Attacked by an American

Heroes Remember

Attacked by an American

Transcript

Interviewer: You were attacked by other enemy aircraft? Not really, no. We were attacked, but it was by an American. Interviewer: Can you tell us about that? Well, we were coming back once, and the Thunderbolt did a pursuit on us, not far from base. And we thought he was horsing around, because they would sometimes come over and horse around the airport. But he came in and, gee, he opened fire. Ripped us from stem to stern. Didn't hit anybody. And he came around again. And I mean, a Liberator is an easy aircraft to identify. First of all, it was an American aircraft and, you know, it has a very[inaudible] with silhouettes. And so, we began to wonder, is his an aircraft that a Japanese had got a hold of, you know? So, he came in a second run and, of course, the air gunners were waiting for something like this, and they opened up. They got the Thunderbolt and the pilot parachuted out. But the pilot was saved and so forth, and about a week later, a very angry American colonel visited our unit, complaining about us shooting down an American plane. So our CO had very short words for him. Interviewer: You never heard what happened, why he attacked you? No, never heard. He was alright, so that was okay, then. And they had lots of airplanes anyway.

Description

Mr. Power talks about an American Thunderbolt that flew through camp and opened fire.

Robert Power

Robert Power was born in 1920, in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. He grew up in a small fishing village with a one-room schoolhouse. Before enlisting in 1942, Mr. Power studied biochemistry. He served as a pilot in the RAF and spent 26 years in the military. After the war, Mr. Power returned to medicine and became a doctor.

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