Issue 4.14
Part 2
Each member of the crew could be reached by another, at most, by snapping on a walk around oxygen bottle and walking except the ball turret gunner who was in an enclosed movable capsule.
At one check it went like this; Bombardier O K. Navigator O K. Pilot O K. Co-pilot
OK. Top Turret O K. Radio O K. Silence____ Waist OK. Tail O K.
Waist gunner: “I pounded and there is still no movement”.
Pilot: “Take the crank and work the clutch, gears and crank to crank the guns down and the hatch up into the airplane”.
Waist gunner: “1don’t know how to. I’ve never been checked out on how to do that”.
“That is a tricky procedure”.
Pilot: “Does anyone on the crew know how to crank the hatch up and get Sam out of
there”?
Each member of the crew had to say that they didn’t know how to get Sam out.
Luin Lewis: “Why don’t we leave the formation and dive down to a lower altitude or else he’ll be dead in a few minutes”.
Pilot: “If we did that we are sure to be jumped by the Luftwaffe because they are looking for stragglers to pick off’. Our little friends can’t leave their assignment either. If we did get back to Polebrook, we would be court-martialed because we can’t jeopardize the whole crew and the airplane for one man. It’s a long shot but I’ll try to bounce old Queenie and see what happens”.
Whatever would be done had to be done quickly or it would be too late.
Ll. Parnell then pushed the column forward and dived down four hundred feet and pulled up sharply. Nothing happened. He tried the same maneuver again without results but the third time he pulled up a little bit sharper and the waist gunner shouted “Hey, the ball turret is swinging.”
At that time I heard all of the excitement on the intercom and said “What’s the matter there”. Then I was told of the actions and conversation of the past few minutes.
The last thing I remembered was that my oxygen mask was cutting into my face so I relieved the pressure to the offending place by inserting my fingers under my mask. While my fingers had broken the seal, I must have taken a breath of nothing and lost consciousness.
Bouncing that 30 ton plane must have dislodged my fingers from my face and let my mask seal again. These masks were of a demand type and not of a steady flow as used by oxygen using patients hence with the seal gone there was no oxygen flow.
You can bet I checked each crew member out on how to work the clutch, gears and crank to manually get the hatch up into the airplane. Lt Parnell did exactly the right thing because if he hadn’t done anything. I would have been dead in a short time.
Sam Wyrouck can be located at 801-707-2666.