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Allied and Soviet Air Forces Please use this forum to discuss the Air Forces of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union.

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  #1  
Old 28th September 2014, 06:44
cpaige5@hotmail.com cpaige5@hotmail.com is offline
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survivors without a parachute

I know of a least one case of a RAF airman who was shoot down over Berlin and was blown out of his plane and survived without a parachute when he landed in a snow bank. I remember reading in my younger days there was at least one other case over France and one Russian who also survived ( I believe the Russian landed on the side of a ravine). Can anyone provide any information confirming this or maybe there are other cases I am not aware of?
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Old 28th September 2014, 10:56
paulmcmillan paulmcmillan is offline
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Re: survivors without a parachute

See http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/carkeet.html
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Old 29th September 2014, 01:44
Larry Larry is offline
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Re: survivors without a parachute

Interesting post; I'd like the author to try it for us!

As for the tail gunner who fell without a chute in to pine trees and snow, I think he was with 115 Sqn.
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Old 1st October 2014, 02:53
Laurent Rizzotti Laurent Rizzotti is offline
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Re: survivors without a parachute

Other examples of free fall survivor are a Sunderland air gunner near Oslo on 9 April 1940 and a US gunner on 3 January 1943 falling on the glass roof of Saint-Nazaire railway station: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee

The Soviet airman in 1942: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Chisov
By the way, for the latter, I would like to know if a complete date (rather than "in january 1942") is known, and an unit. Without such details, I am wondering if it is just a "veteran story".

Many examples here: http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/ffresearch.html

Actually, the SUnderland gunner is not classified as a free faller, but as a wreckage rider, as he was trapped in his turret after the aircraft exploded. Still an amazing survival !
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Old 1st October 2014, 11:54
Larry Larry is offline
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Re: survivors without a parachute

Wreckage riders could be included as they were still survivors without a parachute?

On that point I think there was a survivor in a Lockheed Ventura who came down in the tail during a raid over Holland.
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Old 1st October 2014, 14:39
paulmcmillan paulmcmillan is offline
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Re: survivors without a parachute

Earliest WW2 "Wreckage Rider" can find is Sgt Alfred Adair Griffin from
51 Sqn Whitley K8984 October 27/28, 1939


Griffin was #514579 later with a DFM (22 November 1940)

Griffin was the tail gunner and rode the plane down, suffering some cuts and bruises he was 27 years old at the time

Rest of crew baled out

From:

Terror From the Sky - Page 50 Edward Jablonski - 1971
First to jump was the front gunner, who entangled himself in the intercom wiring and dangled outside the aircraft, unable to get free, until the navigator gave him a push. The opening of his parachute knocked him out and when he next awakened he was startled at being ringed in by enormous brown eyes. He had
dropped into a pasture and became the center of curiosity of a herd of cows. The radio operator, who had been forced to jump with an oxygen bottle in his hand because his fingers had frozen to the metal, apparently landed in an adjoining field. He also proved that it was possible to cover a hundred yards in record time
while encumbered by full flying regalia, complete to boots, and to hurtle a four-foot hedge while being pursued by a bull. The navigator jumped, with a resultant sprained ankle; the pilot, after setting the plane in a flat trajectory, also jumped and landed gently in a meadow

From:
Royal Air Force 1939–1945: Volume I: The Fight at Odds By Dennis Richards
LONDON 1953 HMSO
Even greater hardships were experienced by the crew of the remaining Whitley, whose objective was Munich. Ice blanketed the windows and snow lay on the floor of the front gunner's cockpit, but the men kept up their spirits on the outward journey by well-established methods: strains of 'Roll out the Barrel', 'Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line' and 'East of the Border'—a slight geographical adaptation for operations over the Franco-German frontier—echoed over the inter-com., and some of the more meritorious solo performances earned vigorous applause. But when the 'Nickel' dropping was done the 'dust-bin' remained frozen in the down position, and the effort to move it manually soon reduced the crew to complete exhaustion. Then the starboard engine gave trouble, and near the frontier a cylinder head blew off. As the Whitley lost height, it descended into thicker and thicker snow clouds, and the port engine began to fail. Finally, at 2,000 feet, and with hills ahead, the captain order the crew to abandon the aircraft. The front gunner jumped first. Fouling the inter-communication lead, he hung by the neck until pushed out by the navigator. Knocked out by the opening of his parachute, he eventually came to in a field, surrounded by a herd of cows. Next the navigator left; loosening his boots during the descent in the mistaken belief that he was over water, he sprained his ankle on landing. Then came the turn of the wireless-operator, who jumped with one hand on his rip-cord and the other clasping an oxygen bottle which had frozen to his fingers. Alighting gently in a field, he instantly discovered the exception to the rule about the female of the species, but a smart hundred yards in full flying kit beat the bull to the nearest hedge. Meanwhile, the captain, after trimming the aircraft to a slight descending angle, had baled out without difficulty. When all this was done the Whitley glided down, bumped heavily, and burst into flames; and from the rear turret stepped Sergeant A. Griffin, air-gunner. Blissfully ignorant of the parachute descents—his inter-communication point had failed at the last moment—he dashed to the front of the burning aircraft to save his comrades. The cockpit was empty. Dazed, cut, burned, and more than a trifle puzzled, the sergeant limped his way to the nearest
village, where the sight of familiar figures taking refreshment in a café rapidly restored his full powers of movement and expression.

"
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Old 1st October 2014, 16:00
DAVEBRAD DAVEBRAD is offline
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Re: survivors without a parachute

I seem to recall from memory that the rear gunner, who bailed out without his chute due to fire landed in pine tree's and a snow bank was named Flt Sgt Alkemede. The German's did not believe him, and were after the people who helped him hide his chute, till he explained about the chute release on his harness, I think that was it but nowadays the age thingy is coming more to the front!

regards
jack...
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Old 1st October 2014, 17:01
Brian Bines Brian Bines is offline
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Re: survivors without a parachute

Tail gunner Ogef. Emil Imm of 3/KG100 survived injured when the tail of his He177 glided to earth on 22/23rd Feb.44 near Yoxford UK.
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Old 1st October 2014, 18:59
richard.k richard.k is offline
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Re: survivors without a parachute

F/Sgt Harry Denison, RCAF, mid upper gunner survived a fall from altitude in a section of fuselage after being shot down be a night fighter over Chemnitz of March 5/6,1945. He probably would of bled to death but it was cold that night. Sadly he is gone. His license plate on his car was " No Chute "
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Old 1st October 2014, 19:25
Brian Bines Brian Bines is offline
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Re: survivors without a parachute

Flight attendant Vesna Vulovic survived falling from a Yugoslav airliner that was blown up in midair on 26-1-1972.
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