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Lone Gun

Heroes Remember

Lone Gun

Transcript
Canadian troops were just going to go into Hamburg. And we were on a daylight and the whole squadron was going. So, obviously, we're all flying together and the guys in, we were, my crew were all down one side of the room and then the rest of the room was the other crew, another crew and across there were two other crews. Of course you were all together, you see. Well the guys in the next... I was the tail gunner! So I was the last bit of our crew, right, stupid thing, you all sat, you know, in the position in the aircraft. They guy on my side was the mid-upper gunner. Next to him was the tail gunner from the next crew and then the mid-upper gunner. And of course we got along well, we went to meals together but we never went out and entertained together, but we knew each other, you know. And they were flying in the next plane to us and we could see them, you know. And we reached one point, we were flying, we were in Germany and we reached one point and I had just turned and at that point his gun turret was facing me and he waved and I waved, right. And, at that moment, we were flying over an abandoned air field and you could tell it was abandoned because it was full of... absolutely bombed out, but there was one gun in that place and it put up five shells. And the first one exploded over here and the second one exploded over there, the third one came over there and the fourth one went right up, the H2S Blister, the blister underneath the aircraft and exploded inside the plane. Breaking the plane in two and the tail turret, the tail went down with the gunner in it, just spinning down by itself and the mid-upper gunner was blown right out and he went down, all by himself and the rest of the plane it went down in a circular motion and it dropped, rather funny. Some of these German farms were rather strange, they were like squares. And I know it wasn't guided down because the guy had no control, he was going, what they called a flat spin and he went right down and it dropped right in the middle of this square farm and two seconds later, you saw the white rings going out. And as we flew, we're flying away and I looked again, all the way, you could see a big hole in the ground. Just a big hole, no farm, not a thing, just a big hole. But, these two guys didn't have a prayer. Or none of the rest of the crew had either, nobody got out. That, you gotta go back and sleep on that one. Two guys... twenty beds right next to you.
Description

While on their way to the bombing target, Hamburg, Germany, the planes flew over an empty air field , but their was one gun who shot down the plane that was beside him in the air.

Rev Jack Western

Mr. Western was born on July 20, 1923, in Bradford, England. His father, a businessman, sold coal but due to the UK General Strike of 1926 switched to selling fresh vegetables. Mr. Western joined the Royal Air Force with the intention of becoming a pilot partially because of the stories he had heard from First World War pilots. Unfortunately, he was unable to become a pilot due to the requirement for a high level of mathematical skills. As a result he became a tail gunner and flew 22 missions before the war ended. After the war Mr. Western became a police officer. He lost his leg while he was the police chief and went on to serve as a civilian in police services for a total of 20 years. For the next 28 years he worked as a court administrator and also as a Justice of the Peace for the Province of Ontario. When he retired in 1995 he became a pastor. He currently resides in Sarnia, Ontario.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
03:04
Person Interviewed:
Rev Jack Western
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Location/Theatre:
Germany
Branch:
Air Force
Units/Ship:
153 Squadron
Rank:
W.O. II
Occupation:
Tail Gunner

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

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