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The following is an excerpt from my latest book, NOT IN THE FACE OF THE ENEMY (Robin Brass Studio, Toronto, $ 25.95) and is posted in part to contribute to this discussion and in part shamelessly flog the book:
"On April 9, 1945, P/O John Bryden was giving instruction in a Mosquito of No.8 Operational Training Unit (Greenwood, Nova Scotia). Just after takeoff his port engine burst into flames. Bryden took over from his pupil and hit the extinguisher; the fire persisted. He then executed a gentle 170-degree turn and crash-landed on the airfield; neither he nor his pupil were injured.
"P/O Bryden was recommended for an AFC, but Eastern Air Command Headquarters queried this; they were inclined to charge him with dangerous flying. According to accepted procedure, he should have climbed the aircraft or made a straight-ahead forced landing rather than risk a turning stall at low level. His immediate superior, S/L H.C. Stewart, angrily wrote that 'the book' did not apply - in part because 'Mosquito landings away from aerodromes are practically always fatal crashes' and partly because the widely spread out town of Kingston, Nova Scotia lay directly in the path of the aircraft. The unit CO, G/C E.M. Reyno, concurred, adding, 'If this aircraft, which is of wooden construction throughout, had crash landed in or even near a populated area, with a full load of fuel on board, the results would have been most disastrous.' Eastern Air Command Headquarters relented, but the AFC recommendation was downgraded to a Commendation."
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