It was not uncommon for airmen to strike or become hooked on their aircraft during the Second World War
It was not uncommon for airmen to strike or become hooked on their aircraft during the Second World War. It’s possible that H. J. Marseilles, a Luftwaffe “expert,” struck his aircraft’s tailplane or fin and died or was rendered unconscious. In any case, he was killed because he failed to deploy his parachute.
‘There is a remarkable story of Pilot Officer J.E. Abbotts, a Canadian who had an almost unbelievably lucky escape,’ Steven Rusling, an aviation expert, says on Quora.
Abbotts would later recollect reading a piece by Stephen M. Fochuk that appeared on the Vintage Wings of Canada website, as Rusling recounts.
‘My Squadron was 403 but I was flying No. 3 with 421 Sqn (short of pilots). After checking the Forts out North of Amsterdam, we were sweeping up and down at 30,000 feet.
‘I spotted 2 – ME 109s below. Winco ‘Johnny’ Johnson told me to keep an eye on them; finally, he said ‘Go after them’. I rolled out of the formation and was just coming up nicely through the odd puff of flak when something hit me; lots of oil and smoke. I fired anyway but was out of range.
‘I started towards the North Sea but the engine quit, and a 109 was rolling over above to attack – I spun away to about 4,000 or 5,000 feet and decided to bale out. I rolled over and came out but hit the fuselage and was knocked out. When I regained consciousness, the shoulder strap of my parachute was around the aerial mast. I was hanging on the right-hand side of the a/c, the a/c was right side up, wings level and in a nice glide. I held on with one hand and tried to tear the chute out, but I was getting too close to the ground. I decided that it was all over. And thought ‘I’ve had it’. I passed out. I woke up 3 hours later safe in the arms of – Germans.’
So how did he survive? His Spitfire made an autonomous landing. We are aware of what happened thanks to Mr. Albert Phillipps, a Dutch witness who wrote to the Canadian Department of National Defence for Air in London and whose witness is posted on the Vintage Wings of Canada website.
‘Dear Sir: Herewith I let you know that I would be very pleased to come into conversation with a Canadian pilot who landed on one of our bulb fields in Hillegom, Holland on the 29th of July, 1943 […]
‘Suddenly however a plane came down circling around with its engine heavily smoking. We noticed at once when it came out of the damp that it was a British fighter. The lower it came the more scared we got because we didn’t know where it should come down, because of its circling around. You should have seen the workers in the fields, they were also running a circle. When the plane came lower we saw the pilot was hanging beside the plane near the tail. His parachute was hooked on the little radio mast, behind the aviator’s seat. He was a lucky fellow, because the plane came on the ground all by itself with not too much speed, after flying over the roof of a little house with it missing by a few inches. The aviator was dirty and black from sand and mud and injured not severely. I asked what he was, and he said a ‘Canadian’. Then I had to shut my dirty mouth, so as the German soldiers said to me, which showed up by that time.’
You can tell how lucky Abbott was when you look at the condition of his Spitfire.
Photo by Vintage Wings of Canada and rcaf403squadron