Pilot reveals wartime memories

Kyt · Oct 23, 2007

A collection of wartime memories has been put together by a North East writing group. In the first of a two-part series, LIZ LAMB talks to one of the contributors, war veteran Alan Oates. (For Part Two - RN Sailor)

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nort...ilot-reveals-wartime-memories-72703-19959199/

FLYING a spitfire at 3,000 feet over the mountainous terrain of former Yugoslavia, Warrant Officer Alan Oates faced a terrifying fight to save his own life.

The RAF pilot with Number 32 squadron had been on a ground attack mission shooting at a locomotive when the spitfire he was flying was hit during a machine gun attack by a German soldier.

Then aged 23, Alan knew he would have to bale out of the plane and parachute to the ground if he was to survive the cross-fire.

“We were on a second or third run and we were trying to put the train out of action, “ says Alan, now 86.

“It was on the third run that I got hit in the cooling system by a machine gun. They shot me down.

“I had just broken away from the train when fumes started coming out of the engine.

“I had not realised at first that I had been hit.

“I had seen the firing and bullets coming from the middle of the train but I thought they were missing me by miles.

“There was nowhere to force land.

“It was rocky mountainside and I knew I was going to have to get enough altitude to be able to bale out.

“It was a real heart in the mouth moment.” It was June 1944 and three years earlier the area had been invaded by Nazi Germany.

The grandfather-of-nine, from Whickham, managed to keep his head as he began preparing to bale out, flying the spitfire from the ground up to 3,000 ft in the air and trimming the aircraft so it automatically went into a steep dive.

He had taken off his helmet and oxygen mask and radioed his flight commander to tell him he was going over the side.

“There had been cases of people forgetting to unplug everything and they had got themselves caught and strangled with all the trailing wires or their necks had snapped,” explains the dad-of-four.

“I took my helmet off and I went over the side.

“I can’t remember what happened next.

“I have got a blank period in my mind. I have no recollection of pulling the rip chord, everything went blank.

“The last thing I remember is letting go, up came the tail of the plane, and I went over the side.

“That was the frightening part.

“The next thing I knew there was a bump and when I opened my eyes, there was a lovely white canopy above me.”

Alan, who was selected for pilot training, aged 19, in December 1940, believes it was one of the first missions where the Germans had decided to arm their trains.

As he hurtled to the ground the officer, who had joined the squadron just days before, prayed for a safe landing.

“One minute I was looking at the sky, the next at the ground, then at the sky again.

“I was drifting towards a hillside with dry stone walls and I was worried that I would crash sideways into it.

“I pulled my feet up and my right leg just brushed over it. Another few inches and I would have damaged my legs.

“I landed on a rocky hillside in what is now known as Bosnia and was Yugoslavia in those days.”

Alan’s parachute became trapped in the branches of a tree and he frantically tried to pull it down so as not to alert the Germans to where he was.

The parachute wouldn’t move so the pilot desperately tried to find somewhere to hide from the enemy.

“I thought ‘this is a big landmark, it is telling the Germans exactly where I am’,” says the war veteran, from Whickham.

“I imagined the German army was searching for me.

“I looked along the mountainside and I could have sworn that the rocks were moving.

“Then I realised it wasn’t rocks, it looked like a search party looking out for me. I thought it’s the Germans, they can see the parachute.

“I needed to get away so I scarpered and ran and found shelter among some rocks.”

Alan was concealed by the mountainside and could see what was happening through a small hole in the rocks.

He says: “It was a great hiding place. I just sat there thinking that I didn’t know what was coming next.

“I heard these voices shouting English, English.

“I thought it was a trap and they might be Germans. At the time all we knew was that there were guerillas on the outside who were actually on our side, that was the intelligence we were given.

“We were told that if we got shot down we were to make contact with the partisans and they would get us back to the squadron.”

Alan sat and waited and from his hiding place he spotted one of the party close by.

The man was wearing a mismatch of clothing including a tunic from an Italian soldier’s uniform.

“I knew straight away he was not a German and I thought he must be one of these guerillas who was on our side.”

The warrant officer came out of hiding and the partisans, who made a big fuss of him, took him to their headquarters in a nearby school.

He stayed in a classroom, which was full of wounded partisans and American air crew, for a few days before he was given a pony and a saddle in order to make the long journey home to his squadron.

The partisans knew that the allied air men had to be passed on across the country from Bosnia down to Montenegro, 14 days marching away from where Alan was, and avoiding the German-controlled roads.

The actual journey took more than a month and Alan had to be constantly on guard in case there was any enemy aircraft around.

Unbeknown to him he had been reported missing feared dead.

“My family had been told I was missing and believed to be killed,” says the pensioner.

“Weeks after I had been shot down our convoy crossed paths with a British Major and a wireless operator who were running around Yugoslavia collecting information.

“He read back to their base in Cairo my name and rank and that I was safe with the partisans.

“After two weeks of anxiety for my family I was relieved they would hear that I was alive.

“I later found out that the person who received the message took no further action and my parents were never told.

“When I got back I discovered that everybody had been grieving for me.

“Strangely, after a couple of weeks my mother came downstairs and said ‘I am sure he is still alive’.

“I think it was a mother’s instinct.”

Alan’s experiences of the war are recorded in his memoirs One of the Led, priced £6.50, with proceeds going to the RAF Benevolent Fund. For more details call Alan on (0191) 420 9397.
Click to expand...

spidge · Oct 23, 2007

One of the lucky ones.

Log in or Sign up

Pilot reveals wartime memories

Kyt Άρης

spidge Active Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Pilot reveals wartime memories

Thread Tools

Kyt Άρης

spidge Active Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches