert. His plane was raiding enemy concentrations when a Messerschmitt attacked. The observer, gunner, and pilot baled out, and landed within a few yards of one another. The pilot and gunner were wounded and were unable to walk. Both were taken prisoner. The observer, aided by a pocket compass, walked by day and hid by night until he was found by a South African medical officer. The observer had had no food or water, and suffered so severely from thirst and hunger that he ate snails. He was none the worse for his experience, and wanted to go out on another raid as soon as he had eaten and rested.
EVENING STAR, 11 DECEMBER 1941
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Post by errolmartyn on Nov 5, 2019 22:21:41 GMT 12
TURTON, Flying Officer Robert Alfred, mid. NZ40744 (prev A40744); b Kakahi 22 Dec 20; Palm Nth BHS; cinematograph operator - John Henderson, Ongarue. RNZAF Levin/GTS as Air Observer u/t 12 Mar 40, 1AOS 8 Apr 40, Air Observers Badge 26 Jul 40, Sgt 27 Jul 40, att RAF & emb for UK 11 Aug 40, 1 Depôt 30 Sep 40, 17OTU (Blenheim) 5 Oct 40, 105 Sqn (Blenheim - ? ops) 21 Feb 41, to Gibraltar 17 Jun 41, to ME, 102 MU, 45 Sqn (Blenheim - 38 ops, Vengeance) 2 Jul 41, shot down by e/a & baled out on Acroma-El Adem road op (uninj) 22 Nov 41 [rtd to base fortnight later], with Sqn to Burma via Iraq, Bahrein & India c.10-16 Feb 42 [served in non-op capacity with Sqn from May 42], remust as Air Navigator (B) & Comm 24 May 42, 152OTU (Harvard/Vengeance) 18 Feb 43, 60 Sqn (Blenheim - 7 ops) 12 Mar 43 [hosp 24 Jul-10 Aug], 224 Gp 10 Sep 43, 681 Sqn (Mosquito - 1 op only?) 22 Oct 43, kao 2 Nov 43 (in 684 Sqn Mosquito). Taukkyan War Cemetery - 23A.A.11, Rangoon, Burma. Son of Alfred & Myra Turton, Kakahi. [OHT3, BSD & phot. TWN 19.1.44]. (Vol One of my trilogy For Your Tomorrow)
22 Nov 41 was a very bad day at the office for 45 Sqn, losing four out of six Blenheim engaged on a raid against El Adem airfield.
Jeff Jefford, in his majesterial volume recording the history of the squadron, writes as follows about Turton's aircraft:
The crew of Z9609 also managed to bale out but the pilot and gunner, Sgts Wood and Whiteley, had both been wounded, (Whiteley, not normally a member of this crew, had been flying in place of Sgt Jimmy Wilcock who was sick that day). As Ron Wood recalls:
After a bitterly cold night in the desert, my navigator, Bert Turton, set off on foot for a Bedouin camp which he had seen during his descent and at about mid-day he arrived back with a donkey for me. He had persuaded the owner that our need was greater than his - his 38 revolver having helped in the persuasion.
Now mobile, Ron Wood set off alone for the Bedouin camp while Whiteley and Turton headed east in an attempt to regain friendly territory. The Arabs promptly handed Wood over to the Italians and shortly afterwards Ben Whiteley was rounded up too; they spent the next three and a half years in a series of POW cages in Italy and Germany. Their Kiwi observer was more fortunate. He avoided capture and, perhaps even more remarkably, survived successfully for six days in the desert (reportedly by eating snails) before he was picked up by a South African MO who, ironically, was lost himself but he did have a vehicle and supplies and they eventually made their way to safety.
Errol
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 6, 2019 7:18:19 GMT 12
Thanks Errol.
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