Engine Failure: Down Behind Enemy Lines

Well, we continued our routine and one day, I remember one day, the CO's wanted to know if I would like to take some leave and go back to Alexandria and I said, "No," I said, "I haven't done anything yet. I'd like to stay a little longer." So there was one day when we had our flight, I was in A-Flight, we flew in the morning and were supposed to have the afternoon off. So in the afternoon, I wandered down to this tent where the B-Flight were waiting. They called it a ‘dispersal tent.' Pilots were all together and they were just getting word that they had to go out. There was a raid on, one of the ports, Mersa Matruh and they were short a pilot. One of their pilots was sick. They had a lot of diarrhea in the sand out there. So anyway they said, "Will you go, will you fill in for him?" I said, "Oh, yeah, sure," you know. I never should have volunteered for anything like that, but anyway. They gave, we used to wear a revolver when we were flying and I didn't have mine so they gave me this fellow's revolver and strapped it on, got in the plane and six of us took off. I had never flown with that flight before and I think the leader was pretty green because we, we were supposed to climb to 25,000 feet, and the bombers were raiding our Army Forces. And we kept climbing and climbing and the thing out there was the radiator temperature and mine was getting high and two of our flight dropped out and said they had to go back. Radiator was off the clock. "Now, we're getting close to 25,000." I said, "Well, I guess I can make it." And foolishly I stayed there and we just got to 25,000 feet and started looking around and my engine stopped, seized up and the propellor stopped right there. So there was nothing I could do except stick the nose down. I could have bailed out, but I didn't think it was a very smart thing to do. The desert was like one big landing strip anyway. So I put the nose down and levelled out off the ground and landed with the wheels up and skidded along. And I was just coming to a stop and this German plane went over my head, firing at me and missed me. And I leaped out of the plane and he was making a big turn. By the time he got turned, I had run off about 50 yards to one side behind a little bush and he came back again and he didn't fire this time. But my plane was sitting there with smoke coming out of it and in about two minutes, two or three German vehicles drove up and they told me that for me, the war was over. That was about it.

Mr. Spear recalls the ill fate he met with after turning down leave because he felt he hadn't accomplished anything yet, and volunteered for a mission.

Allen Maxwell Spear

Mr. Spear lived in Sussex, New Brunswick, before attending Business College in Saint John - he worked in Bathurst, New Brunswick, for a number of years before joining up. Mr. Spear had not enjoyed his Army camp experience in high school and was attracted to joining the Air Force, particularly as a fighter pilot, because of the recognition the Air Force was receiving in the Battle of Britain. He joined as soon as the Air Force lowered the education requirements to high school which allowed him to qualify. After much basic and initial flight training, Mr. Spear was excited to begin Spitfire training in England in fall 1941. In early 1942, he was stationed to North Africa. The camp locations changed often as the RAF and German Air Forces leapfrogged back and forth across the desert. A few months later (July 1, 1942), his engine gave out during a mission. He landed his plane behind German lines, was captured as a POW, and was shipped to Sulmona, Italy for internment. In September 1943, when the Italians capitulated, the POWs at the Sulmona camp escaped. Mr. Spear, along with two other Canadian POWs managed to escape by travelling along the mountains, avoiding the valleys where they were more likely to run into Germans, until they met up with other Canadian troops in November 1943. After being shipped back to England, Mr. Spear was returned to Canada to serve as a Staff Pilot at a Bombing and Gunnery School in Mountainview, Ontario. A post he held until the end of the War, at which time he was discharged.