Quote:
"On one occasion I suddenly found that my dashboard was gone - I didn't notice because of the noise of the engine. A bullet had passed through my jacket and the whole of the dashboard was shattered. Then black smoke and oil started coming from the front of the engine at about 18,000 feet. I started to glide over the English Channel. At 7,000 feet I was advised by radio to bale out of the plane over the Channel where I would be picked up by a boat in the area. But as I could not swim and did not like the idea of jumping out of the plane I told base that I would try to make a forced landing. I was encouraged when I saw the white cliffs of Dover, and everything was going fine until I opened up my landing gear and the plane burst into flames. I managed to crash-land the plane and was dragged from the burning wreckage. I spent the next seven or eight days in hospital.
The day I shot down my first aeroplane, I went into my room and lay down - I didn't want to talk to anyone. What I had gone through - that could have been my death, you see." |
A modest man, he just mentions the first one in passing in this article.