Great escapes

Were there any docummented (great escapes) during world war I, such as a plane breaking apart in the air and crashing in the sea and the crew servive etc.

Thanks,

Ben

Harry Taylor had a rollicking adventure in the air and on the ground during the Battle of Cambrai, you can read that at :

http://members.xoom.com/_XMCM/PointCook/afc_ar10.htm




For a plane break up adventure, Robert Little attacked a group of albatri and took out the rear one, they turned on him and took him out. His plane broke up just before he hit the ground and he bounced out, only to start firing back with his revolver.

Narrative : "At 5-00pm I attacked the last machine of a formation of 12 and shot it down. I watched it fall for about 10,000 ft over VIUEX BEHQUIH, completely out of control.

I was then attacked by six other EA which drove me down through the formation below me. I spun but had my controls shot away and my machine dived. At 100 feet from the ground it flattened out with a jerk breaking the fuselage just behind my seat. I undid the belt and when the machine struck the ground I was thrown clear.

The EA still fired at me while I was on the ground. I fired my revolver at one which came down to about 50 feet. They were driven off by rifle fire and machine fire from our troops."


cam

[Vin]

A shootout !!


Vin

[Soderbaum]

Cam
Do you have a date for Littles fascinated adventure..?

Otherwise I can refer to some issues presented by Hannes Täger lately in this Forum, where some German flyers were able to return to German lines after beeing shot down over enemy lines...

These escapes histories are definitaly x-tra ordinary interesting incidents..

VBR
Gunnar

The Italian ace Giannino Ancillotto flew through a burning draken that he attacked on December, 5 1917. he returned home with pieces of the envelope wrapped around his Nieuport. Ancillotto received the Medaglia d'oro al Valor Militare (Gold Medal for Military Valour), the highest Italian award.
Happy landings
Paolo

>Do you have a date for Littles fascinated adventure..?<

R.A Little, No.203 RAF, 21 Apr 1918, Sop.Camel B6319, VIEUX BERQ?UTH ( West Bailleul ).

Little claimed a Pfalz Scout OOC as his 44th victory. "Above The Trenches" has it as "This was Ufz Kauffmann of Jasta 47, who was wounded, straight afterwards Little was shot down by Vzfw Ehmann, also of Jasta 47 and crashed in allied lines."

I think the story quickly took on legend amongst other pilots. I have seen it described as Little landing in a manure heap to break his fall and by another as Little alone drove the planes off with his revolver.

Either way takes a bit of pluck to have your Camel break at 100ft, crash, get thrown from the aircraft, and jump up and start firing.

There is a small (outdated and desperately needing rewriting ) bio on Little at :

http://members.xoom.com/_XMCM/PointC...a00_little.htm


cam

[rammjaeger]

Can´t remember where I did see the photograph but it was illustrating a niece incident. One airman of a German doubleseater was falling out the machine during a maneuvre. He was lucky enough to "meet" the aircraft a second time in the air and hit the airframe from above behind the observer seat. Now the airman was "caught" by the aircraft and hanging in the whole which he was causing with his legs in the airframe.
The aircraft - photographed on the ground - looked now like a triple seater. I think this man had more luck than brains.
I call that a "great escape" or "near death experience".

VBR

Hannes

[Vigilant]

Hannes, that's ridiculous! I thought that only happened in cartoons

Then there's Willy Coppens who landed on a balloon and lived to fly another day.

Blue skies and no dud engines,
Vig.

Wasn´t there a british scout pilot who managed to fly the plane on the back, hanging only from the cartridge of his Lewis?

And I remember that I have read that one crewmember of a Zeppelin survived his free fall of several thousand feet, so I would not bet that this memory is really attacked to a historical event.

[Reinout]

Hannes,

That pilot was Louis Strange, who flew a Martinsyde scout against a German two-seater. He splattered all his ammo without hitting anything, then decided to change the drum. But the drum was stuck and he couldn't for the life of him release it! He eventually stood up in the cockpit to clear it, but then the plane flipped over on its back and he fell out of the cockpit, dangling by the drum he was now hoping would stay as jammed as it was before! After some improvised gymnastics, he got a foothold in the cockpit and levelled out. But as he dropped himself into the seat, he used too much force and the seat went right through the bottom! Debris from the seat slammed into the control column, pushing the plane into a steep dive. Frantically, Strange tried to kick the remnants of the seat through the bottom of the plane. He finally succeeded and managed to escape the surely fatal dive. He had a bit of a hard time explaining to his CO why a German aircraft could sneak away unharmed (and probably in good humour) while he had a hole in the bottom of the plane where once the seat had been...

There's a full version which is better explained, but I've lost mine.

Kind regards,

Reinout